Another Agile on Order....

[duhvoodooman]

TheFret is certainly sending a bunch of business Kurt's way these days. I've been looking at the black LP copies for some months, and finally pulled the trigger today on this:

http://www.rondomusic.com/product2717.html

http://www.rondomusic.net/photos/electric/al3000bk1.jpg http://www.rondomusic.net/photos/electric/al3000bk5.jpg

[MAXIFUNK]

TheFret is certainly sending a bunch of business Kurt's way these days. I've been looking at the black LP copies for some months, and finally pulled the trigger today on this:

http://www.rondomusic.com/product2717.html

http://www.rondomusic.net/photos/electric/al3000bk1.jpg http://www.rondomusic.net/photos/electric/al3000bk5.jpg


I can not wait to here what you think of that guitar.

[M29]

Good choice Vood congrats!!:happy Ya can't beat black, abalone and multilayer binding. Sweet!

[Bloozcat]

We're all such terrible influences on each other....:notme

We're like a bunch of alcoholic bar owners hosting AA meetings...:beer:

Can't wait to hear your review DVM :AOK

[sunvalleylaw]

Suhwwwweeeeeeett!!!

Congrats DVM! I know you worked for that one!

[Blaze]

Niiiiice ! U gonna rock the house with that one.. any upgrade intentions ?

Pics & Clips will be required...

[Spudman]

Nice inlays. I'll be interested in hearing from you what that one weighs.

[FrankenFretter]

Very nice, DVM. Those Agile's are hard to pass up at the quality and price. Mine comes tomorrow, and hopefully my Tube Screamer that you modded for me is to follow shortly. Congratulations!

[Tig]

We're all such terrible influences on each other....:notme
We're like a bunch of alcoholic bar owners hosting AA meetings...:beer:


That looks like a worthy signature!
:agree

Congrat's DVM on your most excellent purchase.

[Robert]

Cool, man - how many guitars do you have now? Spud has to watch out - his collection of git fiddles may soon be smaller than yours. Ouch, that would hurt...;)

[Tig]

Cool, man - how many guitars do you have now? Spud has to watch out - his collection of git fiddles may soon be smaller than yours. Ouch, that would hurt...;)

Ah, I can almost hear the DVM household...
"Just this one more guitar, dear... I promise!" :poke

[Kazz]

I can hear DVM telling Mrs DVM.....you know hon....each pedal has to have it's own guitar....really.....it does....it's the law.

[Ch0jin]

Woo nice! As a member of the gloss black guitar club myself, my first suggestion is to stock up on lint free cloth. Black carve tops seem to suck grime and fingerprints right out of the air!

I'd love to hear what this sounds like through your 18W......or did you go and buy a new Guitar before finishing that project. :)

[street music]

DVM that really is a great looking axe, can't wait to hear your report on that one.

[Blaze]

I can hear DVM telling Mrs DVM.....you know hon....each pedal has to have it's own guitar....really.....it does....it's the law.

:rollover :rollover

:notme

[oldguy]

Another nice purchase! Looks great, Vood. A black beauty will add to the Voodoo black magic I'm betting.:dude

[piebaldpython]

Sweet axe Vood. :applause

[Monkus]

Very nice....cant wait to read your review...:applause

[kiteman]

I had that guitar except for the wide profile. After three years of the weight I sold it.

It played well and I had EMG 81-60 in it. Also I replaced two knobs with the EXG and the afterburner.

[Perfect Stranger]

Beautiful guitar...congrats! I have a new Agile on the way myself...

[syo]

Beautiful looking guitar. Nothing like black. Congrats! :applause

[Bloozcat]

You ought to be getting that new Agile soon, DVM. New Hampshire to upstate NY, heck, they can practically throw it that far...:eek:

[duhvoodooman]

I ordered Friday and it didn't ship before day end, so should be going out today. Has a FedEx tracking #, but it doesn't come up yet on their tracking site. Maybe tomorrow?

[Bloozcat]

I tracked down where your Agile AL-3100 Bound Black Gold HW went, DVM....

From the Agile forum:

Quick update.

