Thanks & goodbye: Brian Moore i91

Spending my final few moment with Greenie here before handing it over to its new owner tomorrow: Re-string, fret polish, re-condition fretboard & final wipe down. Those Tesla pickups sound superb in this guitar. Preparing for the upcoming year end & unemployment. 

Green Tuesday

I think my ears are a little weary listening to Duncans & DiMarzios so playing this one today. Pickups are Teslas. Didn't play for too long, just a quick 30min post-dinner. Was a little lethargic but I had this tune ringing in my head & had to let it out. Also, kept to the bridge pickup all the way through. What I like about the Nitro is that it sounds like the Duncan JB; very close. FYI the Brian Moore i91 here is Korean. Serial number suggests it's made by World Music, the same people who handle Schecter, Jackson & other notable brand names.

Green day

This was my final re-string for 2018, the Brian Moore i91 guitar (Korea). It's an 8-year old, still going strong & sounding good.

Thanks to this trio of Tesla pickups which will stay put here: Nitro (b)/ VR-1 (m)/ Plasma 3 (b). 

Final Darco pack of 9s went into this one. The Darcos were clearing for less than $5 each during the 2018 year-end sale. If you aren't too fussy with regards to feel & durability, these are very acceptable guitar strings. 

Hope it's been a good 2019 you so far (a little early to say isn't it?). 

Saving hand

It's not quite obvious here but the action adjustment screws in my Brian Moore i91 were protruding & jabbing my picking hand palm each & every time I play this guitar.

But I've substituted them for Graph Tech's FerraGlide saddles which are more palm-friendly as depicted above. Due to my picking aggression, those protruding screws tear up my palm every time I play so the FerraGlides help. However, after reading this entry, many of us would be interested in acquiring them in an attempt to address a similar issue but be informed that the FerraGlides were conceived to, first & foremost, counter string snapping at the saddle area- the reason for the graphite bits there.

Brian Moore i91: TESLA!

Alright! This is the best time to get hold of 'em TESLA pickups since they are going for 15% discount (@ SV Guitars) & I've decided to have them in my Brian Moore i91. After the default pickups were removed, I was rather surprised the cavities interior was lacquered; it's one of the most presentable finish I've come across. Thumbs up to this!

It's the usual works for me, tone-wise; off to Beez's for an Orange Drop installation...

... & a push-pull coil split switch to complete the ritual.

The fretboard received a re-conditioning. The upper fret areas were dry but the rest of the piece was OK.

Finally, a fresh set of GHS .009 set for the i91. The TESLA pickups in this guitar are:

• Bridge: Nitro
• Middle: VR-1
• Neck: Plasma III

Laminate top

This is how the interior on my Brian Moore i91 pickup cavity looks like. The thin layer, as indicated by the arrow, is the maple top material used for this guitar. The manufacturer chose to simply layer the mahogany body with a laminate top; the idea here is for the top to function as a cosmetic enhancement, not a tone enhancing layer. Is this a bad thing? No, it's how the manufacturer wanted it to be, pertaining to the overall cost of production. So when you strum the guitar unplugged, you are hearing the mahogany resonance as the dominant tone source.

Brian Moore guitars: i91

The final addition to my guitar posse is a Brian Moore guitar, the i91 to be precise. Now who the heck is Brian Moore? He's just another one of those custom guitar builders in the likes of Suhr, Paul Reed Smith, Sid Poole, Gene Baker, Tom Anderson et al. The i91 here is from the Korean line of i1000 series.Davis GMC is currently clearing this series of guitars at a too-good-to-be-true prices so I duly made my move. Some specs:

• Mahogany body
• Figured bookmatched maple wood top
• 22 fret Maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, pearl fretboard markers
• 25.5" scale 15" radius
• Alnico Humbuckers and single coil
• Chrome Hardware

The headstock has a touch of class to it but it's acquired taste to many of us. Also, try asking around which replacement brand name offers a 2-4 tuner combination.

The i91's body is sleek to say the least, but there is a need to get attuned to the pickup selector lever located in between the volume & tone knobs. However, the nearest knob is located away from the bridge pickup so it doesn't get in the way of aggressive picking. In fact, the pickup selector is more proximate to the picking hand's reach which is good consideration because the tendency to switch pickups is greater than volume/ tone alterations during play & the knobs do not get in the way when this happens.

The i91 sports a curved body top, more curvaceous than what the Ibanez's S-series is offering in the mean time. If you take a closer look, even the center portion of the body isn't dead flat, note the edges of the whammy bridge being projected away from the body.

It gets more interesting on the flip-side as we see here, that's where the output jack is located. The strap button sits lower so this way, your cable won't get trampled on during a stand-up performance; there isn't a need to bring the cable up to slip it between the button & the strap as we commonly see during live shows.