Brian Moore C55 - Precision Made Instrument! - Made in Brewster, NY in 1998 🇺🇸! - Owned by Josh of Cattle Decapitation! -

This guitar is a perfect platform for writing and performing music, every individual component of this guitar was hand made with meticulous care and attention to detail. It’s like a car that could drive Le Mans, making hairpin turns at crazy speeds for 24 hours without skipping a beat. I seriously can’t believe how thoroughly nice is is. Tons of innovation, all adding up to make it be perfect guitar.

Brian Moore wasn’t looking to the past the way a lot of guitar makers do, he was looking to the future of what a guitar could be. Instead of making a better Strat or Les Paul, he really did come up with something completely from his own mind. That’s really admirable. It’s no easy feat to be an engineer, a production manager, a musician, and have the entrepreneurial spirit and belief in yourself to push your own creation that’s dramatically different from anything before it. Something to be said about all that.

The fretwork on this guitar is some of the best I’ve ever felt. They’re stainless steel and they will never wear out, but they feel soft and and inviting which is really nice. Definitely my favorite stainless steel frets that I’ve ever played. I’ve played a lot of stainless steel frets, but these I actually feel totally at home playing. They feel very natural.

The top is killer. The figures in the maple are fantastic, I love how it flames out from the center. Really attractive edge where it curls around to the sides as well.

The Wilkinson tremolo is a phenomenal piece of machinery. I grew up on hardtail Tele-style guitars, and I still don’t personally do tremolos on any of my guitars. After setting this up, I’m sold. I love this thing. It’s the most natural and effortless feeling tremolo I’ve ever played, really easy to dial in, and feels like it actually wants to be your friend and do it’s job instead of just fighting you and making things worse. I’ve been down the road with so many tremolos. At the end of the day I really just want something that’s really stable, and this one really is. You can bend it back and forth dramatically and it goes right back to the where it started.

The Sperzel locking tuners are awesome, you can restring this guitar in minutes. The length of the string is shortened after the nut without having to wrap around a tuning post so many times, so there’s a lot less to stretch out and break in. The string is fully stretched and ready to go super quick!

Pickups are nice and hot, a Super Distortion in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Alnico APH-1N in the neck. Tons of power and articulation.

Cattle Decapitation is a band that needs precision-made instruments. It’s crazy fast, super orchestrated, and heavily arranged music that needs guitars with no margins for error in intonation or tuning stability. There’s definitely some overlap between instruments you can use for metal/thrash and the worlds of Yes, Mahivishnu Orchestra, and King Crimson. This guitar would be just as right for Kirk Hammett as is would John McLaughlin. I love how it’s not a pointy metal guitar with a Floyd Rose, I like bands that can get heavy while still holding on to some taste with their guitars lol!

Josh got this brand new from Make n’ Music in Chicago, and it was used at every Cattle show from 2001-late 2005. It was used to record the albums To Serve Man, Humanure and Karma Bloody Karma. Also used on the split 7” with Caninus. It’s been a serious working tool, but it’s in shockingly near mint condition. Josh takes care of his guitars! Only issue is a little clouding of the clear on the back of the guitar at parts, but it’s something you have to look for to notice. Comes with the original Brian Moore case.