After having the guitar for a little I noticed there was a small fracture in the binding along the neck near the 2nd fret, probably there from installation.

Contacted Kurt and had a replacement sitting in my living room in two days! The replacement is flawless! It was also the last one in stock if I am correct, almost missed on that...
http://www.chumpysclipart.com/images/illustrations/thumbnail/3714_picture_of_a_man_dressed_like_sherlock_holmes .jpg

[Bloozcat]

Beautiful guitar...congrats! I have a new Agile on the way myself...

Which one are you getting, Perfect Stranger?

[M29]

Just in case I forget. One for the both of you.

:poke

:poke

[duhvoodooman]

I tracked down where your Agile AL-3100 Bound Black Gold HW went, DVM....

From the Agile forum:

Quick update.

After having the guitar for a little I noticed there was a small fracture in the binding along the neck near the 2nd fret, probably there from installation.

Contacted Kurt and had a replacement sitting in my living room in two days! The replacement is flawless! It was also the last one in stock if I am correct, almost missed on that...
http://www.chumpysclipart.com/images/illustrations/thumbnail/3714_picture_of_a_man_dressed_like_sherlock_holmes .jpg
Thanks, Sherlock! As it worked out, I think I'll probably be better off with the wide profile neck, anyway. I have a pretty beefy hand....

[duhvoodooman]

I just read 5 of my favorite words: "On FedEx vehicle for delivery" :dude :happy

[Monkus]

I can totally understand the anticipation DVM !!!


Beautiful guitar...congrats! I have a new Agile on the way myself...

:poke Which one did you get Perfect Stranger?

[duhvoodooman]

Got the FedEx tracking e-mail notification mid-morning that the guitar had been delivered. With nobody at home this morning, that left it sitting on my front porch until the middle of the afternoon--no good! Fortunately, I live close to work, so I shot home, brought it in the house, and snapped a quick bunch of preliminary pics:

http://www.duhvoodooman.com/miscimages/musical/AL-3000/AL-3000_case.jpg

http://www.duhvoodooman.com/miscimages/musical/AL-3000/AL-3000_case_open.jpg

http://www.duhvoodooman.com/miscimages/musical/AL-3000/AL-3000_in_case.jpg

http://www.duhvoodooman.com/miscimages/musical/AL-3000/AL-3000_in_case_2.jpg http://www.duhvoodooman.com/miscimages/musical/AL-3000/AL-3000_full.jpg

http://www.duhvoodooman.com/miscimages/musical/AL-3000/AL-3000_body.jpg

I inspected it (zero defects!) and plugged it in briefly, just to make sure everything was functional. From the very short amount of time I played it, it felt great and sounded just like an LP should. Might need a slight truss rod adjustment, but I'll let it stabilize for a few days before worrying about that. BC, you were right--that wide profile is one GREAT feeling neck! More to come....

[Monkus]

Looks super great DVM !!!!! now... time to get some fingerprints on her !!!!! :dude

[kidsmoke]

new shiny toy! Beautiful, and with that case, that's a great deal.

[M29]

What what! I come all the way over here and all I see is an empty case....... Oh I see it now :happy

Wow that is sweet Vood, the case is beautiful as well! Congrats :rockon Kick Out the Jams!

[Blaze]

:drool: :drool: Gorgeous axe it is...

Congrats Duhv..

[piebaldpython]

Sweet VOOD. Nice looking git and case. Have fun with her.

I'm mulling over another custom lap steel myself with killer pups......maybe a tele-style single coil in the neck and a tele-sized P90 in the bridge.

[Tig]

Veeeery nice guitar, DVM. I'm a sucker for black (3 out of my 4) guitars.
Now you get to play her through each of your amphs and discover her hidden voices.

[Bloozcat]

I'll bet this is one loooong afternoon at work there, DVM.

She's a beauty...a black beauty....:drool

I can't wait to hear what you think of the tone once you've had the chance to sit down and run her through all of your amps.

:AOK :AOK

[Katastrophe]

GAS building... reaching critical levels.... must not look... MUST NOT....


