Agile Guitar Review

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Dana

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Joined
Apr 29, 2002
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Location
Hachioji, Japan
I recently ordered an Agile LP Double Cut through Rondo Music in New Jersey, USA. I had it sent to my brothers house for a quick assessment and then he shipped it here. It just came today.

Here are the pictures: :p http://www.backyardbullet.com/agile.html :p

Let's talk quality starting with the body and moving up.

At first glance, it looks like a sharp guitar. It has some flame to it and also has some cross-grain going on as well. From 2 feet or more away, its a good looking gitfiddle. Color is eye appealing on the top and on the back. So far, good score.

The binding appears to be a solid quality job throughout the guitar.

The body is 3 piece mahogany (looks like 3 even width pieces) and has a very nice backside to it. There is a maple cap (you can see in the pictures) although probably not the highest grade maple i've seen used on an LP copy.

If you look at the pictures on the website, it looks like it has a long tenon neck (i suppose) since it does extend all the way through the neck pickup cavity.

Pickups appear to have the cover 'hotglued' to the back plate. (That's ok, I'm buying Paladin's MK1 PAF pickups from him and look forward to installing them). :D

Only discrepency so far with body is that the bridge pickup isnt perfectly parallel with neck pickup. Its just a little off if you are really studying it. Strings still are centered over the pole pieces, just that the bridge pickup is a little angled. This is something i can live with.

Onto the neck.

The neck has a slim-tapered feel to me. Not baseball bat chunky but still has that comfortable width for me.

The binding is flawless on the neck. A quality job done on the frets as well as the block inlays. No scraping around frets and no excessive glue or space around the inlays. The rosewood fretboard is hard as a rock which i found interesting. I was pretty satisfied with the action the way it came. I'm not sure how many pieces the neck is but i think it may be 2. The nut is cut just a litle too low for my taste and it took a quarter turn counterclockwise on the truss rod to add just a tad of relief. Down the road i will install a Graphtech TusQ nut. But it doesnt need it now. Good score.

The nut appears to have been installed after the finish was applied. Not sure what material it is (Corian?) but its the same material that was found on my old Epi Standard nuts.

The headstock has the same quality finish as well as quality binding. The tuners are "Grovers" but arent as smooth as i thought they would be. They have that choppy feel to them when tuning. They do stay in tune pretty well though.

Sound:

As mentioned above, it only needed a few tweaks to get to a point that i like. Intonation was real close out of the box and all i did so far was add a 1/4 turn of relief and changed the strings. I also lowered the bridge pickup a little as well. The guitar wieghs just below the average LP i would say.

The sound is pretty good thru my SS amp with my standard controls on it. Add some effects and its very similiar to my other medium price tag guitars. One thing i was surprised was the diversity the controls on the guitar can create. I spent some time tweaking with the controls and really had some nice sounds. Very happy and good score.

Am I satisfied with the guitar? Yes. :D

Would I buy another one if this one was stolen? Yes. :evil:

What would I upgrade? The nut and maybe the tuners down the road. The pickups sound alright to me but i bought this guitar to tinker with. I'll have to see what the pots consist of. :wink:

I also bought a CNB case which is just to die for. :eek: Sharp looking and sturdy.

Please feel free to ask any questions.

Dana
 
On another note, the USPS did abuse the package it was sent in thus you will see cracks near the neck in some of the photos. The box was laying face down when i went to pick it up, and you know they didnt set it down there easily. Neck is still very solid. I had these in both of my Epi LP's too. Not worried about it.

Dana
 
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