Specifications

Manufacturer:
Moser Custom Shop, mosercustomshop.com

List Price:
$1,259.00

WHEN IT COMES to pointy guitars, no one designs them more radically than Neal Moser. Moser has been designing guitars for various companies since 1977. (For the full story, visit nealmoser. com.) He came out of retirement a few years ago to open the Moser Custom Shop in Southern California, and just recently he began offering affordable import versions of his unique, eye-catching models.

FEATURES

THE MOSER MVI-T (Moser V import tremolo) looks, plays and sounds like a custom ax, but it's priced comparably to a midline production guitar. Uncommon details, especially for a guitar at this price, include contrasting painted bevels surrounding the body and a thorough setup performed by techs at Moser's SoCal shop. The MVi boasts a maple neck-through-body construction with alder body "wings" carved to a wickedly pointy V shape and a distinctive sculpted "cutaway" beneath the bridge that looks like a crocodile took two hearty chomps out of the guitar's Venus mound.

The neck features a rosewood fretboard with a 24 3/4-inch scale, 24 medium-jumbo nickel frets and side markers rather than fretboard inlays. Right out of the box, it is evident how much attention to detail went into this guitar's setup. The neck feels smooth as silk, seemingly leading your fingers to fly faster than normal. Hardware includes Grover tuners and a licensed Floyd Rose locking tremolo, all finished in black.

The pickups are no-name Korean humbuckers, with a blade-style 'bucker in the bridge position and a traditional six-pole-piece 'bucker at the neck. Controls include individual volume knobs for each pickup, master tone and a three-position switch. The pickups deliver aggressive snarl and bite with black metal-approved chunk and bottom end-perfect for a guitar that looks like Satan's marshmallow roaster.

THE BOTTOM LINE

IF YOU LOVE the razor-sharp lines of Moser's creations but can't afford the cash for a custom- crafted ax, the MVi-T provides similar performance and sound at a cut-rate price. Obviously, a guitar this radical looking isn't for everybody (i.e. jazz or country guitarists), but anyone who appreciates aggressive music can rest assured that the MVi-T sounds as wicked as it looks.

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