Too late. Gorgeous guitar, DVM! Congratulations, man.:AOK

[FrankenFretter]

I went with the black case for $10 less, but now that I see that pretty pink blanket that comes with the brown, I wish I'd thrown down that extra ten spot. Very nice, DVM. Any plans to mod her, or will you leave her as is?

[duhvoodooman]

From all I've read & the photos I've seen, I expected the AL-3000 to be gorgeous, beautifully constructed & a great value. But I wasn't expecting this $60 Douglas case (MIC) to be equally impressive, in its own way. The case that came with my Epi Elitist LP is a very nice one, but I have to give this one the edge. Very convincing rendering of the classic brown Gibson LP case....

[sunvalleylaw]

A hearty congrats DVM! It looks beautiful!!

[Spudman]

Cool guitar Voodoo. I like the position markers a lot. I'm real curious what it weighs when you get the chance. But what I really want to know is whether or not that plaid couch is in the man room? :poke

[msteeln]

I'm real curious what it weighs when you get the chance.They have a beautiful 'chambered' LP 2900 that I'm sure should be mine.

[duhvoodooman]

....I'm real curious what it weighs when you get the chance. But what I really want to know is whether or not that plaid couch is in the man room? :poke
1) 9.5 lbs.
2) No, that couch is in our family room.

[oldguy]

I really like like that basic black w/ jewelry look, Vood. Sexy guitar!
(If I ever get time enough from work, I'll post up some pics of my new one!)
:)

[duhvoodooman]

Not a proper review, but thought I'd just add a few comments after having the guitar for a bit over a week now:

Not that it's even close to being the most important thing, but I'm really impressed by the good looks and fit & finish aspects of this guitar. Really quite visually stunning, especially considering its sub-$400 price tag. Now on to the more critical stuff....

This is definitely one sweet playing guitar! I love this wide-profile neck, which is also quite slim, depth-wise. Pretty close to a "60's profile" on a Gibson LP, from what I remember. I have a pretty good-sized mitt, so the extra bit of width of the neck makes the fingering very comfortable.

The guitar is also very well set up, overall. Nice low action, very easy to play fast (well, at least as fast as I can play!) There is a very slight bit of string buzz back near the nut on a couple of strings, and sighting down the neck shows no discernible relief, so I think a small truss rod adjustment is probably in order. I think I'll wait until the weather warms up a bit more before doing that, though. This time of the year here in upstate NY, the temps and humidity swing around pretty wildly from day to day, as the cold, dry northern and warm, wet southern air masses duke it out for meteorological supremacy. I'd like a little more consistency in the ambient air before I make the adjustment.

The controls are smooth and solid feeling, and work flawlessly. I haven't popped the cavity covers in the back to look at them yet, but the product blurb at Rondo says that these are upgraded controls, and I wouldn't dispute that at all.

The one weak area of this guitar is the neck pickup. Though the bridge pickup sounds quite good, the neck definitely tends to muddiness, to my ear. So I've decided to make a change there. Taking the cue from some of Bloozcat's excellent info in that "Authentic PAF Clones" thread (http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=14728), I've been in contact with Kevin Taylor at Guitarforce Pickups (http://www.guitarforcepickups.com/products) re: a set of vintage-voiced humbuckers to replace the stock p'ups. Looks like I'll be going with a slightly overwound version of his Vintage '57 model in the bridge (Alnico 2 magnets), and a Lord of the Blues Alnico 4 type pickup for better clarity at the neck position. And he's still running the special $125 price for a set (not including covers or S&H) for MLP forum (http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/) members. I joined over there a couple of days ago....

So to summarize, I'm extremely pleased with the guitar overall. Just amazing quality and value at this modest price point! And when I get a new set of p'ups in it and tweak that truss rod, it should damn near reach perfection! :AOK :happy :rockon:

[FrankenFretter]

Not a proper review, but thought I'd just add a few comments after having the guitar for a bit over a week now:

Not that it's even close to being the most important thing, but I'm really impressed by the good looks and fit & finish aspects of this guitar. Really quite visually stunning, especially considering its sub-$400 price tag. Now on to the more critical stuff....

