Agile AL-2000

Yet another in the realm of seemingly endless LP knok-offs. Slightly different is that is is more like a Late '70s/early '80s Norlin-era LP, as it features a Maple neck in lieu of a Mahogany neck. Rosewood board, Mahogany body with a Maple cap. 2 HB pickups 2 vol. 2 tone 3-way switch. You know the usual.

You can do most any style with this, as LPs' are fairly versatile. So this does the Set-neck, Mahogany/Maple 2 Humbucker sound thing quite well. And there are always aftermarket pickups that will transform the stock sound to whatever you may be looking for. Mine is fairly balanced, maybe a wee bit on the bright side. I use an older Marshall combo and a newer (2000s')Peavey Studio Pro 112 for amplification purposes. The electronics work very well, and the stock pickups are quite impressive actually. Sound is always subjective, but for me being a household player it sounds very good.

Fit and finish are fantastic for a $200 git, and would still be great even if this cost $700. Fretwork is solid, no ragged edges and they are level. The only flaws I can find are the Agile logo is slightly off center, and so is the serial number on the back (both are beneath the finish, no just stickers). I guess we can just attribute that to it being "Hand-Made". Just think, if a couple of G-Brand or F-Brand gits got out of the shop that way back in the golden era, guys would be scouring the earth and paying un-godly ammounts of cash for those "treasures". And you know the "G" and "F" custom shops would be pimping limited edition "Off center logo" models for $5k+ ! The set-up was decent out of the box, I just lowered the string height to my taste. It plays great now, but I bet a pro set-up would make it even better. But no complaints out-o-the box.

Nicely applied/fairly thick finish (mine's a Goldtop). Durable as long as you don't beat the crud out of it. The guitars from Rondo look much better than the pictures would indicate. High quality hardware, should be no problem to use thia as your only git (especially if you can only afford or carry 1 at a time). A very well made instrument.

Kurt at Rondo is 'da man! He'll jump through hoops to make sure you're satisfied.

I've now played for 20 years. I briefly played at the semi-pro level. Now, my band days are long behind, so I'm just a bedroom jammer. As the economy has kinda' tanked, I've sold off my high end stuff. I honestly had no need for the expensive stuff, as I don't play that well anyway. I've owned a couple of dozen G-Brand LPs', equally as many USA Strats/Teles, and many of the "Good" American brands. I've wasted a ton of money on high end gear over the years, and I can say that my playing/skill level has not justified any of those purchases (although I had fun). I don't play nor sound any better on this Agile than I have on any of the other expensive guitars. I also don't feel any less inspired to play on this budget "git" than I did on any of the other brands. I have been nothing short of amazed at the quality of the budget end instruments being produced today and this is a prime example. Believe the hype, these are that good.

Mine was hand crafted in South Korea ( that is what the back of the headstock says). The finish is Honey Sunburst (HSB) The finish is absolutely beautiful. It has a maple top with a mahogany body and a set neck. This a Les Paul copy and an excellent one at that. It comes with two volume and two tone knobs, waxed ceramic pickups, which are amazing really for the price of the guitar. It has 22 frets with trapezoidal inlays. All in all for the price it beats an Epiphone Les Paul Standard ( which I played at Guitar Center before I bought this). It also comes with Grover tuners which are awesome, I only have to tune once a week.

I play mostly hard rock and metal, this guitar will pretty much give you any sound or tone you want. I am running it through a Line 6 Spider IV ( yeah I bought the new model, very good amp. That is a different review!) I get no noise from the pickups and I am surprised really. The clean tones are awesome as well as distrotion. I would recommend this guitar to anyone but especially a beginner due the price ( 210.00 USD)

This guitar set-up sucked from the factory. My luthier was not happy with the truss rod, the action and the nut had to be filed. It sounds like a dream now. The pickups needed minimal adjusting. Everything lined up it just needed a major set-up, but for 35 bones it was worth it. The finish is flawless and everything lines up. Again the truss rod was whacked and the nut needed to be filed. Minor details, but they were there.

I have only had it a short while but it weighs like ten pounds and all the hardware is durable. I also take good care of my stuff so it should last forever. The finish seems like it won't wear. The strap buttons are excellent and very sturdy. I would definitely play without back up

I orginally ordered a different finish but it was sold out and Kurt from Rondo quickly replaced the the finish I requested in its place. Not only did he adjust my order quickly he also Fed Exed it instead of UPS like he normally does. I got it in like two days. Kurt is awesome, he will work with you.

I have only been playing a short while. I have an Ibanez GRX20 and when I bought this Agile you could immediately notice the difference in quality. This guitar so far is flawless and I LOVE it. If you are considering buying an Epiphone Les Paul, I would definitely check out the Agiles first. They blow Epi's out of the water. If it were lost or stolen I would buy it again in a heartbeat. The only thing I really do not like is the weight, it feels like it weighs a hundred pounds. But overall, an excellent value and I will buy another Agile. Probably the AL3000 next.

Grover tuners are great so this guitar stays in tune. I get no noise from the stock pick ups and no noise while adjusting the volume/tone controls (playing loud through an all tube amp). The finish is very good and so are all the woods used on this guitar. The frets did not need any filing, but I will checnge the strings since I prefer GHS strings for the past 20 years. Great first impression !

The sound of this Agile AL-2000 is very Les Paul meaning its warm and sustains forever (really does). I am playing through a Crate all tube V30 so its sounds awesome. This thing really likes playing tunes by Ozzy, Led Zep, and Guns N Roses (Yup Les Paul bands).

The setup came in really good, but like I said I will change the strings to my preferred GHS BOOMERS. CAn you believe the only complaint I have is the strings ha! This guitar is heavy, but that reflects in the sound which is awesome. Bottom back end had some scuff makrs from shipping, but I will never return this guitar its too good to be true.

I hate to repeat everyone else opinion, but this guitar is a tank (solid). I feel this thing will last a life time just like my 20 yr old G&L ASAT.

Hmm only experience is the ordering process and that was a breeze.

I have been playing for about 25 yrs and this guitar inspires me to play. I am use to playing strats, teles, and Les Paul and this is just as good if not in some ways better than them. I would buy another in a heartbeat. Great guitar, and service doing us musicians a favor actually.

This is a success story for Harmony Central -- I was all set to buy an Epiphone Les Paul, then I started reading all the reviews of the Agiles here, and rolled the dice on a guitar I'd never actually played.

2009 Al-2000 Les Paul clone, gold archtop, made in Korea. All features fit the word "clone" -- 3-way pickup selector, two tone/two volume knobs, dual wax-potted humbuckers (although if you prefer, you can get the same model with P-90s for $10 more), 22 jumbo frets, Tune-O-Matic bridge. Neck is thin and narrow, but not so narrow that leads on the low frets (E.G. surf, rockabilly styles) are difficult for big fingers.

Grover tuners, which are amazingly fine and precise. Hitting the sweet spot on a tuner has never been easier for me. And the guitar just plain stays in tune longer than most.

Body is three-piece mahogany, neck is maple, and I believe the headstock is a separate piece of maple, but only because others have said so -- the joint is invisible. The hefty, solid overall feel and extremely fine joint for the set-in neck give the AL-2000 the feel of being one big slab of wood. And it has the sustain to match.

At the same time, while it is heavy (many say heavier than Gibson or Epiphone LPs, although I think they all come in at right around 10 lbs even), it is very well balanced -- the headstock doesn't try to take a dive if you let go of the neck (a pet peeve of mine) and the weight seems centered right around my crotch. Maybe because I wear it a little low, but being balanced at my center of gravity is a very good thing for lengthy sessions.

Fretboard is rosewood with "pearloid" inlays. I take "pearloid" to mean "plastic," but that doesn't bother me. Typical trapezoids rather than the dots on some of even the lower-end Epiphones. No one would know they weren't mother of pearl from a foot away; however, I am envious of the top of the line Agiles which have abalone inlays -- they have a beautiful blue tint to them.

Absolutely no accessories, except for that damn allen wrench in a plastic baggie that nobody knows what to do with, and comes with every new guitar. I must have four or five lying around. I've heard both that they're to adjust the bridge saddles, which makes no sense on a Tune-O-Matic, or to adjust the truss rod.

If they're for adjusting the truss rod, they should come with the following warning, "NOTICE: If you do not own your own set of allen wrenches, you have no business messing with your truss rod."

However, I'd rather have this guitar with nary a pick or set of strings, to others which come with straps, picks, strings, tuners, speedwinders, practice amps and any spare bass players they could fit into the box.

I'm giving it an 8 for features, because it has every feature of a typical high-quality Les Paul, unless you insist on better wood (E.G. one-piece body, mahogany neck, ebony fretboard). But that's balanced by the Grover tuners; and the the pickups, which I was planning to replace and are not even on the agenda now. If the rating was "features for the price," this would be a 15 or 20.

Honestly, this isn't a "honeymoon" review. I've spent a couple weeks putting it through its paces, and do have a few minor flaws to point out later.

Perfect in the Clapton Cream-era "crying woman" lead mode -- neck PU, tone set to 0. That's one of my favorite lead tones, and a good test for my hearbones.

"Sustains forever" is a total cliche, so I'll just say "sustains for a really long time."

I have recorded a lullaby with it where it sounds almost like an acoustic, with just a hint of electric twang; and I have recorded a metal dirge which makes full use of its beefy, rip-your-spine-out chunking. This $220 guitar honestly sounds as good as any instrument I've owned, borrowed or played in my 30+ years as a musician.

It has all the tonal variety which LPs are famous for. And hey, you get to play killswitch. For that matter, if one must kanoodle, it has the sustain for fret tapping and such. This is a solid 10 -- and again, I'm using the stock humbuckers.

The guitar took a week to get from Kentucky to me, in Minneapolis. Here, it sat outside my door all day in 40F weather.

I brought it inside, unpacked it, and let it warm up a little. After all that transit, each string was almost exactly one half-step flat. (Again, go go gadget Grovers.)

Action was perfect -- fast, low, but no fret buzz anywhere. I was also planning on a pro setup and new strings, which proved totally unnecessary. Maybe I got lucky, maybe I had a good QC guy working the shift in Korea that day, but the setup was as if I'd paid $40 that day for one.

The most amazing part isn't even asked here: I've often said there's no such thing as perfect intonation. It's mathematically impossible. To demonstrate this, I hit the open string and the closed 12th fret like normal, but I also add the 12th fret harmonic in between, in rapid triplets. This usually makes slight intonation errors glaring. Not here. I was amazed at how dead-on every single string was.

The finish is mostly beautiful, but here is where perfection ends. There's a small but noticeable (to me) blemish about 2" below the tailpiece. Also, where the pickguard, body, body binding and neck binding all meet there is a small unfinished gap.

Finally, I thought it might be my imagination until I read another review with the same complaint, but two of the knobs lean slightly at an angle.

So, setup was a perfect 10, fit and finish around a 6 or 7. I'll give it an 8.

The thing is a tank. Even if I never play again, I'll hang onto it to fend off the hordes during zombie infestations.

No opinion, but Rondo has excellent feedback from their customers.

In fact, it appears to be so good that even I know the owner's name. Kurt. Researching the guitar before I bought, I'd see a few complaints, and there would always be responses from other customers saying, "Contact Kurt, he'll make it right."

I've been playing since '77. Caught up in the great wave of punk in the Twin Cities, which, like Cleveland, had a recognizable punk scene independent of NYC or London as early as '75.

I wasn't only interested in punk -- and my main bandmate (for the next couple decades) and I also became huge fans of British '60s music, which we saw as relating directly to our style of punk. Rather than the Stooges, MC5 and Blue Cheer, our influences were Lord Sutch, the Yardbirds and the Kinks.

That right there should explain some of my love for Les Pauls, or good clones thereof.

There are few guitars or basses I'd buy again without a second thought -- the sliding scale of quality vs. cost makes for some tough choices for any musician who's not rich.

But if the Agile broke (which seems highly unlikely -- this thing might outlive me) I'd replace it in a heartbeat. Even over the pricier models -- honestly, I'm happy with the pickups, the wood doesn't bother me and sure doesn't seem to hurt the guitar's tone. Them abalone inlays are pretty, but not $300 pretty.

I can't overstate this: $220 is a downright ludicrous price for an instrument of this quality. Snatch 'em up before good ol' Kurt wises up.

LP copy no more no Les.This is a review on two of them,aP90 goldtop and a humbucker tiger eye.The TE purchased used for $150,the GT from Rondo for $159 (I guess a B-stock).I think they're both 2006 models

Very good sustain and attack,but the humbuckers sucked.The neck was mud and bridge was loud but abrasive.The P90's were better but not great.I installed Duncan pups(Jazz-neck&Custom5-bridge),what a difference! I put JS Moore P90's in the goldtop,they are fantastic!! Both guitars now sound about as good as anything I've played.

Both guitars are solidly built but needed setups,minor fret work and the nuts needed cutting.This completely cured all buzz and intonation problems.I have all my guitars professionally setup,everyone should. The Tigereye finish is beautiful and the top was nicely bookmatched. The goldtop finish is also very nicely done,sparkly with a green tinge when viewed from the side.Much better than Epi's gold spray paint look. Both had very minor imperfections but for the money,I don't care,looks good from the front row.

Built like a brick ****house. If you break something it's your fault. The finish seems very durable and they stay in tune. I never gig without a backup,would you?

Never had a need for customer support,but I hear Kurt at Rondo is a good guy to do business with.

I've been playing since the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. Gear includes Paul Reed Smith,Custom Shop Gibson,ESP,vintage Fender and various others,so I know what good sounds like. With a little time and money you can turn one into a first rate axe,blows Epis away at half the price. would replace in a heartbeat.

Les Paul knockoff. Made in Korea, year uncertain -- 2003-2005 perhaps. 22 frets, 24 3/4" scale, beautiful 2-piece flamed B-grade maple top on a 3-piece solid mahogany body. Standard Les Paul configuration -- 2 humbuckers, 2 tone and 2 volume controls, and a 3-way pickup switch. Stop-tail bridge, surprisingly good Grover tuners. 2-piece Canadian maple thin neck with a rosewood fingerboard and jumbo frets.

Its features, while basic, are well done. If you like Les Paul style guitars, you'll like this featureset. If you expected a wealth of features, you're going to be disappointed. Also, you're nuts. It's $200.

My rig: Guitar -> Crybaby 535q wah -> Bespeco volume pedal -> Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner -> Digitech Whammy (in a true bypass loop) -> Boss Blues Driver -> Boss Metal Zone -> Digitech Digidelay -> Music Man 210-HD amp.

I'm not sure how it sounds from factory, since I got it used with a botched wiring job. But after having it rewired and getting a professional setup, something one should ALWAYS get on ANY new guitar, this thing sounds great.

The stock pickups are quite good -- no noise whatsoever, and very nice sound. The bridge pickup is pretty versatile, and as you move the tone knob it goes from very round and bassy to warm with enough treble for nice balanced-sounding leads or chord progressions. Sounds great clean, with delay, or with just about anything really. Crunchy Metal Zone chords work well too.

The neck pickup, on the other hand, really only has one sound, but it's a good one: a trebly bright lead, with varying degrees of brashness. How you play and the effects you use can stretch this one a bit, though. As they say, "the tone is in your fingers" -- and then there's the effects :P Through the blues overdrive, it sounds nice and bluesy. Turn on the Metal Zone and crank up the amp, and it'll scream. Perfect. I can only imagine how good it would sound with some high-output Seymour Duncans.

As for the middle pickup position, I find it quite redundant. In my setup, the bridge pickup with tone all the way up sounds plenty balanced. So to simplify things I had the 2 volume and 2 tone controls narrowed down to just one knob each, and the pickup selector moved to be with the other controls. Now it's just how I like it!

One small caveat: once while recording this guitar, my guitar teacher/mentor/collaborator pointed out that the bridge pickup was picking up the G string noticeably louder than the D string. He promptly handed me his Godin and said "Use this. Guaranteed to make you start saving." Yeah, okay. Point taken. Replace the pups or stick to live play -- but for live play, it's great.

To sum it up, this guitar is great for everything -- excluding, perhaps, the pro studio. It's very good for leads, but it can do rhythm too. I play in a 3-piece band as the sole guitarist, so it suits my needs perfectly. We play weird semi-jam-band instrumental 60s-ish blues rock with influences from prog, rock, early punk, classic British pop, and fusion. Despite the broad influences and tones in our music, I never feel like the guitar is deficient. Between my fingers, the pickups, and my effects, I find it can do everything I want it to.

Oh... and did I mention it's $200?

Can't comment on the factory electronics setup -- but the action, which the previous owner (aka "wiring idiot") didn't change, was good. All the hardware was properly attached, and the only flaw in the finish is a small (~1 mm) flake of metal beneath the finish about an inch below the bridge. Other than that, no issues. The neck joint is solid and the neck angle is correct. The frets are all properly filed, the nut is good, the stock knobs and switch work properly without noise, and the tuners are Grovers so obviously no problem there.

The guitar is actually quite beautiful. The blue flame finish on mine looks great, the chrome hardware is pretty snazzy, and I for one actually like the Agile headstock shape. Sure, this ain't a Paul Reed Smith, but it's very nice for what it is. The only reasonable complaint is about the little metal flake on mine, and that's something I doubt happens often. You could probably send it back for free if you got it like that straight from Rondo.

Also, it's $200.

