Summer NAMM: The Moog Guitar

[RiverDog]

http://snipurl.com/2vtqk

Pretty cool! Watch the video.

[J-man]

It is cool, but you can do everything that guitar can do with the right FX.

[tazzboy]

Do a search here on the forum and you can see it is a Joke.

[J-man]

Originally Posted by tazzboy

Do a search here on the forum and you can see it is a Joke.

No it isn't.

It was announced on April 1st, but it is in fact real.

Check out the Moog official site to see specs and prices.

[tiktok]

Originally Posted by J-man

It is cool, but you can do everything that guitar can do with the right FX.

Really? Which ones?

[J-man]

Originally Posted by tiktok

Really? Which ones?

Now I have to name them all?

Most of the sounds they were getting reminded me of the weird noises I've made hurting my Boss ME-50 (great pedal).

Sustainers have been around for quite a long time, and the touch sensitivity can be achieved by cranking a compressor way up.

If you look at the array of digital FX available today there isn't much you can't do with a guitar.

I'm certainly not trying to say that people shouldn't buy this guitar! It'd actually be incredibly handy to have all those things built in.

[Nick JD]

I'm with J-Man here. A few hundred bucks will have you doing what that thing does and you'll still have enough change to buy a nice car.

Over priced.

[ramblinmike]

Originally Posted by Nick JD

Over priced.

WOW. They have got to be nuts! That's more than the Robot Guitar! And this guitar doesn't even tune itself!

I think it's really cool, but I think the guitar may get annoying after a while...

[TelZilla]

As technology, I think it's pretty incredible. I don't think any effects exist that can make that kinda noise with that level of control.

I can't really think of ways I'd use it in my music, except for the funky, quacky cocked-wah envelope follower sound the dude with the burst was getting....

But I'd think more adventurous types could do some really cool stuff with it.

I'm glad there are poeple out there who think the world didn't stop wsith the nocaster- I'm not sure I agree, but I'm glad they are there pushing the envelope.

[andy__woods]

so.....can you just play chords on it?

Also, it is a bit ugly

[Jakedog]

The Moog is far too expensive for me to ever consider, but it is out of this world cool.

In the hands of a truly open minded, adventurous, and masterful player, that guitar will do things that no effects unit is remotely capable of. I would really like to hear McLaughlin or somebody like that give it a whirl.

Anything new and different will always have detractors, people fear or put down what they don't understand. For every technological development ever made, there has been someone who said "it's stupid" or "it'll never work", or "who in their right mind would buy that". If the inventors and innovators throughout history (including Leo Fender) had listened to these people, where would we all be now? We'd be living in caves, naked, and eating raw meat. Grunting things like, "that fire stuff, it's awfully bright and scary. I can't see a real prupose for it you know. Better just to stick with what we know. I mean, if we mess with it, we might have to learn stuff. No thanks."

[EunosFD]

Well put Jake. It's certainly not for everyone, but a very creative and unique tool unlike anything else out there. Definitely pricey, but it's quite complex (some 2,000 parts inside IIRC ).

Couple of great vids here:





http://emusician.com/videos/product_demos/moog_guitar/

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shownews.cfm?newsid=6853


Wayyyyyyyyyyy out of my price range, but I'd snag one in a heartbeat if I had the dosh. Not fond of the aesthetics, but no doubt it's high quality (built by Zion I think?). I'd personally prefer a singlecut body (Tele, LP, et cetera).

[tiktok]

Originally Posted by J-man

Now I have to name them all?

Most of the sounds they were getting reminded me of the weird noises I've made hurting my Boss ME-50 (great pedal).

Sustainers have been around for quite a long time, and the touch sensitivity can be achieved by cranking a compressor way up.

If you look at the array of digital FX available today there isn't much you can't do with a guitar.

The big selling point of the Moog Guitar is that it has a very touch sensitive Ebow/Sustainer (not simply a compression effect) device which works on all the strings independently. An Ebow only drives one string at a time. The Sustainiac/Fernandes-Hamer Sustainer always greatly favors one string withing a chord. The Moog gives you six-string polyphony with the sustain effect. This is not easy to do, and I've never heard someone pull this off with any combination of processing in real time, and I pay attention to that end of the music gear world.

The only thing that was vaguely in the same ballpark was the Gizmotron (six rubber wheels hooked to a motor mounted on the guitar, physically bowing the strings), which never reliably worked and made it very difficult to play the guitar in a normal manner.

[Joel Terry]

I think it's intriguing--lots of potential sonic exploration with that, in my opinion.

Travis, your post is fantastic--a real history lesson in a thimble. While I had heard of the Gizmotron in passing, I'll have to admit that I am not at all familiar with the Sustaniac/Fernandes-Hamer Sustainer. (I guess that means either: 1. I've been living under a rock and everyone else knows about the Sustainer; or 2. The Sustainer's manufacturer(s) didn't market it with conviction and/or could not find a high-visibility platform or effective integrated marketing channels to market it, so they lost interest in it because not a lot of players noticed it; as a result, the Sustainer has been relegated to the dim, cobwebbed attic of amplified music esoterica. I'll readily admit I'm going to feel really stupid if the former rather than the latter is true. )

For years, I've been amazed that the "E-Bow X six" concept has been, for all intents and purposes, all but ignored. If I had any kind of predilection toward and expertise in electronics, I can assure you that I would have been tackling this very concept. It looks like the Moog guitar "g(o)t thar fuhstest with th' mostest."