This is definitely one sweet playing guitar! I love this wide-profile neck, which is also quite slim, depth-wise. Pretty close to a "60's profile" on a Gibson LP, from what I remember. I have a pretty good-sized mitt, so the extra bit of width of the neck makes the fingering very comfortable.

The guitar is also very well set up, overall. Nice low action, very easy to play fast (well, at least as fast as I can play!) There is a very slight bit of string buzz back near the nut on a couple of strings, and sighting down the neck shows no discernible relief, so I think a small truss rod adjustment is probably in order. I think I'll wait until the weather warms up a bit more before doing that, though. This time of the year here in upstate NY, the temps and humidity swing around pretty wildly from day to day, as the cold, dry northern and warm, wet southern air masses duke it out for meteorological supremacy. I'd like a little more consistency in the ambient air before I make the adjustment.

The controls are smooth and solid feeling, and work flawlessly. I haven't popped the cavity covers in the back to look at them yet, but the product blurb at Rondo says that these are upgraded controls, and I wouldn't dispute that at all.

The one weak area of this guitar is the neck pickup. Though the bridge pickup sounds quite good, the neck definitely tends to muddiness, to my ear. So I've decided to make a change there. Taking the cue from some of Bloozcat's excellent info in that "Authentic PAF Clones" thread (http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=14728), I've been in contact with Kevin Taylor at Guitarforce Pickups (http://www.guitarforcepickups.com/products) re: a set of vintage-voiced humbuckers to replace the stock p'ups. Looks like I'll be going with a slightly overwound version of his Vintage '57 model in the bridge (Alnico 2 magnets), and a Lord of the Blues Alnico 4 type pickup for better clarity at the neck position. And he's still running the special $125 price for a set (not including covers or S&H) for MLP forum (http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/) members. I joined over there a couple of days ago....

So to summarize, I'm extremely pleased with the guitar overall. Just amazing quality and value at this modest price point! And when I get a new set of p'ups in it and tweak that truss rod, it should damn near reach perfection! :AOK :happy :rockon:

Good review, DVM. If you pop the control cavity cover, you should see Alpha pots in there (500k all around). Maybe you can identify those caps. My short vision isn't great, but at least I can tell they're not the cheapie ceramics.

I'm quite interested to know how you like the new pickups. I decided to go with GFS VEH (Vintage Exta Hot) pu'ps for my AL3000, but Guitar Fetish accidentally sent two neck pickups. They're sending out a bridge pickup today, so it looks like I'll have an extra neck pickup laying around.

I agree with you about the neck sounding a bit muddy. I do like the stock bridge pickup quite a bit, though.

I'm also a member at MLP. It's not as cozy as The Fret, but it's a good place to learn things if you're relatively new at LP ownership, like I am. Maybe I'll see you there!

[Bloozcat]

BTW, DVM; I was in a discussion on pickup magnet swaps at MLP and one of the posters there tried A-4's in both the neck and bridge positions in a pair of Duncan Seth Lovers. He said he liked the bridge for rhythm, but found it too bright for lead in his guitar. So, he kept the A-4 in the neck and swapped the bridge A-4 out for an A-2. He said it's now balanced with the right tone on each pickup. He was having a slight muddiness problem with the neck PU as well, which is what prompted him to try the magnet swaps.

[duhvoodooman]

BTW, DVM; I was in a discussion on pickup magnet swaps at MLP and one of the posters there tried A-4's in both the neck and bridge positions in a pair of Duncan Seth Lovers. He said he liked the bridge for rhythm, but found it too bright for lead in his guitar. So, he kept the A-4 in the neck and swapped the bridge A-4 out for an A-2. He said it's now balanced with the right tone on each pickup. He was having a slight muddiness problem with the neck PU as well, which is what prompted him to try the magnet swaps.
Cool. That's guy's experience is right in line with Kevin's recommendation, then.

[sunvalleylaw]

That is very interesting DVM and Bloozcat. I had been thinking that when I do get one, I might like to swap in Tone2theBone's old Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF bridge pup in, and get a P90 for the neck. I would guess a good P90 would clear up neck muddiness, but now I wonder if I would bother switching out the bridge. Any idea how the one that comes with the guitar might compare to my PAF?