This guitar is very durable. The body is HEAVY -- about 10 pounds -- and made of solid mahogany. It'll take a beating. Mine's held up perfectly. It's still exactly how it was after I got it set up -- and that was 2 years ago, playing it constantly since. The hardware has lasted excellently -- still no noisy pots, no looseness on the strap buttons. I will be using this live without a backup, and I don't worry one bit about it breaking.

All this for -- what was it? -- oh yeah: $200.

I send Kurt at Rondo emails now and again, asking about various things. He's always friendly and helpful. However, I've never tried any super complicated request maneuvers, so I'll just give him a solid 8. Rondo does have a much-praised return policy, though I have no experience with it: if you don't like it, you can send it back -- no problem.

This is a very impressive guitar for only $200. Notice a theme?! ONLY $200! It's an incredible bargain. In fact, it's really not "a nice $200 guitar" as much as it is "a nice guitar that happens to be $200." Its price does not define its quality. It's not laden with features, but do you expect it to be? How many features does a Les Paul need, anyhow? This is a no-nonsense guitar capable of a lot for very little money.

Harmony Central demands that I be as critical as possible, but there's really nothing reasonable to criticise. I could complain about lack of features (like what? coil tap?) but that seems absurd, especially with that price tag. Heck, I modified this guitar to be SIMPLER. Harmony Central classifies a 10 as "Fantastic value," and that's precisely what this guitar is. A 10 it is, then.

Case in point: I played a friend's Epiphone SG copy recently and it was a joke. It was so neck-heavy you HAD to actively hold up the neck to keep it from plummeting down to knee level. And guess what: it cost significantly MORE than my Agile.

Final important note: Rondo sells great guitars, this one included. If you're an experienced player and want ultra high quality and lots of refinement, save up a grand or two and get a Godin or PRS that suits you perfectly. But if you want a starter guitar that'll stay with you and be fun to play, a hot-rod project guitar, or even just a high-performing no-nonsense instrument, I highly recommend an Agile.

Good luck shopping, and have fun.

This has been gone over many times I'm sure, but typical stuff. 3-piece neck, solid 2-piece body, twin ceramic humbuckers, Grover tuners, etc. Mine is the CSB finish.

Overall, for the rediculous price of $200 that I paid for this guitar, it sounds great. I was fully expecting to be 100% underwhelmed with the pick ups, but they actually are not bad at all. The bridge isn't so warm, and the clean sound lacks some soul, but works great with a variety of overdrive effects, Tube screamer, Little Big Muff and Sobbat Driver Breaker 3 are what I usually use.

Neck pick up is much smoother sounding, and probably won't be replaced. The bridge is slated for replacement, but to give you an idea of how solid it sounds for the price, I bought the guitar back in April and it's still 100% stock, so it's not like I'm in that much of a hurry.

Well, it's obviously a $200 guitar. It has little bits and bobs that aren't 100%. First, the good: Overall the finish is fantastic, and the two top pieces of maple match quite nicely. The neck feels great, the frets are nice and not over long or sharp in any way (in fact it's much better than some of the entry level Gibson SG's and Les Pauls I've played) and it's weighted pretty nicely. Heavy, but not too heavy.

Now the bad: There is some over spray on some of the binding, the spot where the neck and the body are joined is a bit rough on the side, but none of this effects playability. The bridge is fine, but it is very, very tight and difficult to adjust for intonation. It will be replaced The one main thing that was a problem was the nut. It was way, way too high, and needed to be cut before the guitar was playable. So I suppose the main thing here is that you may need to have it professionally set up before it's worth anything...I don't think all of the AL-2000's suffer this problem, probably just the batch mine was in.

The pickup selector switch works well and without noise, and the instrument cable connection is also solid, and doesn't make noise or come loose.

So overall, considering the price it's not a perfect guitar, there are problems, but as a player's guitar, considering the price, it's a great buy. If not for the nut it would score higher.

Seems very stout. The tuners are Grover's and they stay in tune nicely, even way played quite hard (as I tend to play it). I'd imagine it's as durable as any other Les Paul style guitar.

Kurt was helpful and sent out another nut for the guitar since the first was not cut properly, but I ultimately just re-cut the original for proper string height. Every time I've emailed Kurt, whether inquiring about other guitars or with simple questions he emails back very, very quickly, usually by the next day.

I say this is a great buy as a player's guitar, for someone looking for a solid Les Paul style guitar to modify, or for a backup, or perhaps if you're looking to dip your toes into the Les Paul market. It's not perfect, but as a $200 guitar it's quite solid. A buddy of mine who is a much, much better player than I am was absolutely shocked at the playability and sound for the price. I'm considering a higher end Agile as my next guitar, probably an AL-3000 or 3100, if that tells you anything.

Ordered Via Web in Late November 2007, actually arrived Just after Christmas. Order early if you want it in time for the Holiday.

Go to RondoMusic.com to check out the features. Mine is Green Spalted. I was looking for a Guitar with a British Flag scheme for my son and found one on ebay, which directed me to Rondo's site. I ended up buying the AL2000 based on reviews I had read n Harmony Central.

Sounds great. I play mostly classic rock stuff and this guitar makes the noises that I need. I use Crate Amplifiers (I like their distortion).

Although I used to own an LP Custom from the late 70's (I'm 46yrs old), I am totally in love with older Yamaha SBG's and love how they play and sound. So that's the guitar I am using mostly for a comparison.

I love playing the Agile as much as my SBG's.

Action - I guess I was niave to think that the guitar would come perfectly set up from Rondo. My 'A' string buzzed like crazy and I couldn't get it to stop. So I asked Rondo to authorize a return and they gladly did. I specifically asked them to check to make sure the new guitar was set up, which the response was, "Do you realize how many guitars we ship out of here....?" So the answer was no, you will get what they send.

The replacement guitar had the exact same issue. But seeing the inherent qualities/possibilities with this guitar, This time I took it to a respectable Guitar Technician (WoodStock Guitars in Des Moines Washington - Stuart, great guy). He had to file down 5 frets and adjust the neck and action, do a little filing on the nut, and a new set of quality strings. Stuart is very reasonable with his prices so the whole set up and fret adjustments cost me about $120.

Finish - Actually looks great, a little bleed over from the green finish into the cream binding, but you have to look close.

Fit - It's a heavy guitar, but I like that. In the late 70's I used to have a LP Custom (hawked at a pawn shop to stay in college, only to drop out ...big mistake, wish I still had that guitar!) But it feels like an LP and plays (now that it has been adjusted) every bit as good as my LP did.

I gave this category a 6 because of the action, but maybe I was expecting too much for a $225 guitar.

I've only had it 8 months and I'm not a pro, but have played a couple of times on stage and this guitar is solid, but I can't speak for it's long term durability.

Overall, it is built like a tank, very sturdy. But hey, it was $225 and after the intensive setup, $325. Would take this over any Ephiphone and most of the LP's that I dink around on at Guitar Center. I love playing this guitar every bit as much as my Yamaha SBG's.

They were friendly, but could only communicate via email. Response to inquiries were prompt, but I like to "talk" to people.

The RA was quick and no arguments from Rondo..however, shipping back and forth via UPS ground when this was supposed to be a Christmas present seemed to take forever.

Great value for your money. I wish I wasn't such a cheap ******* and had forked over a little more cash for an AL2500 or AL3000, but I am very happy with this guitar now that it is all set up. If I lost this one or was stolen, It would definitely buy from Rondo again, but step up in model selection.

Also, if you can find an experienced guitar tech with reasonable prices, have them set the guitar up for you. A lot of guys (me included) think we can adjust or fix anything. I learned my lesson on this that my adusting skills suck and I should stick to playing.

The guitar gets a 9 because it stock features blew me away. 200 dollars for a guitar that comes with 18-1 tuning ration tuners, and graphite nut, are you kidding me! The rest of the features have already been stated, but these two in particular I was pleased by.

So I usually play red hot chili peppers and oldies. Don't expect to play this kind of music with the stock pickups because they are pretty crappy for a pure clean sounds. This is in comparison to my MIM strat. The MIM strat sounds much much better clean. I play through a epiphone valve junior with no mods. However if you play stuff with distortion these pickups will suit you much better. Honestly they sound pretty decent with distortion. Even then they are nothing to marvel over, but 210 dollars for the guitar IS something to marvel about. The pickups can cover classic rock and even modern tharsh metal and other types pretty well. Pinch harmonics are pretty easy too.

WOW! Here is where they blew me away. I told my friend to buy this guitar expecting to have to REFRET it. I mean, I figured if I was paying so little, I would have to refret and change the pickups and I would have a guitar that played like a Gibson under $600. Much to my amazement, the guitar came set up quite nicely from the factory with 9's and had very little fret buzz. The frets had no sharp edges and seem even. The slighly smaller scale makes playing much easier. I'm telling you guys, buy the guitar and just put some good ol' elixer 9's and you wont believe your fingers. Also, the flat black finish is immaculate.

This guitar seems to be built very well. I give it an 8 because it doesnt feel quite as solid as my strat, particularly the neck. However its a tiny tiny detail and I'm being very critical as harmony-central asks you to be when you write a review. This guitar would definitely serve as a backup or even a main axe for gigs.

I haven't had to deal with rondomusic thankfully because I have had no problems or complaints thus far.

I give it a 10 because you will be hard pressed to find ANY guitar that is a better bang for your buck. Take the guitar, 210 dollars. Put elixer strings and have it set up by a pro, 40 bucks. Replace the electronics including pickups with GFS producs of your choice (Dream 180, dream 90, crunch paf, etc) $90. BAM! For around 350 you have a guitar that is freaking on par with a 2000 Gibson. Dont believe me? Try it out for yourself. Before you go and waste 2000 dollars on a brand name, do what I mentioned above.

This is your typical Import LP knockoff. This one has P-90 pickups in lieu of Humbuckers. An it also sports a Maple neck instead of a Mahogany. Other than those aspects it has the other usual LP ingredients.

The stock P90s' are pretty dull and lifeless, not the usual nasty, brighter/crunchier raunch which you'd expect. They sound much like weak single coils. This doesn't suprise me, as it's a $200 git, so I don't expect boo-teek sounding pickups. The guitar does tend to be towards the warm/dark sound, which is not really a bad thing. Has most of the usual tonal traits that LP style guitars exhibit. Withe new PUPS & wiring upgrade it should be just fine.

Action out of the box was a bit high, but can be adjusted. Nut was cut OK (not great just OK), and is made of graphite. Frets are inlayed fine and are pretty much level. Now for the ticky-tack stuff... The high E and B machine heads are not toatally straight, just a little off alignment (no biggie). The finish is applied well, not perfect but "well". A few slight spots and the edges where it's just a little lighter than the rest. However the Goldtop is applied very nicely. Binding is alright, no big spots that look sloppy. The only other knock is that the strap buttons were not drilled straight, they sit at an angle a bit. The electronics are wired in well, and at least hey use ALPHA 500k pots. No really cheap off brands there. I'll upgrade to CTS pots soon. For $200, I'd say this is a nicely put together guitar. Not awesome but a nice bang for the buck.

UPDATE:
This is an update of an earlier post. I initially gave this guitar a mediocre mark for sound, and went on record as saying that the stock pickups were "dull and lifeless sounding". I now have to take that back. I noticed over playing the guitar for a few more days that the sound got even thinner. I suspected something was wrong and was correct. I found that the input lead at the jack was only partially conneted (frayed wire). I cut & stripped the lead wire down a bit, and re-soldered it. The sound now has more output and overall fatter. The pickups are actually pretty nice sounding, not quite as bright as you'd expect, but they still sound like P-90s'. So I'd say they have a more modern P-90 sound. Actually quite nice stock pickups for a low cost import. I'm still going to change the pots & caps though.

Seems just as solid as most any LP style guitar. Take care of it and it should last. But if it gets beat to heck, "who cares it's a $200 guitar".

Good service from the gang at RONDO, Although I never actually spoke with them. Shipped promptly in a heavy duty double-ply box.

Playing for nearly 20 years now. Have owned over 100 higher end electrics (all of the major US made brands). Wish to hell I'd have kept some instead of always using them as trade bait and loosing money! This is as good as some, not nearly as good as others, and better than quite a few that had cost more than 4-5 times the price of this one. If you gig at nasty places where you don't wish to take your expensive (*insert brand name here*), because there is a good chance of theft/damage etc. Get one or two (or 5) of these. For the beginner, or guy/gal who just jams around the house these are fine too. Get a nice set-up and the pickups you like, this can be as good sounding as any. You most likely won't sell off your high end gits for this, but it's fun to play around with. Excellent bang for the buck!

UPDATE:
I'm stll extremely impressed with this guitar, especially given the price point. I definately would recomend these to anyone else who wants a great, low cost guitar that has the ability to stand up to guitars that cost many times more. You may not score marks with the snooty, cork-sniffer crowd but I could care less about that. If you can break free from the brand name mob mentality, you just might be impressed these Agiles. I do plan to get at least 1 more. Rating based on the bang for the buck factor.

I don't think there's any need to go into the specific details here; it's a Les Paul, and if you don't know what the Les Paul feature-set is, then don't read this review.

I play a lot of blues, old psychedelic rock, alternative, and straight rock, so a Les Paul or a LP copy seemed the idea choice. The AL2000 does an excellent job of covering all of these sounds, with plenty of tonal variety in between. I had it playing through a 100+ watt SKG amp with a low-end effects pedal, and it sounded terrific. Under a huge load of distortion the guitar keeps its tone very well, and under clean, chorus, and delay effects it holds up very well indeed.

The guitar was fairly well set up right out of the box; I didn't have to adjust the truss rod or anything. The intonation was close but still noticeably off: I expected this and after a half hour's worth of work it was fine.

My AL2000 is a 2-tone sunburst, very close to a tobacco. The inlays (perloid, I think) are flawless and the binding is fantastic for a 200-dollar guitar. The sunburst grain detailing is amazing, far better than on the Epihphones or Gibsons I've looked closely at. The only blemish I could find out of the box was a slight scratch between the pickups, but you'd have to know exactly where it was to find it.

The tuners don't hold the strings in tune very well - I'm finding I have to tune up again half-way through a song that requires a lot of string bending or heavy strumming. But since I'm used to guitars that have had worse tuners, this isn't really a problem. The strap buttons are solid and the pickguard is screwed in place better than on the Epihphone LPs I've played. This guitar can definitely be used for live playing, but I think I'd want an identical backup in case something does go wrong. That's just a general policy I have for all my guitars.

All my emails were returned and with a helpful, polite tone. Rondo music is building itself a reputation for being excellent in customer support.

I've been playing for 4 and a half years, and I'm still not a great player, but I can hold my own for sure. If this guitar was stolen I'd buy another one, no question. I think this guitar's strongest point is its finish and the neck (I didn't say this before but mine has a terrific player's neck, just a tad slimmer than a Gibson).

If you're looking for a decent guitar under 300 dollars, look no further - this is the one for you. If you want a marginally better guitar for another 100-150, I'd recommend you consider the Agile AL3000 series.

Others have covered the features, it's your basic Les Paul design. 3 piece Mahogany body, 1/16" Maple Veneer on top. Mine happens to be one of the "Spalted Maple" variations. I put "spalt" in quotations as the B-Grade wood doesn't show a whole lot of what one thinks of as spalt maple figuring, but I actually like it. It is a very unique looking guitar for sure. Dual ceramic humbuckers, pearloid inlays on a Canadian Maple/Rosewood neck. Graphite nut, single ply white binding, grover tuners. Mine tips the scale at 8.9lbs.

Just about everything you could want out of a LP style guitar. Sure, the maple cap could be thicker, but for the price, it blows a comprable Epiphone out of the water.

Actually, I thought the sound was a little thin. I replaced the stock generic strings with Ernie Ball Skinny Top, Heavy Bottoms, and it was still a bit thin, so I'm looking into replacing the pickups currently. As is, it's a perfectly serviceable humbucker tone, but just not my cup of tea, so to speak. To my ears, the pickups lack midrange, and sound a little tinny.

Factory set up was actually really great. The action could stand to be taken down a little, but it is certainly playable. No sharp fret ends. Nut was cut very well, the wiring was done very neatly, hardware seems durable, and the switch works as it should.

There is one tiny spot near the control cavity in the back where there is a finish irregularity, but I didn't even notice it until I took the panel off to look at the electronics, and it's certainly not a flaw which would make me send the guitar back. I'm quite pleased with the aesthetics of this guitar as well, it's received a great many compliments.

I've only had it a few weeks, but this thing looks to be solid as a rock. Strap buttons are in there good, although they'll soon be replaced by strap locks. The poly finish looks good and bulletproof, like a poly finish should.

Haven't had the need to deal with Rondo, but have heard only good things.

While I'm not going to make the claim that a $219 guitar is every bit as good as a $2k+ Gibson, I have no problem saying that the AL-2000 is every bit as nice as the Epiphone LPs I've seen out at Guitar Center for twice as much. These guitars are an incredible value, considering that they're selling for less than what many of the Squiers are now selling for.

While the pickups aren't the best in my opinion, they're certainly not bad, and I've heard worse (ironically enough, on an Epiphone). I would have absolutely 0 qualms about buying another guitar from Rondo if this were lost or stolen.

Maple Maple Top and single cutaway solid Mahogany arch top body
Wax potted ceramic humbucker pickups for improved sound
Full body and neck binding
Set-in Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard and trapezodial inlays
22 Jumbo 2.7mm frets and a 13.7" (350mm) radius neck for fast play
Grover Die Cast tuners
Two volume & two tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector switch
Stop-Bar tailpiece
Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 3/16"
Neck Taper is 21.5 mm at the 1st fret and 23.5 mm at the 12th fret
Thickness of neck at the first fret approx 11/16"
Overall length, including the strap button: 40"; Scale length: 24.7"
Bridge pole spacing is 3", and the Tail piece pole spacing is 3 1/4"
Width at the widest point: 13"
Body thickness 2" at edge
Actual Weight is only 10 lbs
Mine is natural spalted.

