Reviewed by:
unregistered, on july 02, 2007
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Price paid: $ 1140
Purchased from: Billy Hyde Music
Features: My Brian Moore I1 is the flagship model in the I2000 series and was made in 2005, in South Korea. It was on sale for nearly half the RRP of $2995 Aus dollars. The neck is very similar to the ESP "Thin U" neck profile, so it's a fairly thin, and it comes shod with 22 jumbo frets, white binding, rosewood fingerboard and neck-through construction. The body is solid, made of a Kalantas mahogany body and a highly figured maple top, in cherry sunburst, and it looks great. It is based vaguely on a Strat body, but it considerably contoured, and is more comfortable than any guitar I have played, and I also regularly play a friends Jackson DK2S, which can cut into you slightly, but the Brian Moore never does. The bridge is a based on the twin pivot tremolo on USA American Strats, but instead of screw to adjust height, it is hex key adjustable for pivot height, but otherwise the same type of bridge, and the tremolo action is a lot smoother than the old 6 screw brige design and tuning stability is much better too. The pickups are in H/S/H format and are as follows: Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB in bridge, Seymour Duncan APS-2 alnico II pro single coil, Seymour Duncan APH-1 alnico II pro neck. It has two knobs, a volume and tone, but these come equipped with coil splits, so you lift them up to split either the bridge or neck 'bucker and combined with a 5-way switch, you get 9 pickup configurations. The tuners are Sperzel locking tuners and make string changes really easy, and provide great tuning stability, and I believe the nut is graphtec nut. The control knobs, the bridge and tuners are gold plated.The jack socket is placed in an innovative location as well, in the back and recessed and it excellent. The headsock is unique in style, employing a 2+4 tuner configuration. It came with the gold plated vibrato arm, a very thick gig bag and a free guitar lead and some hex key wrenches. // 10
Sound: Although the mahogany/maple top configuration is linked with a les paul sound, the neck through construction and Seymour Duncan JB make it sound clearer and consequently give a sound better suited to shred, modern rock and metal, which this guitar is aimed at, as it is no Vintage device. Pump the gain to Ultra high, and the clarity shows, and is far less muddy than any Gibson or Epiphone I've played, with a much more focused bottom end. The single coil has a stronger midrange presence than many single coils, but I don't use it much as I generally am I high gain guitarist and it can be too noisy in that application, but it sure comes into it's own in clean setting. The neck bucker is had a loosed bottom end, and can be muddy on high gain setting on the wound strings, and consequently works better on lower gain settings, and I would much prefer it on a 24 fret guitar, as it would be a little less muddy. The coils split modes are nice on cleans, adding sonic variety, but are noisy on high gain, as is the mixed 'bucker/middle settings. Through a Roland Cube 30, it the bridge JB is bright and clear and is great for metal, shred and other high gain applications, but perhaps your Vintage purist will look elsewhere, but any player into modern guitars and modern styles requiring high gain will like it, and the neck and middle will go with lower gain settings well. // 9
Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar was set up fairly well, with a low action, as low as a Jackson soloist and the frets were polished well, but one or two fret near the high E sring, around the 5-7th fret was somewhat imperfect. The pickup heights have never been adjusted by me, as I haven't needed to. The Finish was great, no visible flaws. The nut was great, the tuners fantastic, and the tuning stability excellent, even after a fair amount of vibraton arm abuse. But the gold hardware on the top of the volume/tone knobs corroded somewhat and the same for the top of the bridge saddles, and this occured after a few months, but I have read about it happening to lots of guitars with gold plated hardware, so it's not a one off defect. // 10
Reliability & Durability: Altough I have not played it live, I know that jack owen Who was in cannibal corpse and is now in deicide used them, and the guitars survived the death metal genre, and I can feel how well constructed the guitar is anyway, it is very solid feeling. The hardware will certainly last, but the bridge saddles and tone/volume knob gold plated corroded somewhat, but is still very durable. The strap buttons are large, and provide reasonable insurance from the guitar falling off. I would certainly depend on this guitar Live if I had, and I probably wouldn't need a backup. The finish will last if you keep it out of the sun, as you should with any guitar, and will not just wear out easily but again the gold-plating was a shame. // 9
Impression: I play metal, mainly thrash, and shred, and this guitar goes very well. I have been playinh electric since December 2003 and I just owned a cheap Strat copy before the brian moore and boy, was it a step up in every department. If it were lost/stolen, I would scream for a lenghty period of time, and would to kill the son/daughter of a bitch that stole my axe and yeah, I would buy it again or a similar floyd rose or fixed bridge I1 model. I love almost everything about it except the fact the it only has 22 frets (the floyd rose model has 24) and the gold-plating going bad. Compared to a Gibson or Fender, they don't touch my brian moore for what I play, it so easy to play, and I would say it has better playability than any ESP I've played, and equal to a 4000 dollar Jackson soloist in playability. I just wish it had noiseless middle single coil, like a Duncan classic stack and 24 frets and graphtec bridge saddles. // 9
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