power to the Moog’s special pickups and controlling its onboard filters.
Now this is where it gets good: what makes
the pickups so special is their ability to either
excite the strings into unlimited sustain or
dampen them into almost none. The appeal
of the former is obvious. Ever since the invention of the electric guitar, players have been
thrilled by the musical possibilities of enhanced
sustain. Compression, distortion, EBows and
sustainer pickups have been employed to offer
guitarists the kind of long notes enjoyed by
organists and synth-wielders.
The Moog’s unique, parallelogram-shaped
pickups offer two types of sustain. Full
Sustain mode provides infinite sustain on
every string, while Controlled Sustain mode
allows you to play sustained single or polyphonic lines without hand damping the other
strings by holding the notes you play while
actively muting the other strings. Flicking the
gold-tipped, Strat-style 3-way switch into the
third position engages Mute Mode. In this
mode the pickups remove energy from the
strings; the resulting staccato articulations
sound redolent of sitars and banjos.
The multitude of controls placed on a black-painted recess carved into the body recalls
the dashboard of a fancy sports car. A black
knurled knob handles the master volume, while
the adjacent gold knob adjusts the amount of
“Vo Power.” Vo Power is the name given to
the effect that the pickups have on the strings,
whether they are adding or subtracting sustain.
A gold 3-way mini-toggle selects among standard guitar tone, Articulated Moog Filter and
Normal Moog Filter. In Normal Filter mode
a supplied footpedal controls the cutoff frequency of the onboard filter, much like a wah
wah pedal. The Articulated Filter mode acts
more like a hex envelope follower; the pedal
now sets the start frequency of the articulation.
In these modes, the gold Tone/Filter knob controls the filter resonance. With the switch set to
standard mode this same knob acts as a typical
passive tone control.
When the footpedal is being used to control
the onboard filters, the next gold knob adjusts
“Harmonic Balance.” When the filters are not
in use, the footpedal controls this balance.
This effect is called Harmonic Balance because
it shifts positive and negative Vo Power from
pickup to pickup, accenting different harmonic overtones to create an organ drawbar
effect. Moving the knob or the footpedal in
one direction causes the neck pickup to add
more sustain and the bridge pickup to suck
out the string energy; in the other direction
the process is reversed. This has nothing to do
with the pickup selection; it just means that
the energy at that point of the string is being
enhanced or reduced, affecting the resulting
harmonics sent by the current pickup combo
to the amp. The pickup selector allows you to
choose just the piezo, the bridge pickup, both
pickups in phase, both pickups out of phase, or
the neck pickup. Another black knob blends in
the piezo.
The Moog pedal is the hub of the guitar’s electronics. In addition to controlling the aforementioned filters and harmonic balance, it is here
that the power cable is attached, as well as the
other end of the five-pin XLR. A standard 1/4”
guitar cable runs from the pedal to your amp.
The pedal also accepts external control volt-
A revolutionary concept in guitar tremolos
Direct replacement with no drilling
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Patent# 7339102