Great. Just as good as the last 3 Gibson Les Paul Standards I owned before I realized what a waste of money there were and sold them.

Very minor discolorations on the finish in a couple of spots on the fretboard but for $209 who cares. The natural spalted finish on the top of the guitar is perfect. It's amazing how they can produce such a high-quality axe for such a cheap price.

I've had it for 6 months now and no problems so far. Feels rock solid.

No need for it yet.

I bought this entry model just to see what all the hype was about (and I was impressed with the pictures on Rondomusic.net)-- I was not disappointed. Now I'm even thinking about getting one of the AL-3000 models as a second. As I mentioned earlier I've owned 3 different Gibson Les Paul Standards and this guitar is just as good. Don't waste your money on a Gibson or even an Epiphone if you want a solid body.

I am reviewing a 2007 Agile AL2000. It was made in Korea. I ordered the Gold Top model with humbuckers. The guitar has the standard Les Paul set up, with separate tone and volume controls for each pickup. To me this is a huge benefit, as I like to be able to blend the two pickups on the middle position. I've actually read Fender guys who complain about separate controls for each pickup, but I think it's a great feature. The binding on the neck and body of the AL2000 is beautiful. And the trapezoidal inlays on the fretboard are done very well. There is no other guitar on earth with this many nice features for the price of $199.99.

I have two different tones stuck in my head, and no single guitar makes both of them. I want a guitar that sounds like Steve Jones crunchy Les Paul (humbuckers), but I want the bridge pickup to cut through like old country music pickers (Luther Perkins is my favorite). The stock bridge humbucker simply wasn't going to cut it, so I replaced it with a GFS Mean 90. I think that the stock neck humbucker sounds wonderful, so I've left it in. Now, I can play sort of heavy stuff through the neck pickup, and either clean or dirty country stuff on the bridge and middle positions. The sustain on this guitar eats Fenders alive. By the way, I play through an Epiphone Valve Junior, and the sound can either be very vintage 50's sounding or very 70's AC/DC sounding. That's pretty versatile for a Les Paul style guitar.

I adjusted the action to my liking in about 20 seconds. Now it is so low it practically plays itself, but I get no fret buzz. I think it's easier to get a no-buzz low action on Gibson scale length guitars than on 25.5 scale. The only flaw on the AL2000 guitar is in the electronics category. The switch was squirrely from the beginning; within two months I lost power to the bridge pickup entirely. However, it was easy to fix. I've got an electronics genius buddy who simply took the switch out, and used some special contact cleaner and de-gooped the points. Now it works just fine.

The box that Rondo Music shipped me said, "Shipping weight 14 pounds". The guitar itself isn't 14 pounds; it's actually about 11. It weighs a dad-gum ton. But strangely, I kind of like that. The strap buttons are real big; I don't move around when I play, so I havn't bothered with strap locks. The finish is very well done, and the burgundy color stain on the neck and back of the body is beautiful. I played a $1200.00 Gibson Les Paul Studio at G.C., and that thing was honestly no where near as nice as the Agile. No, I'm not an idiot. The fit and finish on the Agile is really better than guitars that cost 2 to 5 times as much. Apparently Korean workers are content to outwork American slugs and drive us into oblivion. Oh yeah; it comes with Grover tuners that are way better than the ones that come on two hundred dollar Squiers and Epiphones.

The company answers e-mails promptly, but I haven't had to return anything. They are very trustworthy.

I have been playing for 2 and a half years. I'm only okay, but I do know a guitar value when I see one. If you get one of these AL2000s,
know that they are even nicer than they appear in the photos, and you will love the sounds they make through any decent amplifier. Please do not waste your money on something that is only marginally better simply because it has Gibson on the headstock. If I had the money to buy another Agile guitar, I would do so in an instant. It can play clean and beautiful, or it can roar like a wild animal. I love this guitar; I'll never sell it.

Hmmm ok let me describe a Les Paul copy for the 47 millionth time, not. Mine is Spalted Maple.

The ceramic humbuckers that come stock in these aren't too bad. I played the guitar bone stock at a full volume rehearsal and it held it's own nicely. You could surely gig with this guitar stock. The sustain is very good on mine and notes are clear all over the neck, no dead spots.

The stock setup was a stock setup; playable, decent intonation, tiny strings. The spalted maple top veneer looks really nice, mine is much nicer to my eye than the example at their website. The finish is well done, much better than any $200 guitar at the local GC, probably equal to the finish on mid-level or better "name" guitars. I didn't find any flaws, nothing is perfect, tiny handling marks aren't flaws in my book.
The stock plastic nut was acceptable, but I cut a fresh one out of bone, looks much better and of course it rings better now, but this wasn't required to play it.

Let's see, a solid chunk of mahogany epoxied to a maple neck with a steel truss rod. Shaun of the Dead anyone? The hardware is fine, made of the same "high quality" zinc that almost everyone else uses. Use strap locks if you're going to play any guitar worth more than a set of strap locks. I've had this one for about a year and nothing has failed, it still looks new after being played regularly.

Kurt answered my emails right away both times.

Very fun LP copy especially for the cash, destroys the Epiphone LP's I've seen. Mine is 11 pounds which freaks a lot of guitarists right out . Most examples are under 10 pounds, if you're sensitive to weight make your decision accordingly. I like having an 11 lb. axe with .013's on it. Whenever an audience member asks to sit in on guitar for a song, I hand em mine and go order a drink, now that's entertainment.

Glossy black finish (stunning), gold hardware, LP copy with P-90's, Grover tuners. Solid Mahogany body with set maple neck and some nice trapezoid inlays. Two volume & two tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector switch. Advertised as 10 pounds actually only weighs 9 lbs 1 oz.

My 2nd P-90 equipped guitar, it sounds really sweet clean on the neck pick-up and I think very strat like on the bridge with some over-drive.
You can get the sound you want, jazzy, bluesy, country twang, whatever you want, it's in there.

I inspected this guitar very closely, it has one tiny blem on the binding on the top upper bout, (had to really look for it) and the neck was dirty and dry. It was set-up almost perfect for my liking, intonation was very close, action was great. I don't really care for black guitars, but this thing is pretty. I can't wait to compare it to my friends new Epiphone black-beauty at more than twice the cost.

Played it at the church picnic (outside) last week and today during praise and worship, it's a worthy guitar. I usually take a 2nd guitar, but mostly because I want a little variety, not so much as a back-up

Rondo is great with returns, replacing parts and answering your questions. I don't know what more you could ask for.

I have a few guitars mostly in the 4 to 5 hundred dolloar range and this Agile blows them away. It just looks better, plays as good and sounds fantastic. I've been playing over 40 years and have had way too many guitars. I'm really into the imports, especially when for between 100 and 250 dollars you can get a incredible guitar. I have several amps and this sounds good in all of them, from my Micro Cube to my Behringer GMX210 V-tone and an Epi Valve Jr.

AL2000 in the Tiger Flame. Obviously, les paul single cutaway, Grover tuners, and all that other stuff. Most people looking at this review will know where to find all the specs. Lots of fun can be spent doing the killswitch thing. Setting one knob to zero and the other full, and switching the pickup selector. 2 humbuckers give a fat, rich sound. Big heavy slab of mahogany, lots of sustain. Good stuff.

I run this guitar through my Traynor YCV 40 watt all tube, with my pedal board of a Digitech Whammy, Big Muff, and a Vox Wah. This thing screams classic rock man. I feel like like pumping out Zeppelin tunes and Joe Perry licks when I play it. Great overdrive sounds, screaming leads when combined with my Big Muff. Sustains for days. Cleans, bah, don't get this guitar for cleans. Its meant to rock through a cranked tube amp. For classic rock this guitar rocks.

I was amazed when I got this at how good it looked for $200 bucks. The finish is great. The tiger flame its jaw dropping. It was set up perfect from the box. No fret buzz, action was just right. I did have to lower the bridge pickup though, it was a little too high.

I played this guitar at a few jams, it's held up well. Finish, I could care less if it fades out, as I like relic-ed guitars. Strap buttons, you'll want strap locks trust me. I feel like I can depend on, but I'd never gig without a backup anyway.

n/a

I've been playing for almost 3 years, and my main axe for a long time has been a Made in Korea Lite Ash Strat. The AL2000, however, has taken the strat's place for all my cliche rock playing. The Strat will always be my funk/clean guitar, but now that I have this Agile, it will be my rock guitar. If it was lost, I'd probably buy two more. This guitar just feels right to me. Down the line, I'll probably update all the hardware. Put in new pickups, new nut, and that stuff. But for $200 bucks, man, this thing rocks.

I bought this guitar in the fall of 2006 on a budget to fit my VOX amp, and man was a amazed! A flamed-maple top, (good) ceramic humbuckers, locking Grover tuners, beautiful rosewood fretboard, straight neck, and excellent finish for 200 bucks? Where else can you find this kind of a deal?

I play anything from blues to metal (except country... eww), and this guitar just screams. It has a rich tone you'd excpect a Les Paul to have, and definately beats Epiphone's mid range guitars. The cleans are OK on rhythm. My only complaint is the rhythm switch. I mostly use the treble, and it sounds fine, but when switched to rhythm, Agile could've done a bit better. As long as you play lead, or use treble, you'll be fine.

This guitar came setup almsot perfect for my likings right out of the box. I adjusted the bridge a bit, and I was shredding away. Most people complain about Les Pauls having a fat neck, but I don't see the problem, you get used to everything. I actually prefer the Les Paul over SG's, Ibanez, or any other guitar. It's all a preference!

This guitar is rock solid, so I'd deffinately trust it to gig with. Of course I'd bring a backup though, who doesn't gig without a backup? I've hit the head off of so many walls, its unbeleivable, and there isn't a mark... wow!

I've never dealt with the company, but they have extremely fast shipping, and are very kind. I recieved the axe in just 2 days!

Not much to say, this is a crazy axe, and I'd definately buy it again. I'm saving for another right now, but I think I might buy the AL2800 Goldtop P90, because I heard they were Gibson quality. I'd take an Agile over an Epiphone any day, and it's my favorite axe. If someone stole it, I'd cry, then kill the guy.

Saw this AL-2000 Goldtop with P90's (with HS case included!!!) listed on ebay and couldn't resist because I once had a 1968 Gibson LP Goldtop with P90's (bought in 1969) and after playing it for 3 years, decided to sell it because it weighed a ton! The Agile weighs in at about 10 lbs. and no, it doesn't have the Gibson open book headstock and its cutaway is different than the Gibson's, but other than that, well, it has a solid mahogany body, Gorver 14:1 tuners and the gold finish on the top is just beautiful. Stop tailpiece and tune-a-matic style bridge. The ceramic P90's have a lot of bite and put out the sound one expects from Gibson-style single coils. I'm sure piezo P90's would have a bit more character but at this price, hey, I can live with these.
Previous ratings go into all the details and features of this guitar so I won't get into it. Suffice to say that at a fraction of what the "real thing" costs, this guitar will give you everything you expect from a classic reproduction of the '56 Gibson classic. It's a player's guitar. Anything happens to it, you're only out a couple of hundred bucks and you can replace it by regularly checking ebay until another one comes along.
If I still had my '68 Gibson LP Goldtop, I'd be afraid to take it out of its case for fear of lessening its value. So, what's the point of having a guitar you don't dare play?

This guitar has all kinds of sustain and has that characteristic P90 sound. 'Nuff said. If that's what you want, buy one. You won't be sorry.

I bought this guitar used, although it was just like new. The previous owner had only played it a couple of times because he realized, after buying it, that he preferred the humbucker sound. When I got it, the action was a bit high and there was a slight fret buzz at the 19th fret. I tweaked the trussrod and lowered the bridge a tad and that did the trick. Not a big deal. After setting it up to my tastes, this thing plays like a dream and sounds like a million bucks.
I can't find any flaws in the workmanship or finish anywhere. Everything on this gutar speaks "quality". Unbelievable in this price range. I still can't believe these things sell this cheap!

Try as I might, I just can't find anything to knock on this guitar. It looks, feels, plays and sounds like it should cost at least 10 times more!

My previous reviews go into how long I've been playing (43 years) and what other gear I own, etc. If what you want is the looks, sound and vibe of a '56 Gibson LP Goldtop for around $200, well, you just can't go wrong with this guitar. If something were to happen to it, I'd be cruising ebay looking for another one. I might even consider the AL-3000 with the Alnico pups for a couple of hundred bucks more, still a steal!

Agile AL-2000 Les Paul in Tobacco Sunburst. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a $200 ebay project.

Let me first say, that I have done a couple upgrades to this guitar. The pickups were pretty much taken out after an initial run. (not because they were bad) and replaced with a Tom Anderson H01- in the neck and a H3+ in the bridge. I also installed dimarzio cliplocks on it as I do to all my guitars.

I won't go over all the specifics of the features. If you're reading this you already know where to find them.

I'm giving the guitar a rating of 8 for the features OUT OF THE BOX and FOR THE PRICE. Come on people. For $200 this is an excellent guitar even if only on paper. It could play like crap (which it doesn't) and still be a good deal.

Real quick I'm going to give a little background BC I think it will help the reviewer know exactly who it is that's judging this guitar.
---I'm a hobbyist 17 year old who's been playing since I was 12. I am in a band that plays progressive rock/metal and I play a lot of stuff at my home also. I have worked on my fair share of guitar/amp projects and I'd like to think I know my stuff for the most part. I bought this guitar not really knowing what I was gonna get, but reading the reviews I had good expectations. I had already planned on modding it prior to buying it. Basically just a minor project/experiment guitar.---

Like I said above, I play mostly harder rock/metal type stuff but my tastes range into the softer side too. The plan with this guitar was to get something close to what Billy Howerdel from A Perfect Circle has on a budget. So I found this and put the Anderson pickups in. I did do a brief test on the stock pups and they were actually pretty good. THe neck was okay. The bridge was better. It sounded to me a lot like an epiphone Les Paul. Maybe a bit better range? Not sure. But they were decent.

My other electric guitars consist of an LTD EC-2005 and a Fender Strat. I won't compare it to the strat since that's a whole different ball field. However, the LTD on paper is basically the same guitar as this with EMG pickups. Although the LTD is a few hundred more $$$'s. So which one is better in sound? Well, even with the Andersons in the Agile, I have to say that TO MY TASTES the LTD is better sounding by a margin. But don't get me wrong. That's just my tastes. The Agile has a better clean than the LTD. However, the bridge pickups isn't for everyone. It's pretty hot but more suited to general rock tones than metal. I would recommend this guitar mostly to people who play mellower rock. Yes it's a les paul...not a shred machine.

You've got to remember though, my LTD costs 4 times as much as the Agile. So for it to come pretty close to the LTD sound quality...that's quite a deal.

This guitar plays very well. The action and everything is great once adjusted. Sadly, right out of the box it wasn't all that great. Just okay. After I spent two hours doing all the stuff needed. (truss rod, action, intonation) This thing was playing like butter. No buzz and low action.

As for the finish, it's BEAUTIFUL for the price. It ranks up there with the higher end EPI's.

Now for the cons...

-The hardware obviously isn't top notch. Probably up there in the Epiphone quality circle. The bridge and nut and all that just don't feel quite up to par to my LTD or other higher end axes. Now let me say this. The affect on the sound isn't that huge. Any beginner or intermediate player won't notice the difference. I'm close to pro and I can barely tell that it affects the sound that much. But it does...and anybody who wants something closer to perfection hardware wise should either look away or prepare to replace some parts.
Oh, but the tuners are good. I love grovers so I won't change them.

-While the neck plays great and rings true...it does FEEL a bit cheap in my hand. Notice how I say FEELS. I think this might just be my mind playing tricks, because it plays rather well, but the feel of it in your hand will give it away for what it is if you're suspicious.

-The fretboard is dry. All the models are going to suffer from this minor malady. They've been in the stockhouse too long. They get dried out. Big woop. Again...pro players will notice a difference. Anyone else could live with it. I gave it a good lemon oiling when I got it. It helped a little. This is a small complaint especially considering I payed only $200 DOLLARS.

-The controls seem a tad cheap, but no crackling or anything. This is another situation where the guitar FEELS cheap but operates perfectly.

Let me keep this a little short. I WOULD NOT use this without a backup gigging. Sorry but no. It's been reliable so far, but you never know.

The only thing that's happened so far is this...

I dropped this guitar while recording five feet down to the floor. Nothing happened except the pickup switcher tip snapped off. (it was cheap what can I say). However, I was able to get it back on with a little handywork.

Other than that this guitar has had no issues, surviving a pickup change and straplocks.

Haven't talked to them...not needed to.

I have already said most of what needs to be said.

This thing is great for beginners and intermediates. Believe the hype. This is a $600 guitar for $200. Yeah I said it.

Professional players...sorry but unless you want a fun project guitar like I did, just stay away. It's wonderful for the price but if you're into nice guitars like me you'll go buy a Schecter or Gibson or whatever.

This one is the AL-2000 Les Paul-style in Silverburst finish, two chrome humbucking pickups, chrome hardware, solid tailstop (no trem). Everything is pretty much stock, except that I move the volume and tone knobs into a different configuration because of the way I play (Seriously, does anyone else think the volume knob for your lead channel should be by the bridge instead of way down by the bottom of the guitar? Anyone? I know I'm not crazy here).

