Who’s afraid of the Moog guitar – Paul Vo Collector’s Edition

The Moog Guitar puts revolutionary new technology in the hands of the guitarist. Moog Music is known for building the finest instruments and the Moog Guitar is first and foremost a very fine guitar; designed to be played by the best musicians as their primary axe. Its A-quality maple top, premium swamp ash or mahogany body and ebony finger board bespeak the quality that musicians have come to expect from a Moog instrument.

The addition of Moog Guitar Electronics opens guitarists to a whole new musical vocabulary: Not a guitar synthesizer, not a MIDI guitar or an effects processor; players are intimately connected to The Moog Guitar because it works its magic on the strings themselves.

“One of the most inspiring aspects of producing The Moog Guitar has been hearing from guitarists who have been creatively reinvigorated by it.” said Mike Adams, Moog Music President. “When someone plays it for the first time, you can almost see new musical ideas forming in their head.”

The Model E1 provides an incredibly intimate playing experience that connects musicians directly to the source of the sound; the strings of the guitar. It does this by controlling the way the strings vibrate. In a very coherent way, the Model E1 gives energy to, and takes energy away from the strings. The resulting timbres do not rely on effects or post-processing. They are created directly from the strings.

“To me, touching the strings, being able to directly manipulate the very source of sound is fundamental to the nature of the guitar and to the spirit of playing it.” said Moog Guitar inventor, Paul Vo. “The E1’s controls just set the background mode – the control system characteristics. The strings are always your main user interface. The idea was never to make the guitar sound like anything else – it was to excite the instrument with controlled electronics to bring out hidden aspects of the instrument’s own natural character.”

The electronics of the Moog E1 guitar

What makes this guitar so special?

The Moog Guitar Electronics add an unparalleled range of expression to the Moog Guitar:

FULL SUSTAIN MODE – like no other sustainer; infinite sustain on every string, at every fret position and at any volume. You may have heard sustain before but not with this power (we call it “Vo Power”) and clarity.

CONTROLLED SUSTAIN MODE – allows you to play sustained single or polyphonic lines without muting technique. The Moog Guitar sustains the notes you are playing while actively muting the strings you are not playing.

MUTE MODE – removes energy from the strings, resulting in a variety of staccato articulations. The mute mode has never been heard on any other guitar; the Vo Power stops the strings with the same intensity that it sustains them. You feel the instrument transform in your hands.

HARMONIC BLENDS – use the included foot pedal to shift the positive energy of Vo Power in Sustain mode and the subtractive force of Vo Power in Mute mode between the bridge and neck pick-ups to pull both subtle and dramatic harmonics from the strings.

MOOG FILTER – control the frequency of the built-in, resonant Moog ladder filter using the foot pedal or a CV Input.