So I just discovered Agile guitars...

pharmd07

pharmd07

Experienced
Agile guitars look rather interesting. The prices are phenomenal. Yeah, I know they're made in Korea. But it seems like the vast majority of people that have an Agile have great things to say about them.

I would like a Les Paul, but I'm not giving a dime of my money to Gibson. And I also don't have a lot of dimes these days to give to anyone (mainly due to the dictatorship my wife has set up over our budget...grrr).

So, someone needs to talk me out of getting an Agile Les Paul copy. They're soooo pretty...
 
I have never heard of these guitars I will have to take a look. There are allot of guitars to choose from out there what type of music do you like the most? Also, are you performing live, studio or just for fun at home?
 
I'm mostly into classic rock, pop rock, blues rock, stuff like that. Favorite bands include U2, Collective Soul, Guns n Roses, Slash's various bands, Candlebox, Big Wreck, Thin Lizzy, Foo Fighters, the list goes on.

Up until a year ago I was playing out at least 4 shows a month, mostly acoustic stuff. But that had to stop when my mom was diagnosed with ALS and I had to help coordinate her care, which has been rather time consuming.

I would eventually like to get into playing out again. The only think that sucks is that I live in the middle of "Hipster Folk Music Land" and there's no one around here that is interested in a rock band.

I have a home studio. Current gear includes a Carvin California Carved Top and a Bolt-T. Both are great guitars. I like the thought of an Agile because I could mod it, and use it as a platform to learn how to wire a guitar (I eventually would like to build an amp, probably an 18 watt Marshall clone, but I gotta start somewhere).

I used to own a Gibson Les Paul Classic. It had problems. The bridge was broken when I bought it (got a good deal on it). The finish wasn't the best and the neck inlays were an ugly yellow color. I ended up selling it.

I've done some looking around and many people honestly seem to think the Agile guitars are very well built and may even take on Gibson's Les Pauls. For $400, it seems like it's worth a try. If anything, it would be a fun purchase.
 
It might be well worth it, if you don't like the sound you could always upgrade the pickups. If you don't like the guitar you could always sell it on EBay but you may love it.
 
Got a agile 3100 lespaul like.
Use it since 4 years now: play great,sound great, no issue
For 450€ flight case included.
Play blues and hard rock at home.
Stock PUs were quiet good but as I like to change stuff on my gears I put a BK The Mule in neck and a KC SUPER Graal in bridge.
Difference with a Gib ? Friends coming home just said its a great guitar !
 
The Agile Les Pauls with the "M" or "MC" suffix have a 3/4" maple cap - Epiphone won't sell an LP with that no matter how much you pay them (and I bet you can guess why...)

They also do "semi-custom" guitars where you pick a base model and then specify the finish, wood types, number of strings, binding, pickups, etc. These have gotten more expensive over time, but are still much cheaper than Carvin or Warmoth.

I've got two Agiles: an AL-3100M "Les Paul" and a 12-string Harm1. They both needed a fret level, but pretty much every factory-made guitar does. They're both a lot of guitar for the money.
 
I've had my eye on these for years. I've resisted the urge to drop a quick $400. You're right!! Pretty sweet looking and without the $4k price tag. That makes it much easier to just make an impulse buy. When I bought my gibsons, I took my time (somewhat)


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I'm very happy with mine. I replaced the pickups with BKP Nailbombs but the stock pickups weren't even bad. Just more vintage than i go for. I think mine is a 3105... its the chambered LP style. I like light guitars as I'm getting a little older and like to keep things easy on myself now. Compares well to a Les Paul IMO and a buddies opinion as well.
 
I've played two of them to date. Both used at the local GC. One I ended up buying without even plugging it in because it played so great. The other one I wouldn't have even bothered throwing in a fire. I knew nothing about Agile so I was pretty much going just based on the merit of the two guitars.

So I took the old dirty one that played great thinking that I'd need to swap pickups and crap out. I started cleaning it up and pulled a pickup to see what I was looking at and it turns out that it had some Seymour Duncans in it (a 59 and a Jazz I think). Pulled that disgusting tune-o-matic off to swap it out...it turned out to be an aluminum Gotoh. That's when I decided to look it up online and figure out what the hell was going on. Turned out to be one of their higher end models with a bone nut, good pickups, 3/4" maple cap, etc. The other one was their bottom of the range model and it showed.

That was probably about 5 years ago. I'm literally typing this with my Agile strapped to me right now. My Gibson LP ended up on e-Bay about 2 years ago. Not because it wasn't a great guitar. Not because the Agile did the same exact thing. They were both very different guitars, but when I started to think about it the Agile ended up getting played about 80% of the time and when I started comparing the time invested in maintenance the Agile basically gets new strings and that's it. I hate the color, the headstock is a bit wonky, I despise abalone with all my heart, but it's just a fantastic playing and sounding guitar. If I had to sell off a large portion of my gear for any reason it would be one of the last to go.
 
