Agile Harm 3 Semi-Hollow 12

This electric 12-string has a semi-hollow mahogany body, 3 mini-humbuckers with 5 way (strat-stle) switching, 22 frets, ebony fingerboard, Grover tuners, bone nut, and Les Paul style bridge.

One feature that I'd like to see changed is the string order of the doubled string. On Rickenbakers 360/12's the high octave string is located below the low string. This guitar follows the more conventional 12 string convention of putting the high string above the low string. It's a preference thing I suppose, but as this guitar was clearly inspired by the 360/12, it's a detail I wish was implemented here. I plan on replacing the nut in the future and correcting this mistake.

This is capable of sounding remarkably like a Rickenbaker 12-string at a fraction of the cost. The pickups exhibit some hum, but nothing that should be problematic as if you're considering buying this, you're probably not looking to play any high gain metal through it. It does that classic Byrds sound (Mr. Tambourine Man, Eight Miles High) very well, and playing R.E.M.'s "So. Central Rain" through this thing will impress anyone within ear-shot. I've also been able to nail The Who's "Can't Explain" tone with this. It exhibits a lot more low end than the Rick 12-string sound you hear on The Beatles "Ticket To Ride" (watch out, they were tuned down a half step on that track), though that could be due to recording techniques than the instrument itself.

Pros: The finish on the body is excellent and the neck is set perfectly. The cream colored trim looks great as well.

Cons: The pickguard is chrome, which just looks terrible, and is made of poorly cut, cheap looking plastic (remove the pickguard and the poorly cut edges could be used as a weapon they're so sharp). A cream pickguard would have looked great, whereas the chrome just looks gaudy and cheap. The nut is black and the string slots seem very poorly cut. A vintage cream colored bone nut would have matched the trim much better, and made this guitar much classier looking. There are no fretboard inlays at all. That's not a huge deal, but would definitely have looked great on this guitar and been appropriate in keeping with the classic body shape. The lack of inlays creates a wierd inappropriate modern look to the neck of an otherwise classic looking guitar.

The setup was poor out of the box. The strings were way too low to prevent them from buzzing, and the pickups were way too close to the strings. I immediately raised the bridge and adjusted the pickup height to more suitable settings. Adjusting the pickups made me realize that they don't feel securely held into place, and the screws that position them feel quite cheap.

The knobs don't turn particularly smoothly, and the strings are definitely on the cheap side.

My advice: if you're going to buy this guitar, spend some time and money getting it modified to your liking.

The body, overall finish and neck all feel like they'll stand the test of time and look great. That's perhaps the most important aspect of a guitar in this price range IMO, and Agile did not scrimp at all on the body and neck.

The tuners, though Grovers, allow a little more slipping than I'm used to as tuning is not retained particularly well (perhaps due to the additional neck tension that having 12 strings vs. 6 adds).

I do get the feeling that some of the hardware will need to be replaced at some point.

Bought from Rondo Music (does anyone else even sell this), and Kent was very responsive to my inquiries, always getting back to me within 24 hours. The information he provided held true.

My overall opinion of this guitar is such: it produces exactly the sound I wanted, but corners appear to have been cut in some places to save money, and some bad design decisions were made. Luckily, none of the bad can't be undone. As a "base" guitar for future mods, this would serve any fan of jangly guitar tones with a good guitar tech very well. After all, at this price, spending a few hundred extra dollars having this modified would A) turn a good electric 12-string into a great one and B) still be a lot cheaper than a Rickenbaker 12-string while sounding very similar.

This instrument has a very nice feature set well above what
you would expect in this price range. Grover machines and
an EBONY FINGERBOARD. Unheard of for such an inexpensive
guitar. The body is a cool shape possibly designed from the
Rickenbacker 12 string shape though this guitars body is smaller
over-all. Everything is painted so I really can't tell what
quality wood was used or even is it is a maple neck and a mahogany
body as advertised, but given the quality of the rest of the
guitar I'll bet they are telling the truth about the wood

The 3 mini humbuckers work very well and the five position switch
gives lots of tonal options. Plugged into my black face princeton
it sounds about what you would expect and electric 12 to sound like.
The neck pickup is full and the bridge pickup is brassy. I like the
2nd and 4th positions quite a bit as well. As nice as it sounded in
my various fender amps (64 bandmaster, blues jr, 63 champ) it really
sounded awsome through my line 6 pod xt into the console. Clean,
clear, exceptional...I can't wait to record with it.

Played really well right out of the box. Had to be tuned up but
doesn't everybody ship tuned a whole step down?? I was expecting to have to do a set up but everything was right on. I'm an intonation
freak and was concerned that this thing only had a six saddle bridge.
I put it on the tuner and everything was right as it should be.
When you discuss a guitar from the Pacific Rim the expectation is
that the paint job will be great but the other aspects may suffer.
I looked this guitar over very carefully and could find no faults in
the finish or the work-manship

I would not hesitate to play it live. The hardware seems really
good but I've only had it a few hours. I would use it as my main 12 string with out question

I don't know the details of the warranty. I don't usually
do this but I bought it over the web without even playing it.
I felt good about the vendor because I live in NJ and growing up
we bought everything from Rondo Music in Union NJ. Before
the big chain stores came to town and killed the small
business man with the local store. I feel confident that
rondo would step up if there were some kind of real problem
with the guitar

I've been playing for 33 years. I have a vintage strat, a vintage tele
acoustics, re-issues etc. I'm a full time musician teaching and
producing bands in my studio. I've played over 1,000 bar gigs etc.
This is a real nice guitar. I used to own a 67 fender electric 12 and
this plays and sounds better than that did. I love the look, though
I think I will make a white pick-guard to replace the chrome-look guard that came on the guitar. It plays great, it sounds great, I ordered it at 10AM on Monday and it arrived at 2PM on Wednesday. I recently watched a dvd of A Hard Days Night and started researching the ric 12 but they are 5 times the money and everyone told me the necks are too small. Like I said earlier I never just buy without playing it first but after reading reviews of this and other Agile guitars, and with a 30 day return policy, I had nothing but the shipping cost to loose. Needless to say, I won't be sending it back.