Agile AX-2 Ghost

Looking through the ebay ads and saw some Agile guitars. I hadn't heard of them before so I did some searches and read a few reviews about them. It's hard to find lefty guitars in the first place, but Agile seems to have a ton of them, and all seem reasonably priced. The Ghost caught my eye, I like the Explorer styling so a quick email to RondoMusic (they seem to be the only distributor) and they had a white lefty in stock. With tax and shipping, it was about $230.00. I wasn't really looking for another guitar, but the price was too good to pass up. The service at Rondo was courteous and prompt and I had the guitar 3 days later.

Overall, I like the whole package. The white finish is well done and blemish free. There is a creme colored binding around the body and neck. The neck is smooth and the fret edges are very smooth.
The inlays on the neck are done better than the ones on my Les Paul. It plays nicely and has good balance. Plus, given it's size it's reasonably light. The intonation is good , but that too is adjustable if necessary.

It's kind of nitpicking to find dislikes but it does have a slight buzz on the low E when I hammer on it, but I'm sure I'll be able to adjust it out. It's not bad enough to worry about right now. The quality of the volume/tone knobs and 3-way switch seems to be pretty suspect but everything works and there's no scratchiness in the pots. I don't know how durable the switch will prove to be over time. The tone knob seems to function more like a warm/bright switch, not too much in the middle, kind of like my Strat......
The pickups sound is what I'll call "thin" but played through an effects processor or a modeling amp will fix you right up.

The instrument seems reasonably well made, it has a set neck, grover tuners, 2 humbucker pickups, a three way switch, 2 volume and 1 tone knob. The hardware is chrome and the nut is plastic.

Gibson and Jackson need not worry about this guitar cutting into their sales of Explorers and Kellys. The Ghost is not a replacement for mid to high end guitars. But it's not priced like one either. For 200 dollars you get a solid, well built, nuthin' fancy knock around guitar that is easy and fun to play. If you can get past the brand image thing, you can get a good value for your money on this guitar. For those of you with virtuoso abilities, spend the coin and get the high-end custom shop axes, but for the other 99% of us working hacks, the Ghost can be a fun addition to your collection.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com