Has all the features of a Les Paul. Can't ask for much more. It's what I expected. I give it a 9 just because the tuners aren't great and will have to be replaced, which is generally the case with the knock-offs anyway.

I play this guitar through a Pignose G40V, used as a head, into a 2x12 open-back cabinet with Jensen speakers (one ceramic, one alnico). I use a lot of TS-9/808 mod distortion for the Tool stuff I'm doing, with some wah, delay, flange, etc.

This will sound cheesy, but I bought this guitar because I started playing in a Tool tribute band. As a guy "playing the part" of Adam Jones, you should have a silverburst guitar, shouldn't you? Of course you should! But they I discovered that a genuine late-70's/early-80's LP Custom silverburst goes for anywhere between $1500 and $3500 depending on the condition. That's out of my range by quite a bit. So I found this one on Ebay used and picked it up for a fraction of that price because it fit the look, not expecting much out of it tone or quality-wise. I figured I'd probably have to switch out the pickups, do some hardware upgrades, etc.

Well, I was completely shocked by the quality of this guitar, top to bottom. First of all, it's a nice heavy, meaty guitar. I had this old Hondo Les Paul-style guitar that was made out of crap wood and was about half the thickness of a real LP. The Agile really feels like a solid guitar, just like LP's do.

As for the sound...let me put it this way: if you're a run-of-the-mill local musician who plays in bands here and there as a hobby like about 90% of all the musicians I know, and you want/need a Les Paul style guitar for what you're playing, there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for you to dish out the money for a Les Paul ever. Ever. This guitar basically sounds as good as any LP I've ever played, and I've played a few. I even did a side-by-side with one of my friends' LP custom that he paid about 5x for, and I thought this one sounded just as good as his. On recordings, I can't tell the difference.

Comparing it to that LP custom, the pickups were a little hotter and brighter, but for what I'm playing right now that's perfect. The volume pots are a little touchy - there's a "sweet spot" between 0 and 2 on the volumes where it will "jump" to sound instead of gradually coming up, but that is a symptom of low-quality pots and can easily be fixed with a replacement. Everything else is great. I still can't believe it - this is just a stupid god deal.

Since I bought this used, I can't really comment on the action. I had it set up anyway the day it landed on my doorstep, having only played it a few minutes. I didn't even plug it in before I took it to the tech. Regardless, you should always expect to send a new guitar in for setup, unless it really is just perfect out of the box. I've never had that happen yet.

Everything else is pretty nice. Frets are done up nicely, body and finish are nice and smooth, neck is straight, etc. There is one spot in the silverburst finish where it looks like the black on the edge is wider in one spot, meaning not consistently sprayed around the edge of the body, but it is barely noticeable. I'm pretty picky about looks and little things like that, and it doesn't bother me at all. I'll give it an 8 for that, and because I think they could have pulled off a better "fade" from black to silver.

It has stood up through everything I've done with it so far, and I don't see why it wouldn't last for a long time. I really try to take care of my guitars, though. Usually if you take care of your stuff it will last unless it's pure crap (like, for instance, the old Hondo :D).

I will say that when I got it, two of the wires had come off the toggle switch. It looked like maybe the solder had just broken off. Easy to fix, but I checked all the other solder joints on it anyway to be sure. Everything looks OK, and since I don't know how it was treated by the previous owner, I can't really take points off for the de-soldered switch.

Have not contacted Agile for anything on this guitar, so I won't rate. However, I did email back and forth with the guy who (I guess) owns Agile when I thought they might have discontinued the silverburst finish (they haven't), and he was pretty nice. I have heard a lot of good things about Agile's customer service.

I know a lot of people will call me crazy for saying there's essentially no difference between this guitar and a Les Paul custom, but...there is essentially no difference between this guitar and a Les Paul custom. Not that I can tell, at least. I've been playing for 15 years and have played a lot of cheap-ass guitars. This is a cheap-ass guitar price for a really quality-built guitar. At the very least this guitar provides you with an incredible base for a project. If you are concerned about getting the sound of a Les Paul exactly, you can always swap out the electronics with some Gibson gear. For $200 new and another few hundred for top-of-the-line electronics you can basically have a LP for less than half the price.

Honestly you wouldn't have to even do that, though. This guitar sounds and plays fantastic as-is. I'd say definitely better than guitars by some of the "other" brands like Ibanez or Jackson, and probably better than a lot of the Epiphones I've played. Thank you, China and Korea!!

LP clone. Features have been described in other reviews. I purchased the Tiger Eye finish (different and beautiful). Guitar equipped with PAF PUPs, Tune-o-Matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece.

The only features I would like to have added would be a matching headstock, locking strap pins, and perhaps tapped coils on the PUPs.

Very good LP sound running through my Roland Cube 20X. Bridge HB has nice crunch; neck HB very warm with nice mids and low emphasis; mid position is a really nice combo of both. Output level of PUPs is very good and quiet as a mouse in all 3 positions with amp and guitar volume at max. String fidelity in all three positions is very good.

Setup out of the box was very good and needed only tweaks to my taste: Slight neck relief and intonation was dead on. I lowered both sides of the bridge slightly and raised the bridge PUP a tad to balance both PUPs with volume on both set to max.

Frets were very nicely finished, but the fretboard was very dry. I cleaned it with naptha and then applied a good dose of lemon oil - much better. One of the tone knobs was either defective or put on crooked. When I turned it back and forth a few times, it hit the top of the guitar and scratched that beautiful Tiger Eye finish :<.

I also removed the plasic pick guard and noticed the sawdust from the hole drilled by the neck had been left around the hole and mashed down into the surface when the pick guard was screwed down. It took a bit of elbow grease to get it off the top of the guitar.

Overall the build quality of this Korean made guitar was quite good, but they did have a few quality escapes.

This is a very well built guitar that will definitely withstand some serious live playing. The guitar is quite heavy. It's adverised as 10 pounds, but feels more like 12-13 pounds. It's very sturdy and should serve well as a serous weapon in case a bar fight breaks out.

I bought this guitar from Rondo Music and customer service is nothing short of top shelf. I originally ordered an SX GG1 Limited with case. That guitar had a dead note at the 15th fret (low fret). I returned it and the day after it was delivered to Rondo I received a refund for the guitar as well as shipping both ways. As an aside, the extra $100 the Agile cost was well worth the improvements of the Agile over the SX.

I emailed Kurt at Rondo about the bad tone knob on the AL-2000 and the next day he UPSed me 2 new ones.

Customer service just doesn't get much better than this.

I've been playing about 5 years. I have a Kramer Custom (Tele copy), a Godin Exit22, and AL2000 for my electric guitars. For acoustics I have a Seagull S6+, Guild DCE-1; and a Taylor 310KCE. For amps I have a Roland Cube 20X and an Electar PA.

If this guitar were lost or stolen I'd definitely replace it with another AL2000.

The best thing about this guitar is that it's got high end quality and sound at a bargain price.

Very solid guitar much heavier than my H-50 and F-50 ESP's. Mine is the Amber Flame, maple top erally nice finish. Pearl inlays all controls seem tight. Good pickups but like last review a bit noisey with only one pickup selected with gain but goes away when both selected. Was stationde in Korea and give them something and they can copy it. Really solid guitar for Korean made. Well worth the money.

Using this with a Behringer V-Tone GMX210 and Vamp 2. Good sound I play anything from old rock to new metal. Has a good clean sound for those not so hard core songs.

Setup from the factory really good just a few slight tweeks and tune. Guitar is again soild everthing was nice and tight really impressed with the quality for the price.

Not sure yet how that will be but seems good so far. Would have no problem depending on it.

Have not had to see about repairs yet and hope I do not have too.

Have been paying for several years like I said before have two others ESP's LTD's. If it was taken would get another. Probably will look at getting one of the 2500's or 3000's sometime down the road. Compared to my other guitars a bit more heavier but gives it that solid felling. Has good sustain on it. If your looking for a less expensive LP copy then this is the guitar.

Gold top with 2 P90's. Standatd Les Paul controls, graphite nut and factory Grover tuners. neck looks maple/rsewood.

Very convincing P-90 Sound. Guitar was very noisy though, even for a single coil guitar. Noise goes away whe both pickups selected.

Amazingly well set up, fit and finish incredible for this price range.

Only owned it for a couple of months, but it seems rock solid.

Been playing since 1973. Have owned over 60 guitars, including some of Gibson & Fenders finest. These Agile guitars are really impressive for this bargain price range. If you want a solid guitar at a budget price, no look further!

Nice finish I bought the natural finish.Tuners do stay in tune pretty well.I did do slight neck adjustment.

Pretty good full sound with stock p/u ala paul relatively quiet p/u

Very good action no buzz.Neck was bone dry had to oil it feels pretty good.

Seems to be preetty well made compared to other copies.

Playing 35 years jazz

I purchased an Agile AL-2000 Tiger Eye Flame Top back in March of 2006 from Rondo Music. The day I pulled it out of the box was just fantastic. This Les Paul type guitar promised on looks alone and it delivered. The finish was "flawless". I've owned eight Gibson Les Pauls and this could stand with the best of them. I totally dig the deep carved arch top on these guitars. I love the heafty 10 pounds this instrument weighs. To tell you the truth, I asked Rondo Music to "cherry pick" this guitar for me. If they did then it's a knockout! The flame top is "alive".

The hardware is rock solid and it feels like you'e playing a Gibson Les Paul if you were not looking at it. The Grover tuners are a big plus and this axe has stayed in tune many a night during those gigs.

The neck needed a little tweaking which is no problem, and after a minor adjustment and some light polishing on the frets, it was ready to go. I put some GHS Custom Lights "9 to 46" and it sounds great.

I purchased an SKB case because this guitar and I are going places!
The stock humbucking pickups are quite good. No feedback or noise and they sound great through my rig which is a rack system of preamps, power amps, effects, all going through two 4x12 Jackson Cabinets. Metal to the max! I'm leaving the pickups in because they have a great but distinctive sound next to my other guitars.

The woods are carefully crafted. There seems to be a great deal of pride and workmanship in these guitars. The Korean market has stepped up to the plate and has scored big with Agile. I hope the attention to detail will continue for this company.

Ok, music style you ask? Well, since I'm a shameless promoter/guitarist in a Phoenix Arizona based band called Tykkus, the guitar fits our classic heavy metal sound. The guitar is fat and crunchy with lots of sustain. At ten pounds it better!
My rack system consists of:
2 Peavey Rockmaster preamps ala Sovtek tubes.
BBE Sonic Maximizer
Alesis Midiverb III
2 Peavey 50/50 tube power amps. You can drive these 50 watt power amps hotter and harder for a better tube sound than the 100 watt version, it's a little trick I learned from the Scorpions years ago.

My guitar sound is big with killer crunch, fat mids, biting highs, and great low end ala Zakk Wylde to George Lynch to Chris Oliva. It's just heaven. The AL-2000 sounds just as good through this system and it can keep up with my other guitars. I usually go back and forth between the Jackson Randy Rhoads and the Agiles on stage. Yes, I own two Agiles with the other being an AL-2500 three pickup black beauty which I'll post in the other section of this review site. Bottom line in a live situation, this Agile AL-2000 kicks butt!

When I recieved this guitar from the nice FedEx lady, it was like Christmas.
The finish in Tiger Eye beautiful and under the lights it glows. As I stated earlier, I just needed to tweak the truss rod a bit and adjust the pups and after a fresh set of GHS Boomers were installed, we made music.

The finish in my opinion is just remarkable. The binding was in place. The wood is top grade. Ok, so the inlays aren't real mother of pearl, we are talking about a low priced, high end guitar. Just play a real Gibson Les Paul Standard and then play My Agile AL-2000. It's just outstanding how a great guitar for $200.00 can make a real Gibson Les Paul blink! Did you guys at Rondo really "cherry pick" this guitar? Just read the reviews friends. These guitars are terrific!

This guitar has been through the paces on the road and here in Phoenix. Other guitarists ask me about these guitars and are just blown away with them. Our other guitarist has two Agile AL-2000 models...enough said!
The finish is great and seems very deep. It will hold up to demanding work. The srab buttons I replaced with strap locks. Metal bands move and I don't need my guitars moving zero to sixty crashing to the floor.
This is a guitar I can depend on. I also take care of my axes so it's a two way street.
As a rule of thumb, I have two or three guitar on stage at all times. Some are for tone or tuning and string breakage is always a possibility. Now if I had my Agile on stage, then I'd back it up with my other Agile. :)

Since I've had no issues, then no problems. From what I've read, most musicians here seem to think highly of customer support, and then so will I if a problem pops up. So far, so good!

I've been playing for nearly 33 years. I grew up listening to all sorts of music. But the guitar bug bit me and I had to play. Ace Frehley of KISS, Jimi Hendrix, Jan Ackermann of Focus, Edward Van Halen, and a few others lead the way for me when I was learning.

The other guitars that I own are the following, and as you can see, the Agiles are in great company.
1985 San Dimas Jackson Randy Rhoads Custom
2005 Jackson Randy Rhaoads with Floyed Rose "Japanese import"
Dean Korina Wood Flying V European built.
1981 Gibson Explorer all maple with quilt top.
The Gibson Les Pauls I owned are now gone as my music tastes had changed OVER THE YEARS. Yeah I know...hind sight! Agiles have replace my need for a Gibson Les Paul now a days. Let's face it, Gibson Les Pauls are expensive. Money isn't so much the issue, but when you get older and wiser, you balance dollars and common sense. $500 dollar used Gibson Les Pauls are history.

Well Rondo, all I have to say is "Well Done"! These Agile guitars are just terrific and it's my hope that Rondo Music, Agile Guitars, and musicians world wide enjoy a great and beautiful frienship. These Agile Les Paul types stand on their own, and they can stand above anything out there. That's how good these guitars are!

Kind Regards from a happy user,
Dale, guitarist
Tykkus
www.tykkus.com

Mine is the AL-2000 Spalted 3-tone sunburst. Stock LP style set-up. All the features have been listed in previous submissions. Mine was made in 2005 and has Grover 14:1 machines, mahogany body with spalted maple cap, rosewood fretboard, potted dual humbucker ceramic pups and 3-way selector . High-chrome stop tailpiece and tune-omatic style bridge. 24/75" scale. Made in Korea.

I like jammin' the blues and country-rock with a couple of guitar-playing friends. I play through a (self-programmed) Zoom 505-II plugged into a homebrew all-tube amp (http://ca.geocities.com/jaluthier/myguitar). This guitar sings like a LP is supposed to, especially in the high registers, when you're playing up above the 12th fret. It can go from bite to super smooth with all kinds of sustain depending on your PU/tone selections.

I bought this guitar used off ebay and when I got it, I had to set up the intonation and tweak the trussrod. I don't know if the previous owner had done a set-up or if this was the original factory set-up. If so, well, could have been better. Not a big deal, an easy fix for anyone who knows their way around guitars.
A couple of high frets too, but again, nothing that couldn't be fixed with a bit of filing and dressing.
Other than that, this guitar looked like a million bucks and everything spoke quality.

Everything on this guitar looks and feels like it's made to last. Rock solid. As good as anything on guitars costing hundreds or even thousands of bucks more. The finish is second to none.

Having bought it used, I don't know what support I'd get from Rondo Music.

I've been playing for 42 years and have owned and played a lot of guitars and amps over that time. I've played professionally in R&R, Country, Folk, Folk-Rock and Country-Rock bands and jammed a lot of blues. I once owned a '68 Gibson Goldtop with P-90's and it was a real sweet axe.
A couple of years ago, I bought an SX strat copy after having owned a few other strats and strat copies and it soon became my favourite axe. Agile is made by the same company and wanting an LP-style guitar, and after reading the reviews on this site, I decided to get an Agile. Glad I did! You won't find a better LP anywhere for under $200. In fact, you probably won't find a better LP anywhere at 3 or 4 times the price! And if it gets stolen or dropped and broken or whatever, well, easily and affordably replaced.

2006 Gold Top Humbuckers. The only thing that lacks are the frets. They are a bit small for a Les Paul. It's very heavy, but I'm already used to it.

I play a lot of different styles and have been playing for almost 30 years. I actually bought this guitar because my room mate has a baby and my hollowbody is too loud acoustically to play at night and this was cheap. The sounds are very clean and chimey with crazy sustain. I don't know much about Les Pauls, so I assume that's ideal. I use a Roland Spirit 30 watt 112 solid state amp with a V-amp 2 when I'm not playing straight in for jazz. The Agile works great, as would a Les Paul, for all styles or Rock, Rock n Roll, Blues, Fusion, Punk, Funk, R&B, but for traditional styles of jazz, I think it sustains too much for my taste - though I would still use it for other practical reasons. I must say that this has become a favorite instrument, perhaps my favorite, simply because it is so versatile. I read somewhere someone split the coils, which I may do in the future, to make it even more versatile, wire it like a Jimmy Page model Les Paul with the push pull knobs.

I needed to clean the wax or filler out of the bone-dry fingerboard and oil it (toothbrush is good for the cleaning). I had to reverse the G string saddle to get it to intonate for standard .010 gauge strings. Frets are a little small for my ideal setup. Truss rod needed a tweak. Pickup cavities are a bit tight, meaning the pickups are angled back a bit and don't hang parallel to the tops of the rings as they should (Haven't figured out this one yet). Now it plays pretty well and is intonated very well. Finish is great, the odd blem can be seen under a 100 watt bulb up close, but looks perfect from 5 feet. Binding is perfect. Gold top is very nice. Love the graphite nut and Grover tuners. Staying in tune for days makes up for a lot.

