JaySwear said:
anyway, if you're really in need of an LP and on that much of a budget i'd tell you to take that money to agile guitars. never owned one, but read TONS of positive reviews
I have an Agile AL-3000 here, and I'll tell you true: If you taped over the headstock so you couldn't see the name, it would be difficult to tell it from a Les Paul Custom. Give one of each to someone who knows those guitars well, and it's more likely they'll pick the Agile when asked which is the real Gibson. They're damn nice instruments.
It's no surprise, either. They both get their figured maple from Canada, and AAA, AAAA and AAAAA is what it is. They both have to import their ebony from Gabon or Madagascar, and are slaved to the same grading system. Gibson has to import their mahogany, while the Asians grow it domestically. Agile uses one-piece bodies on their higher-end instruments because of that, Gibson uses glue-ups. They both import their electronics from the usual suspects. Nobody here makes caps, pots, jacks, etc. - they're all from S.E. Asia somewhere, usually Taiwan, Singapore or Malaysia. They both use the same hardware, manufactured the same way in the same plants. A die-cast TOM and tailpiece is what it is. Nickel-Silver frets are Nickel-Silver frets, the size is what it is - Gibson supposedly Pleks their necks while Agile doesn't, but fret dressings are cheap, if they're even necessary. The one I have showed up very nearly perfect. All that's left is the finish, and I defy anyone to show me where the finish on a "real" Les Paul is better than the one on my AL-3000.
I've been dinking around with guitars since I was a kid 40 years ago, and I'm very familiar with not just Gibson, but many manufacturer's guitars. These Agiles are the real deal. The reason they get so much bad press is the same reason Bugera does: They're selling their wares on a cost-plus basis rather than by value. If it costs them $200 to make it, they mark it up 50% to the wholesaler, who marks it up 50% to the street, ending up round $400 (I'm just making numbers up, but that's probably not too far off). You can bet your left nut that if Agile was asking $3,500 for this model, as opposed to the $5,500 Gibson wants for theirs, nobody would be saying a word. But, they're selling them for $389.
A whole order of magnitude lower. To say that's a monkey wrench in the traditional musical instrument market with their massive margins would be the biggest understatement since America's involvement in Vietnam was referred to as a "police action".
It's somehow acceptable for Gibson
et al to buy hardware from overseas almost by the pound and sell it for outrageous 1000%+ markups, but if an overseas company uses those same parts doesn't follow America's abusive pricing policies, it's wrong. Same with the rest of the materials they use. It's also ok for Gibson to use CNC machines to cookie-cut bodies and necks all day long, but if somebody else does it, they're "cheaping out".
It's just nuts.
Anyway, my Agile's for sale if anyone's interested. Turns out I really just don't like Les Pauls <grin>