[duhvoodooman]

That is very interesting DVM and Bloozcat. I had been thinking that when I do get one, I might like to swap in Tone2theBone's old Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF bridge pup in, and get a P90 for the neck. I would guess a good P90 would clear up neck muddiness, but now I wonder if I would bother switching out the bridge. Any idea how the one that comes with the guitar might compare to my PAF?
I would expect the stock Agile pickup to be a little less hot (i.e. lower output, lower resistance) than the DiMarzio. I measured the DC resistance on the Agile bridge p'up to be about 8.2K; I think the Virtual Hot PAF runs a little over 9K. Not a big difference....

BTW, if you want a P90 that fits a humbucker routing, here ya go:


SD Phat Cat (http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/electric/specialized/progressive/sph901_phat_cat/)

[Hardass blues]

I currently have 2 SX t-models and am really happy with them. They were on the same pages at Rondo music. I own many guitars including a 52 reissue P.R.S. a few gibsons ect... I was looking at the agile too. The Sx I have are good over all on the body finsih and fit. The only must have to change are the tuners. The stock pickups are ok. I have a sunburst model that I put a set of GFS Lil' Punchers in (with a Sprague .22 orange drop cap,2 500k push pulls for splitting and am very happy with the results. I truly went low budget ( i have as much into the pickups and wiring mod as i do in the guitar) on all of it and couldn't be happier. The other one is white with a p-90 and a typical single both stock from SX and sounds great just need to replace the tuners. Overall I recommend them highly for the price you can't beat it. The gibsons these days are crazy and fenders prices are rising. I am interested in the Squires with the Toneriders I keep hearing about though and, of course await your opinion on the Agile.

LOL! Had to edit this as I just read your review. Excellent. I was wondering what the controls looked like also. I have a hard time believeing "YOU" didn't open up that cavity cover! LOL! By the way still lovin' my Zonkin' yello screamer. Thanks again,John Henry

[duhvoodooman]

Here's a clip I recorded with the Agile AL-3000, bridge pickup, into POD Farm v.1.11 on my PC, then recorded with Audacity using the PC's stereo mix as the input. The POD Farm set-up was Line 6 Noise Gate --> Tube Drive --> Plexi Jump Lead --> Line 6 Compressor --> Line 6 Reverb Processor on "Medium Hall". Speaker emulation was a 4x12 cab w/ '96 Celestion Vintage 30's mic'ed off axis with an SM57.

The selection is the main theme in Joe Bonamassa's Django, which I really love and doesn't contain anything very fast, so I can actually keep up. Getting the bends to sound sweet & clean is the toughest part for me. Besides the obvious difference in the skill level of the player (!!), the tone here is much rawer than Joe's, because I wanted to show off how much cut the bridge pickup has on tap.

http://www.box.net/shared/a3y9fbaaso

[Blaze]

You got that Django theme right on Duhv..:applause

Sounds pretty good but i d prefer you plugged the Agile straight in an amp ,no Pod with your sm 57 to get the real thing ..Just my 2 cents..:AOK

[duhvoodooman]

Sounds pretty good but i d prefer you plugged the Agile straight in an amp ,no Pod with your sm 57 to get the real thing ..
Yeah, I agree with you. I used the POD Farm software because it's so quick & convenient. This was just something I just whipped off in a few minutes between dinner and buckling down to work on my income taxes! :eek:

[player]

http://www.fralinpickups.com/humbuckers.aspwas going to suggest these
but sounds like you have it covered well already.know someone replacing Humbucker pups with their Hum -cancelling P -90's listed here although like the PAF's myself.check out the video's

[duhvoodooman]

I ended up ordering a set of the Guitarforce "Lord of the Blues" humbuckers (http://guitarforcepickups.com/inc/sdetail/436), based upon further e-mail exchange with Kevin Taylor re: the kinds of music I play and the amps I use. Bloozcat sure loves his LotB set, so I expect I will, too. Kevin said about 3 weeks lead time, so should receive them by mid-month. The discount for MyLesPaul.com forum members was (and still is, AFAIK) in effect, so instead of $110 piece, I paid $125 for the pair. Also got a set of brushed nickel covers, so with those + shipping cost, the whole thing came to $162.50. Assuming they're as good as everyone says, that's a real bargain for handwound pickups....