I forsee no problems in my lifetime. I would absolutely gig without a backup.

FedEx Ground lost it for a couple days and it still cost me the full $30. Grrrr.

Playing almost 30 years. Guitars I've owned include Gibson SG, Gibson Spirit, Gibson Melody Maker, Ibanez ST-50, Ibanez Roadstar, DeArmond X-155, Ibanez Musician, Ibanez Artwood, Hohner ST3, G&L SC2, Fender 60s Strat, Fender Telecaster. Amps I've owned 196? Fender Twin Reverb blackface, Fender Pro-Reverb silverface, Tremolux brownface, VibroChamp?? silverface, Mesa Boogie MKIII, Marshall JCM800 112 w/reverb, 1966 Vox Cambridge Reverb, Mitchell 100 watt combo, Roland Jazz Chorus 120, Super Cube 40, Spirit 30, Traynor Reverb Mate, Ampeg VT60, Crate VC30, Acoustic G60-112.
It's a great guitar for the price. It's probably going to be my number one guitar.

just like everyone else said


-3 Piece Mahogany body
-Mahogany Top
-Wine Red Finish
-2 Humbuckers
-Grovers
-Tune o matic bridg
-Les Paul Styling
-Mahogany set neck w/ trussrod

I play everything from blues to metal, and it suits all these styles just fine. I absolutely love the sound of this baby.

The finish on this guitar is remarkable. When this guitar came it was perfectly set-up; the action was very low, and the intonation was perfecto. I love the grovers.

I would gig anytime with this guitar without a backup. The hardware seems to be very durable. The strap buttuns seem solid, but I will probally get strap locks anyway.

never had to deal with them

I have been playing for as long as I can remember, and this is my favorite guitar I have ever owned. If this guitar was stolen I would buy a new one right away. This guitar is definitly better than Epiphone, and
just as good as Les Pauls.

\/\/Pretty much word for word of what everyone else has said\/\/

-3 Piece Mahogany body
-Mahogany Top
-Wine Red Finish
-2 Humbuckers
-Grovers
-Tune o matic bridg
-Les Paul Styling
-Mahogany set neck w/ trussrod

Made in a sweat shop somewhere.......those kids should get paid more, this is a good guitar.........I am proud of them

I play everything from moody mellow stuff to praise and worship for church to hardcore, and this guitar surprisingly suits all just fine.

Clean set with both pickups on sounds amazing, its what this guitar was made for. The tone on clean sounds rich and full. Clean on the bridge pickup only sounds weak and way way to bright. The cleans are simply amazing when set right

Crunch is decent also. However it depends on the time you take fiddling with your settings and the kind of pedals you have. You can coax anythis you out of this guitar you want. Pinch harmonics while easy to do on this guitar do not resonate well so they dont carry and sustain like they should.

Amazing cleans, good crunch, - bad harmonics, gets a 9.

Action out of the box was like most new electrics.....decent......not good......but not bad either........I took probably 3 hours adjusting the neck, restringing and setting the guitar up before I played it.

The finish was rather nice, It looked like there was a breif spot the fretboard where laquer had been. The was minor, no seams, good finish.

Good woods, a little soft for mahogany but still good. The neck fits my hand well. Its just a bit on the large size, so it feels solid

Good finish, fit, -3 hours set up. -laquer on my fretboard, 8.

I have used this guitar almost everday since i have got it. One a week at church, and practicing the rest of the time. Played it at a few shows ,and it stands up to stage abuse decently

One issue, I installed straplocks, and one of them is pulling out. This may be because of the straplock screws and then being the same size or smaller as the stock scrws. at any rate I will have to get longer screws to go into the body deeper or drill a new hole lower in the body. I atribute this pulling out the the unusual softness of this mahogany.

Wears well, solid, good reliability, -straplock issue, 7.

hmmmm......contemplating.........I am happy with my purchase, it blows anytime under 600 out of the water.......

If it were stolen or lost....I might get really angry.....then buy a new one...

Good features, good guitar, have no reason to doubt it yet, thanks Rondo.

# Real Maple flame top and single cutaway solid Mahogany arch top body
# High quality wax potted ceramic humbucker pickups for improved sound
# Full body and neck binding
# Set-in Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard and trapezodial inlays
# 22 Jumbo 2.7mm frets and a 13.7" (350mm) radius neck for fast play
# Grover Die Cast tuners
# Two volume & two tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector switch help you find your sound
# Stop-Bar tailpiece transfers string vibration to the body of the guitar and produces superior sustain
# Beautiful Natural finish
# Made in Korea
# Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 3/16"
# Neck Taper is 21.5 mm at the 1st fret and 23.5 mm at the 12th fret
# Thickness of neck at the first fret approx 11/16"
# Overall length, including the strap button: 40"; Scale length: 24.7"
# Bridge pole spacing is 3", and the Tail piece pole spacing is 3 1/4"
# Width at the widest point: 13"
# Body thickness 2" at edge
# Actual Weight is only 10 lbs


this guitar is amazing. i can't believe how high quality this is for the price. the only thing i plan on upgrading is the electronics. the toggle switch has too much play in it, but its like a $4 part so i'm not worried about it.

i'm playing a peavey classic 100 into a marshall 1960 lead 4x12. i put a boss super overdrive in front of it to boost the signal a little bit. for the style of music i play (melvins, isis, etc.) this is perfect. it isn't noisy in the least bit. the gibson SG i've been using is 10 times noisier than this. it has a really full sound, very typical of les paul style guitars. as i said before, i plan on uprading the pickups to some nice gibsons. but these definately get the job done.

the action was actually perfect. all i did was change the strings and tune it to B, and it feels great. the finish looks fantastic. the first thing my singer said when he saw it was "jesus, that thing looks awesome." there was one flaw in the binding. it has a rough spot that i have to sand down, but thats it. the switch is kind of janky but whatever. it'll be replaced soon.

this is possibly one of the most solid guitars i've ever played. i was endorsed by ESP and i'll take this over any of their guitars.

i've been playing bass for almost 10 years and i've dabbledin guitar off and on pretty much the entire time. so i know what a good instrument is. this definately is. if you're thinking about picking one up, do not hesitate. you will not be sorry.

2006 AL-2000 CSB (cherry sunburst)
Korea (could'a fooled me!))
Solid Mahogany with (real) Carved CURLY Maple top.
Heavier than my real (1977) LP Standard.
Grover keys. Slim, fast neck, top quality rosewood board.
how do they freakin' do it at this price?!?

First thing i figured we would need to do is up-grade pickups.
NOPE! Plugged it up to tweed champ ... got PAGE sound
from LZ II (Heartbreaker, Moby Dick, etc.) Plugged it in a boogie
combo -- CARLTON smoooooth overdrive. Finally, Marshall 50w 4-12cab
and played till the cops came.

Set up fine -- tweeked intonation, but no big deal.
The finish is beautiful! The Cherry Sunburst was painted by an artist,
(one who no doubt takes pride in what he does) and with the curly top
makes this guitar drop-dead gorgeous! No Flaws, period

I would never gig without a backup.
No one should.
But it has nothing to do with this instrument.

I'm use to NICKEL parts on my (real) LP Standard,
but for the price, I'll admit I'm stretching for something
negative to report. Still have to give it a 10.

Kurt is remarkably prompt in answering eMails.
To me it seems perhaps the brick-n-mortar has
something against the webStore, but minor
communication conflicts here.

Bought this for my 12 year old son, and it's a jewel!
I own too many instruments to bore you with,
except the afore mentioned 1977 LP Standard --
And i only cite this for comparison.
Against the real thing it holds it's own.
Plus, it's much prettier than my plain-jane Natural Finish!
If you are looking for a great guitar (LP-type in particular)
look no further!

Well, this is an easy one. If you are thinking about buying one of these, then you are wanting a Les Paul. This has everything a Gib$on LP has. Thick mahogany body, 2 volume, 2 tone, 2 humbuckers and a 3 way switch. The volume and tone pots are high quality, full size Alpha 500k pots. Also, the tuning keys are actual Grovers. Nice !!!
The neck is maple with a rosewood fretboard. I like a maple neck better than a mahogany neck because there is a little more clarity and attack to the notes played. The neck profile is a little thin like a Gib$on Les Paul Classic 60's slim neck.

It sounds very good. Not exactly like the Gib$on LP standard. The pickups on this guitar are a little bit brighter and quite a bit hotter. You may or may not like this depending on your style. Great for high gain amps because the tone doesn't get muddy. If you want a blues or classic rock tone you will need to roll back the well voiced tone knob a hair or maybe consider different pickups. I will probably change the pickups in this to get closer to a vintage tone but these stock ones still sound good, just too hot for me. I still give this guitar a high rating for sound though because it sounds great, it just needs tweaked to be my ideal sound.

Here is where I am blown away by this guitar. I would expect there to be some flaws at this price. Where are they? The binding is clean all the way around the body and neck. The finish is exceptional (beautiful goldtop). The rosewood used for the fretboard is very nice grain. If you are super picky you will notice the small amount of filler arond the fretboard inlays, the bridge is a little cheap but solid and maybe some tiny finish flaws but man, this is close to perfect. For less than $200, it is perfect.

I can see no reason to not trust this guitar. It is well made for sure. The bridge could be better but it will hold up. You can replace it for about $20 bucks if you want but I will wait and see how it holds up. I would not be afraid to go without a backup, this is a quality guitar.

This is my third guitar from Rondo Music. They are excellent. Never a problem. They ship fast and keep you informed with tracking numbers and so forth.
I once ordered a guitar from them that was back ordered. They offered to send it when it was available or give me anything from their web with free shipping. Those are the nice little touches that make great customer service.

I have been playing guitar since 1981. I am a complete guitar junky. I have owned or played just about everything out there. This guitar is definately a copy of a Gib$on Les Paul. I have owned and played some outstanding Les Pauls including a '72 Custom, a '73 deluxe, a '79 Standard and a '81 Custom and various others. So the question is........How does this guitar compare to the real thing? VERY WELL in my opinion. If I ever consider buying a real Gib$on LP again, I would rather have 10 of these. They are close enough for me. WHY drop close to 2 grand on a guitar when you can get one of these with humbuckers, one with P90's and one burst, one black, one red, one ....... I think you get the idea.

If it gets stolen I will track down the jerk that took it and get it back or buy another one.

If it gets lost, I will quit drinking so much and get another one.

This is my second review of an AL2000, this one is a goldtop with P90 pickups. The features for this guitar have been listed repeatedly so I won't bother to do it again here.

This guitar has a very good sound for those who are into P90 pickups. Being a Les Paul style guitar with separate volume and tone knobs for each pickup and a three-way selector switch, the variety of sound variation possibilities are almost endless, especially when considering the many variations of amp settings with whatever amp you use it with.
Some associate P90s with being noisy because they are basically, the gibson style single coil, but these pickups are not noisy at all, I'm very pleased with the sound I get from them.

Again, I have to compliment the action, fit and finish on this AL 2000 same as I did the first one. It's a beautiful guitar. Everything seems to fit nicely, nice smooth finish and I felt no need to play with the action. Of course, as usual, the strings suck, I'll never understand why guitarmakers do that, put crappy strings on new guitars.........but they do. So change the strings right away so that you can truly appreciate the sound of the guitar.

Once again, I am doing "no opinion", but only because I haven't had this one a real long time, and my first AL2000 ourchase was for my son, so I've not gotten to play that. But from my experience with guitars, and from looking this one over extensively, I have no doubt it will last me quite well. I don't gig, but if I did, would not hesitate to use this guitar and rely on it enough to not worry about back-up.

I once again, have to do "no opinion" because I haven't had to use the customer support. I do know that Rondo Music is very quick to ship, something I always appreciate when waiting for a "new toy" to arrive. From reviews I've read, etc., I have no doubt, if I needed to use their support otherwise, that they would come through for me.

The overall rating is easy, this guitar deserves the "10" I've given it, if not more.
I am impressed overall with it's looks, playability, and sound. Would I replace it if it were lost or stolen? After I got over being very bummed out about whatever happened to it, yes, I would definitely be ordering a replacement, no doubt about it.
One thing I will add, I wasn't totally sure I would like the goldtop finish at first, Rondo's pictures are about as good as pics can get, but they still don't do the guitars justice. Once I recieved the guitar, I fell in love with the goldtop look. I found the same thing with the AL2000 I bought for my son and reviewed previously, it looked great in the pictures, but the pictures did not comapre with the beauty I saw when I recieved the guitar.
You want an excellent lp style guitar - do not hesitate to buy an AL2000 whatever the pickup style and coloring you're interested in, they are well worth the money and more.

Single cutaway solid Mahogany arch top body
High quality wax potted ceramic humbucker pickups for improved sound
Full body and neck binding
Set-in Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard and trapezodial inlays
22 Jumbo 2.7mm frets and a 13.7" (350mm) radius neck for fast play
Grover Die Cast tuners
Two volume & two tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector switch help you find your sound
Stop-Bar tailpiece transfers string vibration to the body of the guitar and produces superior sustain
Popular Black finish with Gold hardware
Made in Korea
Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 3/16"
Neck Taper is 21.5 mm at the 1st fret and 23.5 mm at the 12th fret
Thickness of neck at the first fret approx 11/16"
Overall length, including the strap button: 40"; Scale length: 24.7"
Bridge pole spacing is 3", and the Tail piece pole spacing is 3 1/4"
Width at the widest point: 13"
Body thickness 2" at edge
Actual Weight is only 10 lbs

This siuts my playing style, and many others. It play blues really well, but I play mostly classic rock. It's not a metal guitar. I run it through a Fender Frontman amp and is sounds good. It's not fantastic when clean, but it sounds good. Soloing is great, though, and the bridge humbucker is great. Rythym can crank out some heavy stuff.

The action was very low. I'll need to get that fixed. It's probably what's causing the tons of buzz I get on the low e string. All the hardware was perfect, and so shiny I could see myslef clearly in it.

N/A

Kurt was great. Excellent service, answered all my questions, and received it in 3 days. Emails usually answered in less than an hour.

I've been playing a couple years, before this I had a Squier strat, which this Agile blows away. I personally love how it looks. The black gloss is very nice, and the gold hardware is stunning. I wish it had a better fretboard, it looks kind of cheap. Extraordinary value.

2006 model, Cherry Sunburst Finish
149.00
Single cutaway solid Mahogany arch top body
2 High quality wax potted ceramic humbucker pickups for improved sound
Full body and neck binding
Set-in Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard and trapezodial inlays
22 Jumbo 2.7mm frets and a 13.7" (350mm) radius neck for fast play
Die Cast Grover tuners
Two volume & two tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector switch help you find your sound
Stop-Bar tailpiece transfers string vibration to the body of the guitar and produces superior sustain
Made in Korea
Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 3/16"
Neck Taper is 21.5 mm at the 1st fret and 23.5 mm at the 12th fret
Thickness of neck at the first fret approx 11/16"
Overall length, including the strap button: 40"; Scale length: 24.7"
Bridge pole spacing is 3", and the Tail piece pole spacing is 3 1/4"
Width at the widest point: 13"
Body thickness 2" at edge
Actual Weight is only 10 lbs.
See Rondo Music's ebay site at:
http://stores.ebay.com/Rondo-Music-On-Line
for more information.

This thing sounds exactly like a Gibson LP. Use it for whatever you would use an LP for. Sounds rich and warm with nice chimey highs. I like it.

Like everyone else, I was amazed at what I pulled out of the box. How can they do it? This is nicer than ANY Epiphone that I have ever seen and as sweet as some Gibsons that I have played. One tiny flaw was a teeeeeny nick in the fretboard, which makes no dif at all. I might mention that you should plan on putting some linseed or lemon oil on the fretboard, it was dry as a bone. Although this seems to be the deal w/all new gits these days. Oh yeah, I guess I should say that the stock strings are kinda lame, but I am still using mine. I'll probably replace them in a week or so.

This is built like a tank, is gonna be fine. You should put straploks on though, 'cause accidents happen...why feel like an ass later? I gig like a spaz with this.

Kurt & co are awesome. I can't imagine ever having a prob.

I have been playing for a long time, and I have played a lot of gits. I can't believe how much quality you get for so little cash. This thing is so unbelievably sweet, that my neighbor across the street immediately bought himself a black one and his teenage son a cherry one. The sound is pure Paul and the fit and finish is top notch. Get some nicer strings though. And straploks. I'm not sure that this has been a helpful revue, but consider it a further affirmation of everything positive in all of the other revues.

See others for features, however the important stuff is, Set Neck, Grover tuners, Mohogany body, maple neck, decent ceramic humbuckers.

Sounds like a Les Paul should. It does have a Maple neck rather than a mohogany like a real LP but still sound great.

I know how to tinker with guitars, so I wasn't too worried about buying a factory finished guitar from Agile. the more pricy ones are hand filed, and set up. This one really needed neck adjustment, as well as actioin/intonation set up. but once i was done with the allen wrenches and screw drivers it plays awsome! For the price don't be afraid to adjust the neck yourself, you can only tighten or loosen a truss rod, do it 'till you find the sweet spot.

