Brian Moore C90p

Features: 9
-Made in 2002 - New York
-22 Frets
-1/4'' maple top
-1 volume for magnetic pickups, 1 volume for piezo, one Tone for Magnetic pickups and a 5-way Schaller megaswitch that automatically coil-splits in positions 2, 3, and 4. The tone pot is a push/pull pot that adds the Bridge humbucker to positions 4 and 5.
-H/S/H and piezo
-Seymour duncan (JB/alnico II(single)/alnicoII pro(humbucker)), RMC piezo (all passive)
-Mahogany Body (hunduran, i think), Quilted Maple top, Maple Neck, and Rosewood Fretboard.
-Glossy Poly finish on the body, satin finish on the neck. Beautiful green-burst they call 'Sea-turtle'.
-Strat-style body.
-wilkinson tremolo bridge.
-Locking Sperzel tuners
-25.5'' scale neck. the width (as in from top string to bottom string) is thinner than strat necks... more like a les paul. The thickness is relatively thin... a nice, soft 'C'. I don;t know exactly what size the frets are, but they are much smaller than an ibanez i had with jumbo frets. Satin-finished maple neck with a rosewood fretboard.
-Included Hardshell case, Stereo 'Y' Cable, all necessary Hex wrenches, and a factory setup checklist.

I've used this guitar exclusively for over 2 years, so i have come to know it very well... i hope my explanation of everything helps someone decide if it is right for them... here goes:


I play fusion, so what i was really looking for was a versatile instrument. I need to be able to get anything from country, blues, metal, scooped-like-crazy cleans, or even acoustic sounds if i want, and this guitar fits that need perfectly.


I use a Mesa/Boogie Triaxis/2:90 combo with a few effects (usually delay for leads and chorus for clean Rhythm). The piezo i process through a Digitech GNX3 and send it directly to the PA.


The guitar is not noisy at all... all cavities are properly shielded, and all pickup settings are hum-cancelling. The Piezo pickups are also very quiet.


The sounds from the various combinations of pickups are very nice with this guitar. The Bridge pickup (the infamous JB) in conjunction with the mahogony body generates a thick lead tone with an upper-midrange spike that is perfect for cutting through when you need to. The neck pickup (alnico II pro) has a beautiful, buttery feel to it (There is a nice contrast between these alnico II mags and the alnico V mags in the JB). When this pickup is used for lead lines around the 12th fret and up, the notes are full-bodied and have a great response to the player's fingers and the amp. The coil-split settings are also awesome... with the bridge hum split and the middle single active, you can get a GREAT country chicken-picken sound a la Albert Lee or Steve Morse. With the Bridge and neck pickups split, the tone has a Tele-esque vibe to it. My favorite setting for clean chords is with the middle single and the Neck split... very fat stratty sound... good for hendrix-type chordal work or Pink floyd, etc. Add in a bit o overdrive, and this setting is also great for a stratty blues sound.


The piezo pickup is also a very nice addition. I don;t use it a LOT, but i have tweaked my settings with EQ and a bit of reverb to get a pretty convincing acoustic sound. I have found that the heavier strings you use, the better when using piezo pickups. For this reason, i switched from 9's to 10's.


Likes: The switching system for the pickups is extremely easy... just a flip of a switch, and you have a completely different sound to work with.

The guitar's setup when i got it was good... a good place to start with a new guitar... no buzzing or anything. I tweaked a few things to my liking, but i would have done that with any guitar. All necessary items (intonation, truss rod, etc.) were properly setup from the beginning. I like my pickups pretty low, so i lowered them a bit... no biggie.


If there's one thing i can say that i hope everyone here remembers it is this: Brian Moore does the best finishes i have ever seen. Every Moore i have played has has a perfect glossy finish and beautiful woods. The only flaw i saw with the craftsmanship was that one side of the graphite nut looked like it was filed down a bit roughly... there is a slight scratch in the wood... i forgive them.

This guitar has withstood 2 years of playing by me (at least 2 shows a week, plus rehearsals), and i expect it to do so for many years to come. I have had only two problems with this guitar's hardware. (1)the Schaller Mega switch: about a year ago some kind of screw fell out of the middle of it and was rattling around in the control cavity. I took the guitar to the local shop where i bought it, they called BMG, and sent a replacement switch - no questions asked. My local repair guy installed it within 3 hours, and it was good as new. (2) somehow (i don;t think they ever figured out how, exactly) the piezo signal was bleeding through to the magnetic signal when i used a stereo 'Y' cable. This problem my local repairman could not figure out, so i had to send my guitar all the way back to the Brian moore Shop for 3 weeks (which was no pleasant experience, but i borrowed a friend's Ibanez for shows). Anyway, After three weeks i got the guitar back, and not only did they fix the messed-up output, they completely overhauled my guitar! Replaced all, yes ALL, the pots, scraped the little finger-goo off of the fretboard, gave the guitar a complete polishing, and slapped on a fresh set of Elixirs: ALL at no cost! It was tough living without it for 3 weeks, but it was nice to see that these guys care about their customers and guitars so much.


The finish is an extremely durable Poly finish.


The strap buttons were solid, but it is the straps that i don;t trust. I installed a Dimarzio cliplock system on it only because i feel better with the extra security... especially with a $3000 guitar and no REAL backup (although i have just ordered another C90p to fill this role).


I DO depend on this guitar... in the aforementioned problems i actually played a few shows WITH the problems pretty successfully... i'm sure no one noticed anything except for me. Anyway, considering ho

I have thought about changing the Middle singlecoil pickup becuase sometimes the coil-split settings (usually used with the Alnico II pro split) seem a bit weak. I was thinking of trying the same pickup with an alnico V magnet to add a little extra punch to the sound... haven;t yet, however. sometimes, i also wish there was an additional switch that selects between the Piezo and magnetic signal... as it is i have to completely roll off the piezo knob, and completely roll on the Magnetic knob to switch between the two. This setupp is good for blending the various pickups, but i don;t do much of that anyway.

There were two reasons why i went with this Moore: craftsmanship, and conglomeration of all of the various innovations of guitar... the contoured body (which i find to be very comfortable), the output-jack location, the intuitive switching system, etc. A lot of makers use quality parts or can introduce a new idea to the guitar, but i liked the way brian moore intuitively designed their guitars by taking advantage many of these innovations.


I suppose the closest living relative to Brian Moore Guitars are Parker Flys... I tried a few of them out but could just not get comfortable with one... additionally, none of them had a middle single coil (that i use quite a bit), AND i liked the idea of having a guitar custom made for ME. The quilt-top is also nice.