[M29]

Nice job Vood, you nailed it!!

Congrats on the bucker selection. :AOK

[Tig]

Here's a clip I recorded with the Agile AL-3000, Besides the obvious difference in the skill level of the player (!!), the tone here is much rawer than Joe's, because I wanted to show off how much cut the bridge pickup has on tap.

DVM, that sounded great! You managed the bends really well.
Nice job!

[Bloozcat]

I ended up ordering a set of the Guitarforce "Lord of the Blues" humbuckers (http://guitarforcepickups.com/inc/sdetail/436), based upon further e-mail exchange with Kevin Taylor re: the kinds of music I play and the amps I use. Bloozcat sure loves his LotB set, so I expect I will, too. Kevin said about 3 weeks lead time, so should receive them by mid-month. The discount for MyLesPaul.com forum members was (and still is, AFAIK) in effect, so instead of $110 piece, I paid $125 for the pair. Also got a set of brushed nickel covers, so with those + shipping cost, the whole thing came to $162.50. Assuming they're as good as everyone says, that's a real bargain for handwound pickups....

Did you order the A-4 neck/A-2 bridge combo you were talking about getting, or the straight A-4/A-4 set, DVM?

[duhvoodooman]

Did you order the A-4 neck/A-2 bridge combo you were talking about getting, or the straight A-4/A-4 set, DVM?
Kevin came back and asked me for more info on my amps & musical styles I prefer to play and changed his recommendation to the straight LotB A4 set, rather than the A2/A4 mix. So that's what I went with. Actually, I was happy he changed his recommendation, because I had listened to that audio clip on his site with the Vintage 57 and LotB back-to-back, and preferred the latter.

[Bloozcat]

Kevin came back and asked me for more info on my amps & musical styles I prefer to play and changed his recommendation to the straight LotB A4 set, rather than the A2/A4 mix. So that's what I went with. Actually, I was happy he changed his recommendation, because I had listened to that audio clip on his site with the Vintage 57 and LotB back-to-back, and preferred the latter.

Using the Vitamin Q caps your tone controls should be really responsive with these pickups - most notably on the bridge pickup. The change in tone can be subtle or more pronounced with just slight tweaks of the tone pot.

Both sets of pickups sound great on the Guitarforce site, but there is that extra tone, a kind of hollow "caw, caw" tone that sounds like it's coming right off the pick as the strings are plucked. It's there with the A-4's but not there with the 57's. Not a better tone, just a different tone. But, it's that je ne sais quoi, that indescribable quality that you just know when you hear it. I first heard it in the Wagner "Fillmore" pickups, then in the Sheptone 'Blue Sky's". The LOTB have that same tone, but at a much lower price.

Edit to add: Sound clips for these pickups are hard to find, but here's one from You Tube. The first half of the video is a Reverend Roundhouse Humbucker with LOTB pickups:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l7MgNRRh6Y

[duhvoodooman]

Both sets of pickups sound great on the Guitarforce site, but there is that extra tone, a kind of hollow "caw, caw" tone that sounds like it's coming right off the pick as the strings are plucked. It's there with the A-4's but not there with the 57's. Not a better tone, just a different tone. But, it's that je ne sais quoi, that indescribable quality that you just know when you hear it.
Good description! You've expressed it better than I could have. It's exactly that "extra tone" that jumped out at me and reminded me of the sound of my British blues heroes of the late '60s and early '70s. Not to mention a few other LP-meisters (Allman, Gibbons, etc.).

Hey, there's a marketing slogan for Kevin!

"Guitarforce 'Lord of the Blues' humbuckers....nowwith JNSQ!"

[Ch0jin]

"Guitarforce 'Lord of the Blues' humbuckers....nowwith JNSQ!"

You did make me laugh, but isn't that really about the same as saying "now with extra mojo!"

Just curious DVM and Blooze, any chance you have compared these lord of the blues 'buckers with say, SD SH1 and SH4's in a LP?

