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View Full Version : Agile AD-3000M Review Part I



Bloozcat
January 20th, 2009, 09:47 AM
The AD-3000 I ordered came in last Friday as promised, and after three days of playing it and inspecting it with the magnifying glass (literally!), here's my thoughts:

Guitar: Agile AD-3000M
Double cut LP style with a solid mahogany body, one piece mahogany neck, and a 3/4" flame maple body cap.
Two Alnico humbucker pickups, two volume pots, two tone pots, three way toggle switch.
Grover tuners.
Tribal Blue finish
(See Rondo site for a complete description)

First Impressions Out of the Case: The first thing that hit me as I unsheathed the guitar from its thin foam packing sleeve was how beautiful a guitar it is. The rich blue color and unique flame pattern is quite striking at first glance. The naturally finished edge of the maple top is a perfect counterpoint to the blue finish and accents it nicely. The finish is a high luster that adds depth and luster to the wood.

Closer Inspection: The next thing I did was to visually inspect the guitar from the top of the headstock to the body strap button, looking for any obvious or damage that may have occurred. After I was satisfied that the guitar hadn't been damaged in shipping, I then began a more detailed inspection. First off, I looked at the alignment of all the hardware. The pickups and rings were properly installed. They were squared to each other and properly aligned with the straight axis of the neck. The bridge and stop tail piece were likewise set properly. I had an immediate concern about the bridge location as I had read two other reviews where the bridge was mis-located too far from the nut, and all the bridge saddles were set at their forward most settings in an attempt to compensate (and apparently not far enough for proper intonation). No such problems with this guitar. The bridge was set with the saddles at mid-range in their travel, and the intonation was pretty close to dead on. The string path was true with proper distancing from high and low E strings from their respective neck edges. All of the control knobs were set as straight as possible given the contours found on a carved top guitar. The selector switch was solidly mounted (although slightly turned - no biggie), as were all the other pieces of hardware. The cavity/switch covers on the back of the guitar were all properly fitted with a slight, uniform gap around the edges and a reasonably flush with the body fit. The tuning keys were all properly aligned and tight. The nut that came on the guitar is black in color and advertised as graphite, but is in reality, a black Tusq nut. I prefer a Tusq nut over graphite on fixed bridge guitars, and it's second only to real bone as my favorite nut material. I find Tusq to be so close to bone in tone as to be virtually indistinguishable. The ebony fret board is uniform with no blemishes or open pore gaps. The color is also a very uniform medium dark black (although it appears to be enhanced with a blackening dye). The trapezoid inlay is real abalone and is very well installed. It took a magnifying glass to see any gaps and the use of filler was both minimal and acceptable. I've seen US made Les Pauls that are far worse. At the very edge of the fret board where it meets the body, there is some very slight chipping, but again, this was only visible through the magnifying glass. There is no neck binding on this guitar, but the ebony fret board edges are straight and clean. I can't say that I'm disappointed by the lack of neck binding as it's usually only plastic anyway and doesn't contribute to or enhance the playability of the neck anyway. Besides, on this guitar it would look out of place.

Body Woods, Fit and Finish: Completely satisfied with the close inspection, I turned to the actual wood used for the body and neck, and the finish applied to the guitar. The body is made of three pieces of mahogany. The pieces are not particularly well matched in grain pattern and color, and more noticeably, not joined in a straight line with the straight line neck axis of the guitar. The joints are at a noticeable angle. The two outside pieces of mahogany are close in grain and color, but they sandwich a piece of mahogany that is lighter in color and different in grain pattern. Although this could have (and should have) been matched up better, the rather dark blue color of the paint used on the back of the guitar hides it to a great degree. I had to inspect the body in bright sunlight to even see that it was in fact, a three piece body. Given that the back of the guitar is rarely seen anyway, it's something I'm not going to lose any sleep over. The mahogany neck wood is pretty well obscured by the dark blue finish as well, so nothing really to say there.

The maple top of the guitar is quite beautiful to see. The pattern of the maple top is flame, but it differs greatly from most flame finishes I've seen. With most flame finishes, the striping is quite narrow and well defined. The maple on this top is much more of a tiger stripe with the striping much more irregular in its pattern. It's almost like a cross between traditional flame and quilt in appearance. It's quite striking, IMHO. The only area where it looks a little sloppy is where the two pieces join at the center. The line that normally forms there on a regular flame pattern is usually very tight and well defined. On this guitar, it’s wider and more flowing without the straight edge seen on most flame. Again, this is more like a quilt, but it certainly doesn't come off as badly matched or wrong.