Great guitar

very courteous and quick ship, email contact

I have read a lot of reviews on HC and take most of them with a grain of salt, usually people are excited to get a new guitar and want to convince themselves they got a good deal and are happy. So with that approach, I waited a few weeks before putting down my opinon here. And I did have to tweak the guitar mostly truss rod and bridge set up. If I was to judge it on that i'd give the thing a 5, but since it is easily fixed up, with no $, it is certainly a great value. I am surprised and very happy with my purchase. I would recommend the Agile les pauls to anyone, they are an incredible value

2005 Model, made in Korea, Goldtop Les Paul style guitar.
22 Jumbo 2.7mm frets, Solid 3-piece mahogany body, 2 volume knobs, 2 tone knobs, 3-way selector. 2 great-sounding P90 pickups. Canadian Maple 2-piece set neck, rosewood fretboard. Drop-dead gorgeous goldtop finish, immaculate!
Grover 102-18C tuners, fully bound body and neck. Got mine with a brand new TKL 8085 case!

This guitar does just what a Les Paul does, I've owned several (Gibson and Epiphone). Great for southern rock to jazz. No issues at all. A great range of sounds with this setup. P90s are the way to go!

Mine showed up setup great, nice low action and with a bone nut (not stock). Everything was in tip top shape! No buzz, frets feel great, neck is a dream! I am very impressed that a low-cost import guitar is of this high of quality. I would say at least 40% of the Epiphones I check out in the local shops have significant flaws; there is very little quality assurance. For half the money, the AGILE is far superior in fit and finish, and obviously VALUE! If your ego can live without the word "Gibson", the rest of you won't even know.

This guitar feels as solid as any I have ever played. It is Les Paul heavy for sure, it is not lightweight! Who would gig w/o a backup? Not because I fear the guitar letting me down, but just on principle... This guitar can go toe-to-toe with all the big names.

Kurt @rondomusic.net has been very responsive to all inquiries, but have had no need for any actual service, repair, or replacement, but all other indications are it would be great if needed.

I've played for 10 years, owned upward of 15 guitars, five Les Pauls. This is the only Les Paul I own today. I wanted a P90 rig w/o breaking the bank. Nobody needs to break the bank with these guitars available. I would replace it in a moment if lost or stolen. I love that I don't have to treat it like a damn museum relic, its a guitar! I've played the Epiphone Goldtop, it's crap by comparison. I've checked out the the Dillion, Schecter, and Hamer, this one beats them all for value. It lacks nothing they offer.

This review is for an AL-2000 with p-90 pickups. Grover tuners, graphite nut, black finish with chrome hardware...The construction is pretty much the same as previous reveiwers have stated.

This is my first P-90 equipped guitar. I was looking for something with a bit more bite than my other humbucker equipped guitars. The single coils in my strat sound kind of thin for higher gain applications so I started looking at P-90's.
After reading the reviews here, I decided to give an Agile a try. I play mostly heavy, bluesy rock and this guitar fits the bill perfectly. The ceramic pickups have nice clarity and bite. Alnico pickups would be smoother but you can't beat these for pure snarl. The neck pickup is nice and full but with a hint of muddiness. It sounds great clean but loses a bit of definition when overdriven. The real jewel of this guitar is the bridge pickup. Playing through the clean channel on a Randall 100 watt 2x12 and using a Guyatone OD2 and a Boss DS1, this guitar sounded great in all situations. The rear pickup purrs with a touch of overdrive and wails when distortion is piled on. The guitar's sweetspot seems to be in the "mild overdrive to medium distortion" realm. The pickups are actually fairly quiet with only a minor amount of buzz.
The guitar itself is very resonant with excellent sustain. The neck is narrow and fast with the neck binding providing a nice satiny feel. The grover tuners work as they should as I couldn't find any issues with staying in tune.

Set-up from the factory was pretty well the way I like it. It came with fairly low action and intonation was right on. The build on this guitar is flawless. For a $200 guitar , I wasn't expecting the level of quality found in these guitars. The finish and binding are very nice. I went over the body with a magnifying glass and couldn't find a single blemish. The frets were smooth and even. The inlays on the neck snug with no filler showing. Even the wiring inside is neatly tied off and clean. Rock solid construction.

I wouldn't hesitate to use this guitar in a live setting. The hardware seems solid and the finish looks like it can stand a beating. Strap buttons look and feel solid. (Always use straplocks, kiddies!)
This guitar is as solid an instrument as I have ever seen. Reliable and durable.

N/A

I highly recommend this guitar to anyone looking for a Les Paul copy on a budget. It is every bit as good as some Epiphones L.P's I have played and it'll save you about 200 bucks. Quite possibly the best bang for your buck out there.

2006 model, Herritage Cherry Finish
$129.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Single cutaway solid Mahogany arch top body
2 High quality wax potted ceramic humbucker pickups for improved sound
Full body and neck binding
Set-in Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard and trapezodial inlays
22 Jumbo 2.7mm frets and a 13.7" (350mm) radius neck for fast play
Die Cast Grover tuners
Two volume & two tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector switch help you find your sound
Stop-Bar tailpiece transfers string vibration to the body of the guitar and produces superior sustain
Made in Korea
Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 3/16"
Neck Taper is 21.5 mm at the 1st fret and 23.5 mm at the 12th fret
Thickness of neck at the first fret approx 11/16"
Overall length, including the strap button: 40"; Scale length: 24.7"
Bridge pole spacing is 3", and the Tail piece pole spacing is 3 1/4"
Width at the widest point: 13"
Body thickness 2" at edge
Actual Weight is only 10 lbs.
See Rondo Music's ebay site at:
http://stores.ebay.com/Rondo-Music-On-Line
for more information.
Also bought a hard shell Les Paul type made in China case which is as good as any I've seen. I saved $24 shipping by buying both at the same time.

I love the sound of these pickups. They are a little different than a set of PAF's or Seymour Duncans but are very versatile. They may have a little brighter sound than some tone purists would like but you can always roll off the highs a little if that bothers you. I play a Line-6 Guitar Port set-up through my PC or laptop with full range studio monitors, and am able to get sounds ranging from authentic blues, jazzy Wes Montgomery tones or even Strat-like sounds with this set up. Maybe if you are only using an old tube amp you might want to change the pick-ups but for $129 for the cost of the guitar I wouldn't think of it.

When I unpacked the guitar Is was astounded by the quality of the finish and the smooth fretwork. I was especially impressed by the fretwork because the spec page at Rondo Music says that this is the base model and has machine finished frets, not the hand finished ones that their higher end models have. Over all this instrument looks as good or better than any of the Gibson Les Paul guitars I've owned.

The set-up from the factory was playable but not ideal. I think this is to be expected on a new guitar direct from the importer. Most guitars that are purchased at a retail music store have had this done at the store before the customer even sees it but you're paying for it as it's included in the price. If you didn't want to do the final set up your self, any guitar tech can do it for a very reasonable charge.

I knew I'd have to fine tune the action, string height, truss rod, set the intonation and change the strings to a better set of the same guage. This ia all standard stuff and was no problem. Once I did all this which took about an hour it plays as good as any Les Paul I've ever played and the intonation is dead on.

I don't have any problem with anything about the way the guitar came except that the tension on the truss rod was very loose and floppy, but maybe that's the way they like to ship them from the factory.

This has all been discussed a lot below but I think this guitar would hold up in a live playing situation. In fact I'd be inclined to take it to a gig rather than a more expensive instrument.

Haven't had it long enough to know but all reports online indicate no problems.

I've been playing for about 40 years. I've had about 30-40 instruments in that time ranging from Gibson Les Pauls, L6S, Gibson SG's, Arch-top jazz guitars, Fender and custom Strats and 7-strings, Martins etc.
If it were lost or stolen I'd buy another in a minute. If fact I bought this guitar for my daughter thinking that if it was good then maybe I'd buy one of the upgraded ones for me. However this "base model" 2000 is so good and the price is so low I may just get the same model.

Real Maple flame top and single cutaway solid Mahogany arch top body
wax potted ceramic humbucker pickups
Full body and neck binding
Set-in Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard and trapezodial inlays
22 Jumbo 2.7mm frets and a 13.7" (350mm) radius neck
Grover Die Cast tuners
Two volume & two tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector
Stop-Bar tailpiece
Natural finish
Made in Korea
Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 3/16"
Neck Taper is 21.5 mm at the 1st fret and 23.5 mm at the 12th fret
Thickness of neck at the first fret approx 11/16"
Overall length, including the strap button: 40"; Scale length: 24.7"
Bridge pole spacing is 3", and the Tail piece pole spacing is 3 1/4"
Width at the widest point: 13"
Body thickness 2" at edge
Actual Weight is only 10 lbs

- I play rock, blues, heavy rock, metal, Doom rock and Doom metal, etc.
- I use several amps at once including a Vox 30 watt, Roland 30 Watt, Marshall 30 watt, and An Acoustic amp all to blend different sounds for an overall sonic effect.
- This guitar sounds great distorted wit the neck pick-up and pretty good clean in the Bridge pick-up.
- I can make this guitar sound any way I want with my use of different amps and effects, including multiple EQ pedals and a Boss ME-50 multi effects pedal.
- The pick-ups are not as versatile as they could be, but for the price are really good!

- Out of the box, the action was excellent.
- The pick-ups were adjusted all right, they just need to be used appropriately.
- The guitar's finish is so absolutely beautiful. I honestly am so happy about how wonderful the top looks. There are minute scratches in the buffing, but I am not a perfectionist. No one from a distance could tell and I don't really care. The overall visual effect of the guitar is amazing.
- The strings it cam with were already pitted and I believe it has to do with the finish on the fretboard. I took the strings off almost immediately and cleaned the fretboard. All kinds of dark "gunk" came off the fretboard. Changed the strings to Martin Darco 9-42's, tuned it up and Wow, what a difference.

This guitar is solid as a rock. The Tone and Volume knobs are relatively cheap plastic, but not the worst I have seen. May replace them. The finish seems solid and can detect no flaws. Never would gig without a backup, especially because then I would not get to use all the other guitar I have.

I have not dealt with The Maker, but the rep Rondo, seem very well respected and hope, if any problems arise, they would be amicable to helping as they seem to have helped many others.

I have been playing for 21 years. I have owned tons of brands. Right now, I have an SX ST 57, A Gibson Flying V, a Fender Toronado (modified), An Ibanez Hollow Body. I have a bass, and keyboards and drums.
If this guitar were stolen, I would be incredibly angry because this guitar is awesome. I'd replace it with the next best thing from Rondo. I have a list of guitars about 20 names long with multiple models I am interested in, this guitar was listed as a limited quantity and it looked so good, I had to get it now. The picture on the web site does not do it justice.

Single cutaway solid Mahogany arch top body
High quality P-90 pickups offer superior output and outstanding treble response
Full body and neck binding
Set-in Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard and trapezodial inlays
22 Jumbo 2.7mm frets and a 13.7" (350mm) radius neck for fast play
Grover Die Cast tuners
Two volume & two tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector switch help you find your sound
Stop-Bar tailpiece transfers string vibration to the body of the guitar and produces superior sustain
Chrome hardware
Made in Korea
Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 3/16"
Neck Taper is 21.5 mm at the 1st fret and 23.5 mm at the 12th fret
Thickness of neck at the first fret approx 11/16"
Overall length, including the strap button: 40"; Scale length: 24.7"
Bridge pole spacing is 3", and the Tail piece pole spacing is 3 1/4"
Width at the widest point: 13"
Body thickness 2" at edge

I got this for the P90's. I had tons of guitars but no P90's. They sound great. I play classic rock and blues. I have an Epiphone Valve Special that goes real nice with this guitar. Being single coils the P90's will pick up a little noise around electronics but not bad. I would say it is very flexable.

I needed to lower the action just a little to my taste and adjust the truss rod. Intonation is good and the build is perfect. There isn't a mark on this baby. No sharp frets, smooth binding, Grover tuners are smooth and precise.

I just got it but I think it will be tough. It weights like my Les Paul and is solid. Being a LP style instrument I would never trust the stock strap buttons. I'm headed to the music store for strap locks soon as I get a day off.

I e-mailed Rondo Music with a question on a Sunday. Mind you they are open Monday - Friday, but I received a response Sunday night.

I've been playing for 28 years and own 15 guitars, two Gibson Les Pauls. This is by far the best value in a guitar I have ever seen. If it were any more like a Les Paul there would be a law suite. I ordered this over the weekend and it was on my porch Tuesday morning at 8:30am! Amazing.

Les Paul style guitar w/Vintage Sunburst Finish (3TS)
Single cutaway solid Mahogany arch top body
Two high quality wax potted ceramic humbucker pickups
Full body and neck binding
Set-in Maple neck with Rosewood fretboard and trapezodial inlays
22 Jumbo 2.7mm frets and a 13.7" (350mm) radius neck for fast play
Die Cast Grover tuners
Two volume & two tone controls and a 3-way pickup selector switch
Stop-Bar tailpiece
Made in Korea
Width of the neck at the nut: 1 5/8"; at the 22st fret: 2 3/16"
Neck Taper is 21.5 mm at the 1st fret and 23.5 mm at the 12th fret
Thickness of neck at the first fret approx 11/16"
Overall length, including the strap button: 40"; Scale length: 24.7"
Bridge pole spacing is 3", and the Tail piece pole spacing is 3 1/4"
Width at the widest point: 13"
Body thickness 2" at edge
Actual Weight is only 10 lbs

I play a variety of music, and though I just got this guitar and have not played it much yet, I can see it covering my needs as easily as the Gibson Les Paul Custom I used to have.
It's variety - typical Les Paul setup, with typical Les Paul variations, which to me is the maximum with two pickups, the selector switch and a volume and tone knob for each pickup - it just doesn't get any better than that.
I've noticed no noise from the pickups and both sounded excellent.

Absolutely perfect.
The action - no tweaking needed. The finish, beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
I looked this guitar over and over, and played enough to give it a good solid "road test", and I could not see or feel anything wrong with this guitar.

I don't gig, so I can't answer to that, although if I did gig, I would use this guitar without a moments hesitation.
I haven't had it long enough to speak of it's durability, but from what I see, I already have complete faith in it's potential durability and reliability.
I've selected "no opinion" only because I haven't had it long enough to say from actual experience with this particular guitar, that it will indeed hold up in the long run (though I firmly believe it will).

Again, "no opinion" here because I have not had to use their customer support at RondoMusic, either for this guitar, or the other one I bought from them towards the end of last year.
Their shipping was very quick, that's all I personally know so far.

Okay, as usual, I'm not going to bore anyone with a list of my guitars. I've been playing since the middle '70's, and have played many guitars since then, enough to know a good guitar when I see it, feel it, and hear it.
This guitar is an excellent value as I suspected it would be having already bought another guitar from Rondo Music.
As for this guitar specifically, I used to have a Gibson Les Paul custom, which I foolishly sold when I was getting hooked on the Fender sound. Always wanted to get another, but they are way too pricey, and now I don't care, because now I'll just buy one of these for myself someday and be just as happy.
Wait a minute! Did I say, "Buy one for myself someday"? Yes, I did, because I bought this guitar for my son who is just starting out on guitar which brings me to the one problem I have with this guitar - I don't want to give it to him, I want it! Of course, he is going to get it, and I am totally happy that I am starting him out with a very fine instrument.
If it were lost or stolen, would I but another? Definitely. Not only would I replace it for him, I want to buy one for myself - Now! (now if I acan only find a way to sneak it in so I don't hear "another guitar?!).
Anyway, if you want a Very Nice copy of a Les Paul - buy this guitar, you will NOT be sorry.

Les Paul knockoff make in Korea with flame maple top.
Nice Jumbo Frets.
Solid hardware.

I wanted to like the Epiphone LPs but I really didn't like their sound. The Agile's sound is more complex with more overtones to my ears.

I tend to like chimey sounding guitars and this Agile almost gets there. It's not the greatest sounding guitar I own, certainly not the worst sounding either.

PERFECT. I repeat PERFECT. I don't know how anyone can make a guitar for this little amount of money (considering that Rondo probabaly gets them for $75).

The guitar was setup and intonated very well.

The fit and finish is EXCELLENT.

Should outlast me!

Very fast shipping and it was well packed.

I play all different styles of music and own about 10 instruments. I have been looking for a Les Paul type of guitar and didn't want to pay the $$ for the real deal.

The guitar itself is excellent, the tone is very good.

I am very happy with this purchase.

Agile AL2000 with Floyd Rose locking tremolo, gold hardware, 24 frets, comfort cutaway heel, mahogany body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard. It's a Les Paul copy. Grover tuners. 24.7" scale, 13.7" fretboard radius.

Pickups seems noisy.

This guitar had some problems. First, the locking nut was mounted way too high for comfortable playing around the first frets. I had to file the nut shelf down. The tremolo, Floyd Rose copy is a piece of junk. For one thing it's NOT low profile and the fine tuners stick way up in the air, bumping my hand. For another, the fine tuners are all clunky. The trem arm doesn't get very tight and is clunky. After literally playing it for a couple of days, I took the trem off and inspected the knife/pivot edges and they were dulled! Gold was flaking off! The metal looked really soft. The pivot posts are shit too. Third, the guitar is neck heavy, probably due to the neck sticking out from the body a bit more (being 24 frets) and some body weight being relieved because of the tremolo routing. The neck is fat but it doesn't bother me that much. I'm used to Ibanez Wizard necks. Grover tuners are excellent. Stock, it will not stay in tune. Overall the fretwork is actually decent though there are two high ones.

I wouldn't use this as my main guitar in a show situation. As back-up, sure.

So-so.