I hadn't really looked them over until reading this thread. Dang. $400 for a 3/4" nice dyed quilt maple top, mahogany body, ebony fingerboard, bound body and neck? If I had the spare bucks I'd pull the trigger on that. Even if you end up needing to replace the pups, seems you'd still be getting a nice guitar for a reasonable price. (I gig with MIM Strats and various PRS SE models, so another Korean axe would fit right in.)
 
Thanks to everyone for your responses. I'd love to get an Agile. Unfortunately, my wife will have none of it. She very promptly said no to a guitar. This seriously pisses me off.
 
I bought my Agile "Ghost" in the early days from Rondo when they were considerably less expensive. It was the best $200 I've ever spent. When I took it in for a proper setup the guy at the shop couldn't believe what a nice guitar it was. When I told him how much I paid his jaw hit the floor. The only down side was I think the pickups were installed backwards at the factory. No matter how much I raised or lowered them the neck was much louder. When I pulled them the neck pup had a much higher resistance than the bridge. I installed some Duncan pups I had in my parts bin (SH-1 neck, SH-5 Custom bridge) and switched it to gold hardware. I ended up selling it on the bay a few years back for a little over $500

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I have 2 top end Agiles (LP and LPJr/p90) both great quality and value. Their top line are the best deal IMO as prices have gone up a bit in the last yr or so. The SX line offers huge value too, esp w some aftermkt upgrades. I've got a SX Tele, Bass, and Liquid P90 (big but very ergo). I would caution that any purchase should include a matching case (to ship inside) because the packing on guitar only is woefully inadequate, and while Kurt will make good on the return and replacement, that's a PITA. Good luck w the Mrs.
 
You might want to check my thread about Agile.

Bottom line, the guitar was sold a month ago cause of 3 reasons:
1. I noticed I don't paly it much as I do all low B tuning (when I need) over the Axe and it's enough and sufficient for live.
2. The pickups were not so good, after the honeymoon phase was gone, I started deeply compering and checking my sound with the Agile and it was not clear enough and since I didn’t play it so much, I decided I'm gone skip the pickup replacement option and just sell it.
3. I had to finance a JP15. :eek:

For the $$$ it cost, it’s a good deal, especially if you are located in the US.
 
My buddy has several, decent guitar specs for a decent prince but honestly not that high quality. Not bad but not great. He bought one of their 7 strings since he didn't want to drop a lot of money on say a ibanez one before he knew he would like a 7 string.

Also their custom shop is cheap and aesthetics wise, you can get what you want for alot cheaper than other brands.
 
My wife is from Boston, and each year we spend a week plus at her parents home up there. I find that I long to play a little during that week, but there were no guitars in the house.

I decided to buy a cheapo guitar that I could just leave there and play when I visit. After some research, I settled on an Agile LP copy. I bought the guitar, unboxed it, and played it. Then played it some more. And kept on playing the damned thing. Three years later, I still haven't sent that guitar to my inlaws house.

That's the best endorsement I can give. It gets nearly as much playing time as my PRSi, my Fenders, and my Lester.

One thing to note: the pickups suuuck. Expect to eventually change them, or just budget for it up front. The $250 I spent on my Agile is some of the best spent money I've ever doled out. It is not the best guitar I own, or even my favorite. But it's a nice instrument that plays well, sounds good, looks good, and is comfortable. I'm very fond of it, and would not hesitate to recommend one to a fellow player, as long as you understand their shortcomings (which to me, is the electronics).
 
I had a few of them back when they first came out (2004ish), and looked closer to Gibson/PRS (Before they had to change the shape slightly).

They were nice guitars for the $200 or whatever they cost back then. Certainly a lot of guitar for the $$. I ended up selling them both after a few years though. A big part of that though was just bonding with the shape/feel overall. I would have done the same on a $2000 Gibson or PRS.

If they offered an Ibanez RG / ESP M-II type clone I would heavily consider getting another one. However, I dont really like any of their current Superstrat designs.

I did see a used 8 string Intrepid in the store a few weeks ago. It felt and looked great. I picked it up and got a wrist spasm from trying to fret the top string, but it sure felt like a quality guitar. Not for me though.
 
sprint said:
Here's mine. Stays in Tune really well and plays nice. The neck is quite flat which I'm not that fond of but that's me. I'm still looking for the right pickups. It weighs a tonne.

Click to expand...


I hope you got a good deal on that. It's frickin backwards!
 
I've got an AS-1000 (highend ES-335 clone) and love the hell out of it. I've also got a Septor Elite 730 and IMO it plays pretty well for what I paid (great guitar, it just doesn't get as much playing time as the AS-1000 at the moment). If you get a B-stock you can save yourself a bit of extra cash in exchange for a minor cosmetic issue. I think one of the reasons their prices are so low is cause they don't really advertise so it's not built into the mark-up.
 
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