The paint/clear finish on the guitar is evenly applied with no blemishes that I could find...anywhere. I thought this was most unusual as there's almost always a blemish somewhere. There was no bleeding of the blue finish onto the naturally finished maple top that forms the edge of the body (erroneously called "binding") by Rondo. There are no scuff marks, no gouges, and no excessive swirling in the finish (although being the anal retentive type I am, I'm going to rub it out with a swirl remover...:rolleyes: ). The only blemish I found was at the very tip of the headstock on the face, where the blue finish appears worn off in a spot ( I need to take a better picture to show it up close). I don't know why it is, but I've seen three other AD-3000M's with the same blemish. Must be some procedure they're doing at the factory that causes this.

Playability and Tone: The guitar came with the action set exactly as I like it. Not only are the strings set to my liking, but the neck relief is also, with little bow. The intonation is pretty darn close too, but I'll check that on my Peterson strobe tuner when I change the strings. The guitar came with D'Adarrio strings (my favorites), but the guitars must sit awhile with the strings on them as they are tarnished enough to turn your finger tips black when you play. So my initial impressions on the tone of the guitar will only be enhanced with new strings most likely.

The combination of the medium/thin neck contour and the string setting make for a very fast action. My hand glided effortlessly over the fret board. I used my Agile 2800 DLX as a side-by-side comparison for the playability and tone testing, and although I like the 2800's thicker neck a lot, I found the neck on this AD to be faster and easier to play. The acoustic tone of the AD was resonant and full with a bit of brightness to it as compared to the 2800 was slightly darker. Sustain was great on single notes and chords alike. Just about what I expected of a guitar with a mahogany body and a thick maple cap.

After tuning both guitars with the Peterson strobe, I plugged the AD into my Epi Blues Custom 30, which had been warming up at idle for about 15 minutes. I chose the clean channel first and set the EQ for a rich, deep clear tone with slight reverb added. The pickups on this guitar are surprisingly articulate with single string note definition clean, clear, and resonant. The pickups responded well to varying pick attacks, and rhythm parts were clear and full as well. I switched over to the lead channel and set the EQ for a classic/hard rock tone. The combination of the body woods and pickups produced a really nice snarling lead tone that was purely Les Paul. There was nothing mushy, or undefined about the tone. Every note (and every mistake!) was picked up and punched out of the amp. A slight roll off of the volume produced a nice crunchy rock rhythm. With some tweaking of the amps EQ, I dialed in a nice warm and slightly crunchy blues tone. Each pickup combination produced the same results with each displaying the characteristic tones you'd expect of an LP. Surprisingly, my Agile 2800 DLX with Rio Grande pickups didn't sound as articulate as the stock Agile pickups in the AD, and even more surprisingly, didn't rock out as well either (something the Rio's are known for). It's an apples and oranges comparison I know, but surprising none-the-less. The selector switch (a three-way import toggle of very good quality) was easy to manipulate and switching was quiet with no popping noises. The volume and tone pots (Alphas) worked smoothly and evenly.

The FREE Hard Shell Case: No complaints here either. The case is well made, has decent padding, and is a nice medium brown color. It's as good as any case I own, and better than some. The AD fits in it like a glove so no worries with the guitar bouncing around as it gets lugged from place to place. The fact that the price of the guitar was lowered by $20.00 and this case thrown in free, made for an exceptionally good deal.

End of Part I
(See Part II Next)

Viking Power
January 22nd, 2009, 12:32 PM
Thanks for the highly detailed review! :beer: :bravo: Now I'm off to read part II!

Spudman
January 22nd, 2009, 02:05 PM
Awesome review Blooz. Thanks...but I'm still mad.:D

Bloozcat
January 22nd, 2009, 02:39 PM
Awesome review Blooz. Thanks...but I'm still mad.:D

Too bad you weren't closer Spud, I'd let you play mine. I'd probably have to watch you carefully so it didn't leave with ya' though....:D

Spudman
January 22nd, 2009, 06:37 PM
Too bad you weren't closer Spud, I'd let you play mine. I'd probably have to watch you carefully so it didn't leave with ya' though....:D

Thanks mate. :beer: There would be a very good chance we'd get into a serious arm wrestling match to see who gets to keep it though. She's a beauty (thanks Fee Waybil).

TS808
January 22nd, 2009, 07:48 PM
Congrats Blooz...those are sweet guitars....I bought one about two years ago and liked it so much I bought a second one.

They're not just great guitars for the money, but great guitars period.