I switched out the stock tremolo for a low profile one, probably by the same manufacturer. It's a knock-off, but being low profile it's now more comfortable and I blocked the trem for dive-only so it stays in tune far better than floating. I still need to level down the 2nd and 10th frets as they are high. The pickups may need to be switched out. Solving the neck heaviness is something I'm not sure about. Maybe a really wide leather strap.

2005 AL 2000 3TS Spalted top, L.P. style body. Mahogany body and neck. Humbucker pickups, L.P. configeration, grover tuners, comes with an allen wrench for neck adjustments. For the money you can't beat it, $224.99 including shipping!

My style of music is diverse, rock, southern rock, blues, bluegrass, country, gospel
The amps I am currently using: Peavy Valve King Head/Marshall 412 cab, ampeg 112 reverb rocket, and Line 6 212 spider for acoustic gigs, effects include RP50 Digitech, Behringer Hellbabe wah,Boss G7 eq. MXR smart gate
The guitar isn't noisy at all through any of my amps on any setting, only thing about it was a bad tone pot in the neck pickup tone control, easy fix no big deal. The body is thick so if you have this problem you'll need the longer shaft pot.
The sound is full, thick like the Dicky Betts/Allman Bros tone in the middle position, and can have a bite in the treble position, ofcourse depending on how you have your amp setup. For the styles of music I like, this guitar is suited for most, with the exception of bluegrass. It came wired so that either volume control was the master, I prefer having independent control so I rewired it.I only give this a 9 because of the tone pot.

I've had this guitar for 2 weeks now, I've used it on 2 gigs and a recording session. I've still got the same strings that came on it, and there was no need to change a thing, right out of the box as far as the action. The rhythm pickup is a little muddy, really no worse than an Epi.
The finish is beautiful but, thats an Agile for you! I own 3 all have a really nice finish. The laminated top is real wood, you can see it through the finish.

This is my 3rd Agile that I own, along with 2 Gibson L.P.and an S.G> a Fender Tele and 3 Strats, C1 plus Schecter, 2 AV3 Samicks, 1 custom made Roscoe that Steve Morse signed for me, and various acoustics> all nice guitars, but none any better than my Agiles. I've used all of my Agiles on gigs, doesn't matter what guitar I use, I will have a back up on hand, many times just another Agile.
Strap buttons are solid, so far I haven't had a problem with my other 2 Agiles <always put your strings on properly> on any guitar that you use and maintain them and they will last. A Gibson can be destroyed in the wrong hands. But like a Gibson if you take care of your important word here "instrument" the Agile will last.
Not that I'm anti American made, my first Les Paul Standard cost me $490.00 brand new with a case. Now Gibson has lost their mind with price.
The Agile is a good guitar and it's not just for beginners, I've been playing for 38years now.

First thing about dealing with someone over the net is "can I trust someone I've never met"?
With Kurt and his crew at Rondo music I give a resounding Yes, I had ordered the AL 2000 about 4 weeks ago over e-bay, well the guitar came in and they had sent the wrong finish to me. It was the natural instead of the 3TS finish. So, instead of just sending the guitar back. I called and reordered the correct finish again, I have gigs, I wanted to use the new one, so I wouldn't have to wait.
Received new guitar, then I sent the other one back, by the way which was a nice guitar. I received a refund and a check for the cost of shipping. I don't know these people, but for me that means integrity.
I do all of my own repairs and I maintain my guitars. So I'm not sure about a warranty, but I believe they do offer one.

I've been playing and learning now for 38 years, I'm 51 and don't mind telling you,I've listed most of my gear already, but not all I've had through the years. If this guitar were lost or stolen, if I didn't get to the felon first, I would get another. I love the fact you can get a nice guitar for the price. I hate the fact that Gibson is so over priced, Asians were making instruments before America existed.
I obtained the facts about this guitar from this forum before I bought the first one, thanks for that.

Bought in 2005 Price 99.99 plus shipping on sale.
Came with truss rod allen wrench and a cheap instrument cable.
All the specs available from Rondos website.
A surprisingly nice flame to the veneer top for such an inexspensive guitar.
Scarf neck joint on the maple neck.
Low grade grover tuners but function fine.

I will say it doesn't sound like a real les paul and nobody should expect it to.
A bit brighter tone because of the maple neck most likely. Not really any different than any other budget LP copy.
Guitar is quiet and the pots and switches function fine.

It was set up decent out of the box and only needed new strings and a few tweaks to play great.
Nice low action and nice fretwork for having no hand finishing.
They need to be polished to please an avid string bender.
A few obvious finish flaws under the clearcoat on the body but expected at this price and really no big deal.
I removed the neck pickup and noticed a very large amount of excess
glue (looks like epoxy) in the neck pocket.
Not a big deal just looks bad and probably doesn't do much for tone and sustain.
The finish is very glossy and looks nice.
Like most folks have said the Rondo picture don't do these guitars justice.
My only complaint with this guitar is that some of the screws that hold the pickup rings and cavity covers are too short or miss the wood completely.
A problem easily fixed but shouldn't be necessary.
The quality on Agiles like any budget brand can be hit or miss.
Bad ones do get out on occasion that have playablity or other issues.
Rondo will make it right if you get one with problems.
I sent my first Agile (ps900) back because of a twisted neck and fret problems.
I returned it for a complete refund including shipping with absolutely
no problems.

The guitar will be as reliable as most any other LP clone.
Every bit the equal of a 400+ dollar Epiphone.

The customer service at Rondo is great with an excellent return policy.

This guitar isn't a high end instrument but it is the best value in a
low price LP copy I have ever seen.
Nothing at Guitar Center ar Sam Ash etc can touch it for the same money.

I chose this Agile after reading reviews here of many other guitar players. I am new to guitars, but I'm very serious about learning to play well. I have had it over a month and as I have learned to work with the tone, three way switch and my amplifier (a 15 watt Peavey, transtube practice amp with overdrive)I have been able to create some pretty amazingly similar sound. I have a good ear and this guitar delivers.
Many tell you to replace the strings, I have kept the original set on to break in on, so I have an appreciation for what people are talking about when I do change them.
Rosewood Frets. I have the dark cherry tiger maple with an incredible finish, I'm impressed and I on consider myself to be pretty critical. Nothing is perfect I suppose, one of the two volume nobs does catch on a rise in the bod a little, but no big deal to me.

I had specifically wanted to recreate the sound of some of my favorite, Beatles being high amongst them and I am not disappointed.
With amp in overdrive, a Jimi Hendrix style star spangle banner blows me away. It does quiet play very well, when you want something with clear notes and a sweeter sound.

How is the action? I'm taking the same approach to this as I did the strings, I'm playing the way it came then I will in time adjust the action, so I can develop my own likes, not what somebody else tells me. I think it may be a little too high, but from what others say it an be adjusted. No flaws that I have noticed so far.

Seems pretty well built. I plan to take it with me when I travel, so in year, I'm sure it will be easier to judge this.

Fairly quick responses to e-mails regarding shipping dates, etc. was bought in December so I understand they would be pretty busy

What a price, I would hate to lose it, I am really enjoying it. What a price and there are probably better deals on the same guitar, I didn't look that hard. I chose it because I wanted a Les Paul copy, but didn't want to spend the money on something more expensive. At my stage as a beginner, I thought this was a good compromise. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed unless your some nitpicker, in which case you should waste your money and buy more guitar than you need and stop whining.

Same features as described below except not book matched. WHO CARES!! It cost $100

The bridge pickup sucks. WHO CARES! It's already been replaced by a GFS overwound alnico, which sounds great. The bridge pickup is really not that bad I can get some nice snarly, dirty lead sounds out of it. But it will be replaced by a GFS Crusader in the next couple days. I play it through a YCV40WR. I'm not going to compare this guitar to anything. All I know is that it makes the sounds that my ears want to hear. It's very meaty, yet crisp and clear. The notes chime out very well even when hevily distorted. Man I love this thing.

I've never had a guitar that was set up properly out of the box. Adjusted the truss rod, lowered the bridge to just above fret buzz and intonated.
The finish is almost perfect.

It fell off it's stand today, on the carpet. (I prolly woulda cried if it were a gibson). The only thing that was broken was the little plastic cap on the switch. I plugged it in and only 2 strings were slightly out of tune.I checked all the seams and headstock and not a scratch. I'm sure the outcome would've been different on a hard surface though. But WHO CARES, it was only $100. HAH!

I prolly won't have to deal with them until I get one of their more expensive guitars. And I will get one.

Been playing 17 years. I own 6 electric one acoustic and two bass guitars.3 tube amps a 100 watt ampeg bass amp and all kinds of other crap. This guitar might end up being my favorite.
If it disappeared, so what, I'd buy another Agile.
I love everything about this guitar so far, for the price. I may change out the pots and caps eventually but it's no hurry.
I was very skeptical about these guitars at first. I'd read a lot of really good reviews all over the internet. When it became available for this price, I just couldn't pass it up. I heard about this guitar at guitar-jam.com forum and I'm so grateful for the tip on this sale. I own pretty much gear, but I've never gone into debt for any of it. I search out the best gear for the best price and this guitar is just that.
I can't believe how some of the people on here nitpick about these guitars, like the moron that whined about nut spacing. HELLOOoo, you didn't pay $1000 for the guitar. What do you expect for $180.
This guitar is GREAT. No matter what minor flaws it may have.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the screws that hold down the pickup ring don't hold very well at the bridge PU. I don't give a rat's ass though. It's a simple fix.

2005 AL2000 Maple Flame Cherry
Stock config
Grover Tuners See SITE!~!

This guitar is stunning to look at. when I received it I looked at it for a good 20 minutes before I even played it. The finish is flawless and everyone who see's it automatically comments on it.

I play mostly country and rock. Sound is very scalable and meets my needs as I expected. I'm using a Marshal amp the sound is very full and rich.

I took it to a guitar tech soon after I received it and he basically just did a point inspection. Action was fine, all of the controls were fine, intonation fine, No flaws were found or detected. He is actually a lifelong musician and he gave it a good review. He did suggest that I replace the strings which i did.
I give it an 8 because of the strings.

I see no reason why this guitar will not stand up to the gig life. Its solid from the craftsmanship to the strap buttons. For me, only experience and history creates dependability but I clearly forsee this be a highly dependable guitar.
I would never go to a gig w/out a b-up.

didn't need to use Rondo's customer support and i'm glad that i didn't due to the mixed reviews.

My experience is limited but I feel very pleased (and actually a little proud) with my selection and purchase. If it were stolen I would definately buy another and, due to the quality of this guitar, may start saving for the Agile HRB-200 acoustic.

The look, sound and feel is great. Before buying I looked at the Les Pauls and others. Based upon reviews and emailing current owners I chose the Agile.

When someone says "for the price you pay, its the best" I feel like the speaker is balancing out quality for cost BUT in this case great price AND great quality. Hands down - two thumbs up!

2005, Korean made.

-22 frets
-Two-piece (bookmatched) laminated flame maple top
-Three-piece mahogany body
-Two-piece set (glued in) maple neck
-Graphite nut (not graphtech)
-Cherry Sunburst, polyeurithane finish
-2 volume controls, 2 tone controls, 3-way switch (a-la Les Paul)
-2 ceramic wax-potted no-name humbuckers
-Chrome (not nickel) Tune-O-Matic bridge with chome stop tailpiece
-Grover 18:1 ratio chrome tuners
-Medium jumbo frets, well polished

I play blues and blues rock. This guitar fits my style perfectly. The sustain is virtually endless much like a Les Paul copy should be. The humbuckers are acceptable, and sound fairly nice when clean. With a little overdrive they sound great! There are no harsh overtones or unwanted noises at all.

When clean, it can sound a little on the bright side. Be sure to roll back the tone knob a bit more than you would normally think to when clean to darken it up a bit. I personally like the tone knobs around 6 or 7 when clean. When overdriven/distorted they sound full & rich at about 7 or 8. It can vary from smooth & jazzy all the way to hardcore metal, lots of variety from these no-name pups.

I will most likely upgrade the pickups somewhere down the road. But the stock pups are acceptable for now.

From the factory, the intonation was a bit off on the unwound strings but not by much. And the string height needed some adjustment to fit my super-low action needs. The strings that come with the AL-2000 are Korean made and are pretty much worthless, all other AL-2x00 models have GHS strings. So be prepared to change them, and thus probably need some action and intonation adjustments.

The finish is immaculate! Absolutely beautiful. I was expecting much less for $99, but I got a paintjob normally found on $1200+ guitars. There are no overspray problems, the binding was done very well, and the three pieces of mahogany that make up the body are well matched. The bookmatched flame top looks great. I'm very happy with the finish.

The string spacing is perfect, and the strings line up great with the pickup pole pieces. Neither of the E strings are too close or too far from the edge of the fretboard.

The frets were cut and polished *very* nicely. The bevels are even, there is no overhang on the fret ends, each fret is polished so well that I was thinking they were stainless steel. The frets are perfect.

I am entirely satisfied with the Action, Fit & Finish. No unwanted fret buzz with the action as low as I like it either. Thumbs up to the guy(s) who put this guitar together. Much higher quality build than many Gibsons I've seen.

The pots are snug & smooth; the selector switch is fairly tight, not too much, and doesn't rattle or anything; and the input jack is secure.

The only thing coming close to being a problem is the graphite nut. It was cut very well but it needs to be broken in a bit. The angle at which the strings go through the nut was cut a little too straight on the D & G strings, but only by a little. I am very confident that over a short amount of time it will be just fine. I'm still awarding a 10 rating for this.

I am entirely confident with the durability of this guitar. I'd take it anywhere, gigging, jamming, practicing -- whatever. It will hold up to normal wear and tear as well as anything else. I would (and will) put locking strap buttons on it, just because I never trust a normal strap button.

I haven't had to deal with customer support from Rondo Music yet. I did email Kurt with a few questions and he sent a reply within 24 hours, and was very helpful. From what I heard, customer support with Rondo Music is well above par.

I've been playing guitar for 10 years. I've played a wide variety of guitars, and find this guitar to be a very good one. If it got stolen I would immediately replace it with another Agile. In fact, I've got my eye on a couple more Agile guitars that I may purchase in the near future. Forget Gibson & Fender. Agile is the best bang for your buck on the planet.

I may sound too over enthusiastic about Agile, but it's because they actually live up to their hype.

this is an update to my 12/13 post. After playing the guitar some more, I noticed I was having a hard time playing notes on the first 2 strings cleanly up near the neck. Found out the nut string spacing on these guitars is inconsistant. strings 3,4,5 and 6 have 9/32" spacing, while strings 1 and 2 are 0.25" spacing. Doesn't sound like a lot, but means you have 1/16" less spacing to play a note, and makes a difference for me anyway. So now I have to get the nut replaced.

Contacted Rondo about this. They sent me a new nut that I was going to replace myself, however after waiting a week to get it I found out it was the same spacing. I then sent Kurt another email and asked if this spacing was designed this way on purpose, and the reponse I got from Kurt was

"I am not sure about the details of the nut manuf process, but I do know we sell 1000s of these without a problem and have not hear this complaint. Perhaps the quality level you are expecting is beyond us ? If you wish, I can take back - just go to www.rondomusic.com - click on 'returns' - otherwise I don't have any nuts that are different from what I sent."

So he sells 1000s of these but can't tell me if this spacing is by design?? That's increadibly lame. I will say he did always repond to my emails quickly though! But maybe he should have responded slower and got me an answer. I can only assume its this way by design. Maybe gibsons are like this and they are copying it??

I guess if you buy the one for $159 and pay $25-$50 to get the nut replaced by a pro, you are still ahead of what it will cost you to get a comparable guitar somewhere else. Also, since I believe they sell nuts spaced 0.25 for all strings, I guess some people like it that way - just not me!

Al-2000 HSB ( Honey Sun Burst ) Made in Korea . For Specs see site .
I've only had for a couple of hours , but here goes ......
The Finish on this thing is awesome !!Deep and beautifull color .
It feels , looks , smell , responds like a Les Paul ! ( If it was a woman I'd marry it !!! ) All for $200.00 Bucks !!
The neck plays like a dream , the frets are great , even and smooth . Tuners are great , I rocked in my own little world and only came up for air once in a blue to retune .
Now the the pots I know eventually I have to replace , the transition from 0 to full volume wasn't smooth especially if you do it quickly . Otherwise , I really can't complain as far as the details , mine came to me immaculate !!

I'm into Rock to blues to jazz and fusion stuff . Most stuff in the vein of Aerosmith , King's X , Allman Bros . , Mahavhishnu Orch., Led Zep ,B.B. King , John Lee Hooker
Hendrix , Rush ...and so on ...I would say It fits it all . You can go clean to a beautiful sustained sound without any problems . These are true humbuckers !! I was freaking out on how beautifully they sustained , I orgasmed !! Heavy Metal you could pull off depending on the amp set up or effects pedal . I have a korg Pandora 3 and on the distortion setting of " Scoop " I was a wannabe Metal god !!
Now here's the thing , I personally prefer Tom Anderson pups . They have a darker tone to them as opposed to these are on the brighter side . But that is my preference , when I had several custom guitars many years ago I had them outfitted with Anderson's I personally love the sound and thats what it comes down to , " what do you like ?" as humbuckers go I otherwise have no problem with them .

As with any guitar you get , You'll have to change the strings to your preference and with that come also the intonation and so forth...
I personally can see no flaws on this baby . When I ordered it I also ordered a case for it so there were no mess ups in transit that I can see . As I said before the finish on this thing is beautiful !! I've always said and heard " If it's too good to be true it probably is !!"
Well so far this is the exception to the rule . These guitars are great .