[duhvoodooman]

You did make me laugh, but isn't that really about the same as saying "now with extra mojo!"
Pretty much! I swear to God, if I read one more description of an effect, amp, pickup, etc. with "mojo", I'm gonna puke.


Just curious DVM and Blooze, any chance you have compared these lord of the blues 'buckers with say, SD SH1 and SH4's in a LP?
I haven't. But BC is the "da man" on these pickups....

[Bloozcat]

You did make me laugh, but isn't that really about the same as saying "now with extra mojo!"

Just curious DVM and Blooze, any chance you have compared these lord of the blues 'buckers with say, SD SH1 and SH4's in a LP?

Well, if they're "boutique" pickups shouldn't the tag line be in French as well? ;)

I have not tried the SH-1/59 model in the bridge position of any guitar, but that's the model I just replaced in the neck position of my new AL-3100M Agile. IMHO, the Duncan was too dark and somewhat "boomy" in that position. It's nowhere near as articulate as the LOTB neck pickup.

The technology for producing good quality production pickups is so wide spread today that a stock Agile Alnico-5 neck humbucker from an AL-3000/3100 can equal or even surpass that of a Duncan production pickup in certain applications. The Agile pickup just sounded clearer and better balanced than the Duncan SH-1 neck pickup in my limited test. I never expected that this would be true, but having had the opportunity to try both out in the same Agile guitar (my older LP-2800 DLX Agile), I could draw no other conclusion. This certainly does not mean that in all applications the Agile humbucker would be the superior choice. It just is the case in this application (and the AL-3100M as well, but that was between the Duncan and the LOTB pickups).

I'm certainly not trying to disparage Duncan pickups. I've heard many an LP that sounded great with a set of the '59's in them. It's all about what works in your particular guitar that matters.

Heck, if I could get the tone I was looking for out of a set of Genuine Organic Manure Brand pickups, I'd probably be singing their praises as well. And I'll bet that DVM could come up with the appropriate marketing slogan for them as well... :D

[duhvoodooman]

Heck, if I could get the tone I was looking for out of a set of Genuine Organic Manure Brand pickups, I'd probably be singing their praises as well. And I'll bet that DVM could come up with the appropriate marketing slogan for them as well... :D
"Genuine Organic Manure Brand pickups. Great tone! No sh*t!"

I hear their production line is 30 feet long and winds back & forth on itself. And the shipping dock has a canvas cover with a large elastic orifice where the product comes out....

[Bloozcat]

See? I knew DVM would come through...!

Now all we have to do is make the pickups! They don't have to be good. If anyone complains, we'll just say, "It's manure, what did you expect?"

[Swampy]

I ended up ordering a set of the Guitarforce "Lord of the Blues" humbuckers (http://guitarforcepickups.com/inc/sdetail/436), based upon further e-mail exchange with Kevin Taylor re: the kinds of music I play and the amps I use. Bloozcat sure loves his LotB set, so I expect I will, too. Kevin said about 3 weeks lead time, so should receive them by mid-month. The discount for MyLesPaul.com forum members was (and still is, AFAIK) in effect, so instead of $110 piece, I paid $125 for the pair. Also got a set of brushed nickel covers, so with those + shipping cost, the whole thing came to $162.50. Assuming they're as good as everyone says, that's a real bargain for handwound pickups....

Hey DVM, do you have an update on those LotB pups with JNSQ? :french New clips? :DR Like 'em, Love 'em, can't live w/out 'em?

[duhvoodooman]

Funny you should ask--I just got them installed in the Agile this past weekend.

How do they sound? Quite incredible! I've never owned/played through this class of humbucker. Beautiful rich tone, with that distinctive PAF midrange when overdriven. And the clarity is just amazing--especially on the neck pickup, since so many 'buckers tend to sound muddy there. I've owned several of the "big name" mass-produced pickups (Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio, etc.) and they are very good, but these are a step beyond. I can definitely see why people pay premium prices for high quality, handwound pickups, and feel very fortunate to have gotten such a bargain on these ($155 for the pair, including brushed nickel covers at $15 each).

No audio clips--been too busy with various projects & commitments to fool around with that. Hey, sue me...