The words 'Moog' and 'guitar' next to each other may seem odd to many, but it's official — Moog, the synth pioneers, have made a guitar!
The Moog Guitar has two outputs: one conventional quarter-inch jack that's fed by piezo saddle pickups, and one five-pin XLR, which connects to a special active pedal. Power is fed up the cable to the components in the guitar body, and audio signals are sent back down to the pedal, where the second output, another quarter-inch jack socket, is located.
At the heart of the guitar are two Moog-designed pickups, which can be set to excite or mute the strings of the guitar. This means, in practice, that the guitar is capable of producing a vast array of sounds, from infinite sustain to muted plucking, using nothing but electromagnetic power, which Moog call 'Vo Power', after co-designer Paul Vo. The Moog Guitar also has the much-loved Moog ladder filter built-in, giving the player that unmistakable Moog sound.
There are three modes of operation: Full Sustain applies infinite sustain on every string; Controlled Sustain analyses which strings that you're playing and sustains those in use, while muting others; and Mute mode saps the energy from the strings, creating a muted sound.
The foot pedal can be used to apply different amounts of 'Vo Power' to the different pickups, while a blend knob enables the player to mix the outputs from each pickup. But the pedal also operates as the cut-off control when the guitar is in filter mode. On the side of the pedal is a Control Voltage (CV) input, which can be fed by an LFO, for example, to modulate the filter for some versatile effects.
As you may expect, the Moog Guitar comes at a price. The Paul Vo Collector Edition, which is currently the only available version, will retail for $6495 in the USA, and £3999 in the UK.
A handful of new music technology products were launched at the London International Music Show in June 2009, but we managed to find time to capture them on video in between running the daily SOS seminars!