It's been awhile since I've played live , but I have no doubts that it will hold up .

I called Rondo and dealt with A salesman named J.R . Really nice guy , answered my questions without any attitude . But they have a problem of the " left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing " When I made my purchase on the 9th J.R. told me to await my tracking number that would be sent to my email address from the warehouse .J.R. thought the warehouse hadn't sent out my guitar yet when I called Rondo directly . I waited til the 12th and 13th and lo and behold the guitar showed up at my house on the 13th and a tracking # was never sent .

I played guitar for about 12 years then stopped and recently after another 12 years picked it up again .lol . and ended purchasing the Agile because of this site and others that discuss the Rondo guitars in particular !!! For the money and the playability that comes with it this thing has many expensive guitars I've owned and had built beat in some of the cases or at the very least matched !! But thats in my humble opinion

2005 Korea
Features as others have noted. I got the black cherry flame. Other than one small blemish at edge of the body, which is barely noticable, looks great. My scores are all weighted based on price. I have another Korean made guitar, an Ibanez RG320 that I paid $100 more for 4 years ago, and this compares well. The neck is thicker than the rg320, which is really thin; and it is also a little wider - more room to bend those strings!

haven't had it for too long. Like blues and hard rock mostly. I use it with some inexpensive Behringer effects pedals ($20 a piece, hard to beat), and I think it sounds good. I'm an avg player at best, so....

After reading all the good reviews for this guitar, the one thing many said was the intonation was off or the truss rod needed adjustments. This almost made me not order this. I was happy to find when I got it that the action was good - pretty low with no fret buzz. It needed a tuneup of course, but the intonation is almost perfect - only reason I know it isn't perfect is because the needle on my tuner is just a little off. Not enough that I'm even going to bother with it. No need for any truss rod adjustments. There is occasionally a little vibration/buzz from the front pickup - haven't figured out yet - hopefully just a loose screw.

the pickup selector seems a little cheesy. Other than that and the one pickup vibrating a little, it seems pretty sturdy. I don't play live, but it seems as sturdy as my other electric guitars, which also include an '87 fender strat (made in japan).

na

got my first guitar 25 years ago, but am just the occasional player. I would buy it again, and don't see any reason at this point to go to a higher grade model. My only comment on 'value' though is I doubt one of these will appreciate in value - I'm pretty sure I can get more for my fender strat now than what I paid for it in 1987 ($200). Not that I plan to ever sell it, but something to consider The Agile though is an excellent guitar for a beginner/moderate user.

Just got a new (2005) gold top with the cream P90s about a month ago. Specs are already listed by others.

I use it with an Ampeg V2 and it sounds amazing. I also use it through a small Vox Pathfinder to great effect. It's a great LP copy for the money, with sharp, hot pick-ups. The neck pick-up is quite rich and mellow, while the bridge has a pleasantly abrasive tone. All in all, quite a variety of tones available.

Action was great, but intonation needed work. Also, the first fret is a bit high, with the result that you have to play open chords a bit lightly on the B string. Maybe it's just part of the character of the guitar: real LPs are a bit idiosyncratic too.
Pick-ups were set up fine, and the finish is impeccable. There are no paint flaws, no scratched, no inconsistencies etc. on the body. However, the rosewood in the neck has a slight patina to it, as if the finish is a little thin for about 6". Still, the neck feels great and the bare wood does not affect the sound in the least.

This guitar should have no problems with live playing. The hardware is brand name and the finish is almost perfect, (except as noted). I'd gig with it without hesitation, but always bring some kind of back-up.

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I have a few other guitars, nothing too exotic. A Larivee acoustic, an Epiphone Joe Pass, an Ibanez Artcore AG75 and about 5 quality basses. I've been playing for my own enjoyment for about 15 years, occasionally playing out. This guitar is by far the most enjoyable one I own. It's just a blast to play, with its super fast neck and cutting tone.
If I lost this one I would definitely replace it, though with a 2800 or higher. I just want to see how good Agile can be, because if this is their lowest end LP copy the top version must be spectacular.

Made in Korea 2005, Les Paul copy laminated Cherry Canadian Tiger Maple Top, Indian Rosewood fretboard, - solid mahogany three piece body - read about the AL2000 on Harmony-Central and bought through Rondo Music.

Grover 18-1 super smooth tuners.

the neck is standard Les Paul studio radius that really is very nice. I originally thought it was a bit thin but it took about a week to get to just love it.

This guitar has everything you need in an LP (not just a copy) - it's tough, sturdy, good looking and has tons of sustain.

the guitar right out of the box is exaclty what you'd expect from a LP type guitar. Loads of sustain, smooth mids and controlled highs. I can really hear every note when playing as fast as I can and can really sit on a note and listen to it hold for a while. This guitar has a rich/full sound without losing any highs. I've never had an instrument that's sounded better - just different. With that said, I still plan on changing the PUPS to Seymor Duncan (Jazz at the Neck and a JB at the Bridge) to get absolute recording quality sounds from the AL2000.

Set up seems to me but I'm not that picky - except it has 10's versus 9's. The action is a bit high but not bad for an out-of-the-box guitar.

the G string was way out of intonation (the string was in perfect tune at teh 1st fret but by the 7th fret it was not even close - to the point where I thought there was something wrong with the guitar. I spent a week trying to get it intonated and was about to give up and exchange it when I talked with Kurt from Rondo Music - It's great now - see customer support for more on teh intonation.

I changed to 9's and am very happy now. I just changed the action this week to as low as I could without buzz and this thing plays like butter.

The finish is great - kudos to the labor force in Korea! There are a couple of flaws I see - One around the neck joint (probably wood filler because it doesn?t match the rest of the wood grain but very well hidden - It doesn't take away from the guitar at all: two small blemishes under the finish on the back (I'm very particular). There's a little discoloration on the cherry finish under the pickguard - I removed the pick guard because the guitar looks great without it.

The hardware/frets were neat and clean - better than either an Ibanez RG or S series (I know because I own and RG and my neighbor owns an S series)

Absolutely no loose hardware!! The graphite nut sticks on the G and B strings but this is common on a new guitar, if my last purchase holds true it'll take about a month to stop sticking. The cool thing about a graphite nut is that it's self-lubricating so once it settles down, there's almost no chance for friction points.

I give it a 9 because Gibson's are not this nice - there's always some bubbling of the finish around the neck joint on Gibsons that the Agile doesn't have!! :)

This guitar is playable anywhere you go - get a case though.

The equipment on the guitar is standard stuff - nothing on this is custom except the pups - you could buy this guitar, take the parts off and sell them for more than you paid for the guitar. An ebay dream.

Finish look and seems as good as any other guitar I've owned.

Strap locks are tight and have cloth cushions for longer life. I will be replacing them with stap locker just 'cause that's what I use on my guitars. LP's use the rounded horn for the shoulder button and I have never had confidence in this connection when swinging LP's around.

This guitar so far has been great and I always carry more guitars than I need due to assorted sounds - I have six.

After playing the guitar for a week I noticed that the G string was out of tune as went down the neck - it was in tune at the 1st fret but out by the 7th. I had another guitar that did this and I have to sell it.

Well I sent a message to Rondo Music who quickly got back to me with my options - replace the guitar with a new one, or try to intonate the guitar again. I spent the next two nights working on the guitar to get it intontated using two different tuners (I've since learned that the first one I was using is not a chromatic tuner even though it says it is) and it was still slightly off but closer.

Kurt sent me two new sets of strings and all is well! Replace the stock strings as soon as you get the guitar

I have been playing for over 25 years

I own an RG320DXQM, An Ibanez Destroyer II, A Jackson Kelly Super Pro, an Ibanez Z720, and an 129.00 Gibson 335 copy - Oscar Schmidt Delta King (the DK is why I tried Agile - it is such a great 335 copy guitar that I had to try an LP copy).

I run my guitars through a Peavey Ultra Plus 100W Tube Amp and an Ampeg SS140C Solid State Amp.

If stolen - I'd buy two - one I'd sell for parts on ebay to pay for both and stillhave money left over. The guitar's feel is perfect for a Les Paul - no worries about speed picking or slow note playing, it does both very well. I love teh sustain and haven't found a hate point since it's been intonated. this guitar is probably the best guitar I own right now (for almost the least amount of money)

the only issue I have is that it came with a pcik guard and the PUPs have the chrome covers - I like the open humbucker look. I guess I wish it came with Duncan PUPS but they would have put the cost over $350.

I like the guitar enough to know I will probably by the SX (the other copy type guitar brand from Rondo Music) when I can get it into the house without my wife seeing it as well the Amber Quilt PRS copy.

Made in Korea 2005, Les Paul copy laminated Cherry Canadian Tiger Maple Top, Indian Rosewood fretboard, - solid mohagony - read about the AL2000 at Rondomusic.

Grover 18-1 super smooth tuners.

The neck is a bit thin for me (I like 'em fat at the nut for open chords) adn the radius is a bit flat for my taste but I will manage just fine.

I bought the cheapest AL2000 they had ($159.00) and although they claim the pickup are wax potted there is some microphonics. I don't really care that much because I plan on changing them to Duncam Customs and coil tapping them for sounds.

Set up seems to me but I'm not that picky - except it has 10's versus 9's. The action is a bit high but not bad for an out-of-the-box guitar (it's not like getting a screw driver, you actually have to set the thing up to your liking)

The finish is great - kudos to the labor force in Korea! There are three flaws I see - One around the neck joint (probably wood filler because it dosnt mathc the rest of the wood grain but very well hidden - It doesn't take away from the guitar at all: two small blemishes under the finish on the back (I'm very particular).

The hardware/frets were neat and clean - better than either an Ibanez RG or S series (I know becuase I own and RG and my neighbor owns an S series)

Absolutely no loose hardware!! Teh nut is sticking on the G and B strings but this is common on a new guitar, if my last purchase holds true it'll take about a month to stop sticking

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I have been playing for over 25 years

I own an RG320DXQM, An Ibanez Destroyer II, A Jackson Kell Super Pro, an Ibanez Z720, and an Oscar Schmidt Delta King (teh DK is why I tried Agile - it is such a great 335 copy guitar that I had to try an LP copy). I run my guitars through a Peavey Ultra Plus 100W Tube Amp and an ampeg SS140C Solid State Amp. I have two Genesis3 Preamps.

I like the guitar enough to know I will probably by the SX (the other copy type guitar bradn from Rondo Music) when I can get it into the house without my wife seeing it as well the PS-900 PRS copy.

New Agile AL 2000 tigers eye maple top.

Check out the features on rondomusic.com

Been Playing all around rock & blues for 22yrs.

Like the tone, need to mess w/ it a little to get really good tone, probably could upgrade the p/ups but is satisfactory for now. appearance is quite good.

Set up isn't to bad, I'll need to adjust the intonation and put a set of 10's on it. top looks great, not a fake top, set neck, frets feel good and don't feel rough on the edges very playable. Didn't see any flaws that jumped out @ me for the price a very good guitar.
controls function fine.

Seems like everything will last but.. only time wil tell that.

Emailed Kurt once and he replied that day, so far that's all I have to go on.

Been Playing for a while, I've a strat copy, a Taylor acoustic, a Kustom practice amp with a few misc. effects.
One of my best friends just bought a beautiful USA Les Paul and that guitar made me want an LP myself so I started doing some research on copies and found the Agile, for the money it's the best thing out there. Is it an LP no but.. the quality is top shelf,plays nice &when I put some 10's on it and get it set up I'll add to this review
but for now I'm quite happy, and with what I would have paid for a LP I can buy a few more Agiles.

This is a Agile AL2000 Gold Top with P90 pups. It has a solid mahognay arch top body with a set in mapel neck and rosewood fingerboard. It comes with a stop tail/tune-o-matic bridge and Grover style tuners. It has 22 jumbo frets and comes in at about 10 pounds. It is very well made and finished. The Gold Top is flawless and it came from the factory setup pretty good.

I'm a blues musician and this guitar fits my style perfectly. I play through a 1964 Blackface Super and I can't believe how great this guitar sounds through this amp. The P90s have a rich cutting tone. The neck pup espically. The only effect I use is a original Tube Screamer and the Agile drives it just right. Very little noise for single coils. The one mod I made to the guitar was to trade out the 500k volumn pots for 250ks. It did make a difference in the overall sound of the guitar. They should do this at the Agile factory, but for $199.00 I can't complain too much. The neck is just right for me. A little beefy but very playable. Again, for the money, this is a great guitar.

Stright out of the box this guitar was very nice. I worked on the action a little because I like it a little higher than most players. Outside of that, I slapped on a new set of GHSs - 10s - and I've been playing it ever since.

I'm a professional, that's how I make my living. I've been playing for over 40 years. I have several "real" guitars - a 67 335, 58 Strat, 61 Tele, 70 Martin D28, a 58 Dobro and 2 early 60s Pauls. Very seldom do I play these at gigs anymore. For the last several years I've been playing a Mexican Tele that I really like. I wanted a second guitar as my backup and a friend recommened I look into the Agiles. I play 4 to 5 nights a week and tour several times a year both in the States and overseas. I wanted a solid guitar I could depend on when I'm working. So far so good. The Agile has actually become my guitar of choice for gigging. I still can't believe how a guitar this good could be had so reasonably. I'll probably look into some more of their other models. Very impressive.

Other than buying the guitar online from Rondo Music, I've had no dealings with them. I have my own guitar tech that works on my guitars and he's been doing it for years. He was blown away by this Agile.

Like I said earlier, I've been playing professionally for over 40 years - www.dantreanor.com - for the money this is one of the best guitars I've ever had. If it was lost or stolen,(in 1998 I lost a 1972 Strat, KLA baggage while doing a tour of Europe) I would replace it in a heart beat. This would be a fine guitar for someone just getting started, a far cry from my 1962 Harmony that I started on.

Chinese made, 22 frets, laminated top, 3 way switch, 2 tone, 2 volume, no name pickups, unknown woods used, thick neck (i don't know what the other guy was talking about), and no name tuners.

When you use distortion the pickups give a lot of feedback. The tone seems dull. Most likey due to the no name pickups. The pickups magnets are weaker then Squire guitars. Trust me, I tested them myself.

The guitar arrived to me with super high action. After about 1 hour of adjusting I got it playing right. The headstock bridge was poorly routed with some higher then others causing tuning issues. The pickups had to be raised as well to help the sound due to the weak pickups.

This guitar is definately not reliable and I would not even reccommend it to a begginer.

The company is one big mistry. They are impossible to contact. I tried contacting them to help me resolve a problem with the guitar. with no luck. No phone number, no email, no fax NOTHING!

I have been playing guitar for 20 years. Trust me, you do not want this guitar. The quality of the pickups is terrible. The set up took forever (mind you it is a NEW guitar). I wish I went with something else :(

You can find the features on www.rondomusic.net. I figured I'd just point out some of the highlights.

This the least expensive of Agiles LP copies. It's got a 3 piece mahogany body and maple neck. This one came in beautiful gloss black with gold standard LP-style hardware. It came stock with Grover tuners and a graphite nut.

The neck is a bit thin for my tastes, but alot of people would like it. I do like the jumbo frets.

For accessories, it came with a cheap cable and an allen wrench for truss rod adjustment.

I helped my brother pick this out for his first guitar. He was looking at some of those starter packs in places like Musician's Friend. I've played a few of the guitars that come in those packs and they get blown away by this Agile!

The sound is comparable to the Epiphones that I've played. (I'm not ragging on Epis, but I have experience with them so they are good for comparison). The pickups are not overly hot which I think is a benefit. You can coax alot of great sounds out of the guitar. Cleans are pretty articulate and can get jazzy when you roll of the tone a bit. With overdrive, this is a great hard rock guitar.

For the price, the guitar sounds awesome.

The guitar needed some minor tweaking to get rid of some fret buzz, but nothing major. I could get some nice low action on the guitar. It practically plays itself!

On the good side:
- the jumbo frets looked pretty good and were very shiny
- the nut was cut pretty well (better than my $450 Epi Flying V)
- the black finish is virtually mirror smooth with no visible seams in the wood -- very nice!!!

Known problems:
- the side dots on the neck binding are not as even as they could be, but this is pretty minor
- there is a bit of filler in some places around the inlays, but no worse than many more expensive Epiphones and similarly priced guitars
- the bridge saddles are a bit rough, but again not too bad

I recommend strap locks, but I say this for all guitars. The hardware seems as good as any Epi stuff in the $300-400 range. Tuning is solid with the Grovers and graphite nut.

One downside is the saddles are a bit rough, causing me to break the high E after an hour of playing. You can solve this with a little graphite on the saddles or by picking up some Graphtech saddles (highly recommended!)

With these little tweaks, it should definitely withstand live playing.

I haven't had to deal with them yet about this guitar, but Kurt over at Rondo Music has a good reputation and is always fast with emails.

I've been playing for 7-8 years and have owned/played quite a few guitars. Is this as good as a $2000 Gibson? Nope. Is it as good as a $600 Epi? Very close.

For the price, you can not beat this guitar. My brother got this as his first electric, but it's cool enough that he won't outgrow it like he would with a $200 bolt neck MF special. I love playing it too!

If it were mine and lost/stolen, I don't know if I'd buy it again ony because there are so many great AL2000s to chose from on the Rondo site! (I really dig the tiger eye one, too)

Overall, this is a fantastic guitar, even if it were $300-400. I highly recommend it to beginners and experienced players who want a good guitar but who don't want to spend a fortune.