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tjon901 « Low end Agile LP still better than some Epi's »
Published on 07/04/11 at 08:57Agile is a Korean guitar maker that has been making a name for itself in America recently. Its vendor in America is rondomusic and they really listen to their customers. The guitars they put out are high quality and nearly factory direct prices. Because they are not official copies the body design has to be slightly different than the Gibson it is based off of. The lower horn on the guitar is slightly smaller. The AL2000 is the lowest in their line of Les Pauls but the quality is still good. The Agile AL-2000 is a Korean-made solid mahogany LP shaped guitar. It includes a maple-top with a bound body,and neck. The neck is mahogany with an rosewood fretboard. The fretboard has distinctive creme inlays. It has 22 jumbo frets on the rosewood neck. It comes with two ceramic humbucking pickups which provide a nice crisp tone. I would say they are medium output. The controls are standard LP fare with two volume and two tone controls.
UTILIZATION
The guitar basically plays like a Les Paul does. The neck is a bit bigger than on most modern guitars but it is not super big. In the 50s the necks on Gibson guitars were huge. They were commonly referred to as baseball bat necks. In the 60s Gibson switched to a slimmer profile. This slimmer 60s profile is the most popular neck profile on Gibsons and it is found on most Gibsons and Epiphones today. This guitar has the 60s profile. The upper fret access on this guitar is typical for every Les Paul. Since the body joins the neck at the 17th fret you will have to reach around the body of the guitar to get to frets higher than this. This strong joint helps with tone and sustain but limits upper fret playability greatly. The neck binding on this guitar and generally helps to limit the amount of sharp fret ends you feel when playing. This guitar will give you a real Les Paul feel.
SOUNDS
This guitar gets some decent rock sounds. The pickups and electronics are not great so you will probably need to do a pickup swap in the future to get the full potential out of the guitar. The pickups are ceramic but they are not very hot. They can also get a bit muddy in the sound. The neck pickup can get a nice smooth sound but with too much gain it can get muddy also.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a good first guitar for a small Les Paul enthusiast. You can get use to the Les Paul feel without paying big bucks. The quality on this guitar is much much better than an Epiphone of the same price. An Epiphone of the same price wont have any binding and will probably have bolt on neck construction. This is what the real Les Paul feel. This guitar is built the same way as a Les Paul with the same kind of woods. This is what you want if you want a 200 dollar Les Paul.
UTILIZATION
The guitar basically plays like a Les Paul does. The neck is a bit bigger than on most modern guitars but it is not super big. In the 50s the necks on Gibson guitars were huge. They were commonly referred to as baseball bat necks. In the 60s Gibson switched to a slimmer profile. This slimmer 60s profile is the most popular neck profile on Gibsons and it is found on most Gibsons and Epiphones today. This guitar has the 60s profile. The upper fret access on this guitar is typical for every Les Paul. Since the body joins the neck at the 17th fret you will have to reach around the body of the guitar to get to frets higher than this. This strong joint helps with tone and sustain but limits upper fret playability greatly. The neck binding on this guitar and generally helps to limit the amount of sharp fret ends you feel when playing. This guitar will give you a real Les Paul feel.
SOUNDS
This guitar gets some decent rock sounds. The pickups and electronics are not great so you will probably need to do a pickup swap in the future to get the full potential out of the guitar. The pickups are ceramic but they are not very hot. They can also get a bit muddy in the sound. The neck pickup can get a nice smooth sound but with too much gain it can get muddy also.
OVERALL OPINION
This is a good first guitar for a small Les Paul enthusiast. You can get use to the Les Paul feel without paying big bucks. The quality on this guitar is much much better than an Epiphone of the same price. An Epiphone of the same price wont have any binding and will probably have bolt on neck construction. This is what the real Les Paul feel. This guitar is built the same way as a Les Paul with the same kind of woods. This is what you want if you want a 200 dollar Les Paul.