rove wrote:Bigsby option. Budget model, sub $2k (sub$1.5k even better). Oil finish.
Or, sell the electronics as a kit for folks to rev up their own custom guitars.
If you want a kit to build your own, Paul Vo still has the some of the Lev-96 packages available, maybe. That what I'm doing.
I have a luthier, just waiting for Vo to start shipping. And the kit is (barely) sub $1.5K.
I love my Moog guitar, but the music store I got mine from had two. I bought the first. The second was unsold for about three years. In Portland, Oregon, land of 1000 bands.
( I felt very guilty, because I ordered through the shop, and Moog made him buy two to get mine. )
I think Moog did the E1 as a one-off, because the MoogFoogers put Moog into a lot of guitar shops they perhaps thought they could open a new market. But, it's way outside their comfort zone as a product, and I certainly don't blame them for abandoning it, as it clearly failed to gain traction and was likely not profitable for them, considering how long they had to sit on stock. Moog seems to be doing quite well sticking to what they know. (The Sub Phatty seems to be quite big)
I think Mr. Vo has moved on, and if you are a fan of the technology, I'd suggest supporting the inventor, rather than whinging at the nice Moog people.
Or dreaming about something thats not very likely to happen.