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Moog is not exactly a stranger to the electric guitar. A tie-up in the seventies between Moog and Gibson produced the forward-looking Gibson RD Artist. The new Moog Guitar, however, is completely different.

Designed by Moog associate Paul Vo in conjunction with Zion Guitars owner Dale Brown (Zion is building the guitar part of the project), the new instrument uses unique analogue circuitry that takes sustain guitar technology – most commonly employed by Fernandes – one step, no, actually quite a few steps, further.

Zion has been building drop-dead gorgeous 'boutique' style guitars for a couple of decades and the platform for the Moog Guitar is exactly that: a maple 'drop-top' boutique beauty.

In terms of retail price, even without the fancy electronics, it would easily cost half, if not two-thirds of the hefty cost of the Moog package.

We don't have space here to go into great detail on the guitar itself but it's all you'd expect, aside from perhaps a glued-in maple neck, as opposed to a bolt-on. It's a big rounded neck too – 20.8mm deep at the first fret; 23mm at the 12th – with big frets on a modern (305mm) cambered ebony 'board.

The integration of the Moog part is classy. Note the black relieved headstock, leaving an almost Parker-like skeletal raised portion that mirrors the black control area relief – stylish and beautiful.

Turn the guitar over and you see a huge backplate covering the Moog electronics (the separate battery compartment powers the piezo bridge system). A five-pin output socket on the guitar's side connects via the supplied cable to a mains powered footpedal, with audio out for the magnetic and piezo sounds (and CV in), which also powers the electronics.

"For a professional musician the substantial outlay is justified ifit helps colour, or indeed create, a hit song."

A separate standard jack output is for piezo only, for example, if you're using a PA or acoustic amp. Control-wise it's busy, with five rotary controls, five-way and three-way lever switches and a mini toggle.

Cleverly the black knobbed controls (master volume, piezo blend and the five-way pickup selector switch) affect the usual guitar functions while the gold-plated controls (Vo Power, Harmonic Blend and Tone/Filter rotaries plus the Moog Guitar mode and Filter mode toggles) take care of the unusual features.

Sounds

Where to start? Well first let's ignore the fancy electronic possibilities and listen to the guitar in both its magnetic and piezo modes.

First off, the required special Moog strings don't feel great, as if they have some kind of coating. Although they are roundwound they have a slightly 'plunky' flatwound feel and response. Not that you'd notice with the piezo sound that's bright in the extreme, with excess hi-fidelity and sizzle.

Pulling down the treble on our AER combo and reducing mids gets us in the modernist acoustic-like ballpark but far from an old Martin flat-top sound.