Interesting, to say the least!

Joel

[studio1087]

I posted this video a couple weeks ago. I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical meaning I have not passed any judgment yet. The guy who I would love to hear getting crazy with the Moog Guitar is Adrian Belew (Mr. Sustainiac). I nearly worshiped Belew in the 80's and I've had the pleasure of meeting him and chatting with him (he lives in Lake Geneva and has played small clubs in Milwaukee). Adrian has his signature Parker with the built in sustainiac now; he should have cut a deal with Moog. I think of newer King Crimson stuff with Adrian and Robert Fripp and I hear the Moog guitar and my mind says "perfect marriage!".

Is it a gimmick or is it something that you could really use on whole CD?

I get tired of gimmicks. The new Boss Giga Delay has a feature that sounds like a person twisting the knobs on an old analog delay. The sounds go up and down in pitch and the pedal makes the silly sounds that we all made in 1980 to freak out our friends. OK then. What the hell would you do with that sound?

I'm trying to make a point about freaky gimmicks vs. strong music tools.

Time will tell with the Moog guitar. I cannot tell if it's just a gimmick. I would probably want a guitar and a compressor or a Roland Guitar Synth if I just wanted sustain. I don't know. Can't tell.

John

[tiktok]

Originally Posted by studio1087

Adrian has his signature Parker with the built in sustainiac now; he should have cut a deal with Moog. I think of newer King Crimson stuff with Adrian and Robert Fripp and I hear the Moog guitar and my mind says "perfect marriage!".

Is it a gimmick or is it something that you could really use on whole CD?


Time will tell with the Moog guitar. I cannot tell if it's just a gimmick. I would probably want a guitar and a compressor or a Roland Guitar Synth if I just wanted sustain. I don't know. Can't tell.

Both Belew and Fripp hopped on the Sustainier train first thing and have been playing various custom guitars (Fripp on the Fernandes) for over a decade now. Reeves Gabrel, when he was playing with Bowie, had a custom Parker Fly with a Sustainer and a GK pickup that he used to drive his guitar synth and Roland VG setup.

The Moog guitar is undoubtedly something that you could base your entire style around, since it allows you to mix the approach of the guitar with that of bowed string instruments. However, like all devices that you can base an entire style around, it requires that you put in some serious time learning how to use it for maximum results. Which isn't to say that you couldn't immediately get some great sounds out of it, but the really good stuff takes some digging.

The idea that a guitar with a compressor is somewhat the samething, or close enough for government work is greatly mistaken.

And no, I have no affiliation with Moog, although I'd love to have one of these guitars, although at that price I don't think it's going to happen.

[tiktok]

Originally Posted by Joel Terry

Travis, your post is fantastic--a real history lesson in a thimble. While I had heard of the Gizmotron in passing, I'll have to admit that I am not at all familiar with the Sustaniac/Fernandes-Hamer Sustainer. (I guess that means either: 1. I've been living under a rock and everyone else knows about the Sustainer; or 2. The Sustainer's manufacturer(s) didn't market it with conviction and/or could not find a high-visibility platform or effective integrated marketing channels to market it, so they lost interest in it because not a lot of players noticed it; as a result, the Sustainer has been relegated to the dim, cobwebbed attic of amplified music esoterica. I'll readily admit I'm going to feel really stupid if the former rather than the latter is true. )

For years, I've been amazed that the "E-Bow X six" concept has been, for all intents and purposes, all but ignored. If I had any kind of predilection toward and expertise in electronics, I can assure you that I would have been tackling this very concept. It looks like the Moog guitar "g(o)t thar fuhstest with th' mostest."

Kramer advertised the "Floyd Rose Sustainer" pretty heavily in guitar magazines in the late 80's/early 90's, but you had to play a Floyd Rose equipped Kramer to take advantage of it:

http://www.vintagekramer.com/sustainer.htm

Kramer went under after a few years, and Hamer started offering basically the same thing, licensed I believe from Maniac Music, who offered the Sustainiac as a retrofit for Fender-style guitars (and who also advertised in all the guitar mags at the time, although with 1/8th page b&w ads instead of full-page four color with Eddie Van Halen endorsing):

http://www.sustainiac.com/

Fernandes took up the cause after that, and I believe still offers the option. I have one of their Strat type guitars which has one. The effect is nice, but more akin to standing in front of a loud amp at any volume, with or without distortion. It does not offer polyphony--one note will always dominate, although that note will go to the octave harmonic if you've selected that mode.

Guitarist/producer Michael Brook is the first guy to come up with the Sustainer concept, which he called the Infinite Guitar. He has based his entire style around it, but could never bring it to market. He handmade three units--his own, one he gave to The Edge (intro to "With Or Without You") and the other to Daniel Lanois.

The "Ebow X 6" concept unfortunately requires six separate driver channels, a six-way pickup to read the strings individually, and I suspect six times the power of an Ebow, i.e. six times 9V. A lot of circuitry, difficult to fit into a guitar body without (I suspect) a lot of expensive custom components, and that's without getting into designing in any sort of touch adjustment, etc. Hence the long wait between someone thinking of the idea (probably about ten minutes after the intro of the first Ebow) and someone actually bringing it to market at the cost of a small car.