Agile AL3000M

Mine was made in 2005, mahogany with the 3/4" maple cap, and wood binding.

I love the classic '57 humbucker and the Burstbucker Pros on my various Gibsons LPs, SGs, and Explorers so I wanted to try a cheap copy. The 3000M's PUs define a cheap wannabe. Tried it on a Fender Hotrod Deville 212 (60 watts tube) and my Peavey XXX (another tube) both clean and with effects (OD and distortion, etc). Not the humbucker I'm familiar with, maybe if I replace the PUs? Not into modding so what's the point?

The wood binding around the body peeled. Fixed it with Gorilla glue and wrapped rubber bands while it cured. So far so good but very bad as far as build quality.

The strings were some cheapie brand I suppose so installed my favorites, no big deal. Played around with the stopbar to fix some buzzing on the high E.

See the binding that peeled.

Why bother? It's a cheap copy.

Been playing since middle school, so about 20 years.

Purchased from Rondo Music. Korean made in 2005. Excellent Les Paul type guitar with the must-have features that make it feel like the classic '58-60 standard, such as two-piece mahogany body, one-piece mahogany neck, and nice, thick 3/4" maple top. This one's a honey-burst, and the nice tiger-stripe veneer is gorgeous...more important for the sound, though, is the fact that the 1/16" pretty is sitting on the thick maple cap you gotta have to get that real vintage 'Paul tone and sustain. Plus features are excellent hardware, right down to the pots and switches, good pups for an inexpensive Korean import, heck, I even like the strap buttons on this thing. Came very well set up. Downside items are the incredibly heavy finish, copyright avoiding esthetic variations, and some other appearance issues that keep it from looking more like the real magilla, like maple body-binding, abalone inlays, no neck binding, etc.

I've owned it for 3 months now, and it's been in heavy rotation in my stable, played through all my amps and most of my gadgets. Definitely has the sound of the great Pauls I've played; through my BF Vibro-champ (played into a 2x12 Music Man cab) it gets terrific Led Zep, ZZ Top, and other Les Paul driven rock. Played at lower, cleaner settings still has that unmistakable big fat mahogany/maple tone and sustain. Through my J-Station modeler sounded true to type in every application. Even unplugged, it has sustain for days.

As previously stated, very well setup from the factory. I lowered the action a tad and recrowned the bone nut...took off about 3/32" of unnecessary meat, a little graphite in the nut slots and off we go! I removed the funky cream-pearloid pickguard and matching truss rod cover; I don't care for LP pickguards and the cream pearloid just made it look cheap, to my eyes. Halves on the stripey veneer match pretty well but not a true book-match, and would definitely look cooler with deeper dish to the top, but still has that sweet womany belly the vintage 'Pauls have. Overall very well put together.

This puppy will take the abuse! If you want a guitar that will quickly show real-use wear and tear (like I prefer!) you'll be disappointed by the armor-like finish, but if you want a durable finish you'll love it. Everything is solid as a rock. I bought this because, as a predominantly Strat player, I couldn't see paying 2-3 large for a Les Paul, but always wanted one in the stable. I shopped quite a bit and was very disappointed by the Epiphone offerings. this is way closer in materials and construction than anything short of a vintage reissue. For a guy like me, this is a dream come true-everything a player wants in a LP but none of the cost and worry about losing/breaking a high-dollar axe.

My buddy liked it so much he called Rondo to see if they had/were getting any more-there's the rub. Seems Rondo sort of "gets what they get" and it might be awhile before you see another one like mine. I'm a somewhat skilled guitar tech, so I doubt I'll ever look for help with anything less that full-out failure; otherwise, Rondo was very cool to work with and I've bought other guitars from them since, mostly on the strength of how good this one is.

I've been a guitarist for 38 years-I've had or played just about everything you can imagine. This LP knockoff is my 103rd guitar (I spent years buying and selling axes) and I have to say it's been one of my most satisfying purchases. Won't be leaving my stable, even if I someday pony-up for the real thing...it's just sooo close to the originals, with none of the worry! If stolen, I would absolutely try to replace it...might have to wait a bit, though. I like it so much, I'll probably drop some dimes and have the neck contoured a bit more to my liking. This one has a late-50's fat, wide neck. I really wish it had neck binding but that's purely esthetic; don't think I'll even change the pups!

Agile Les Paul copy, 2005 year model. Made in Korea.

I'll spare you all the features/product info. you know all that.

I purchased this guitar as a backup for my main axe, a '74 Les Paul Custom. I play in a band that gigs pretty frequently. We play all kinds of bars here in the D/FW area (some good & some seedy). Needless to say, I've got some reservations around taking such an expensive insttrument to seedy biker bars that we sometimes play. My style has also been described by some as "aggressive" (i.e. I'm always breaking strings & whatnot) so I was in need of a suitable back-up. Not being willing to spend $1000 or more on a Gibson LP studio & not having been impressed with ANYTHING Epiphone has ever made, I opted to give the Agile a try.

My first impression of this guitar was that it felt eerily similar to my LP Custom, only the Gibson has slightly better balance.

Music style: Rock, Blues, Americana, & Funk.

Ammps: I primarily play through a Pete Traynor YVC80Q. This amp has been overhauled since it was purchased. Some of the mods included swapping out all the tubes. I removed the factory Sovtec tubing and replaced it with Tesla ECC83S pre-amp tubes and Groove Tube 6L6GC power tubes.

I'm pleasantly surprised with the sound of the AL-3000M. This guitar is basically a Les Paul Standard and is amazingly quiet. It's just as quiet as my LP Custom on all settings.

The sound is very focused in the mid-section with very rich harmonics. Not "honky" or "nasaly" at all. It's a little brighter sounding than my LP Custom, but I have a feeling that's due to the fact that the LP Custom has '57 Classic pups that have been in the guitar since 1978. In short, they could probably stand to be replaced.

The Agile AL-3000M provides vintage LP tone right outta the box. It's just as versatile as my LP Custom, only a little brighter in terms of the overall sound. Like my Gibson, this guitar is pretty hefty & yeilds tons of stustain.

The only dislike I have about the sound is that it wants to clip a little earlier than I'd like on the clean channel, but this is easily overcome by slight volume adjustments on the guitar.

This guitar was set up really well from the factory. I replaced the strings, lowered the action a little bit (personal taste/comfort), and set the intonnation. She feels/plays just like a Gibson LP Standard.
The neck pup required a little adjustment as it was set a little low for my liking.
The factory probably could have done a little better job of bookmatching the flamed top. You can see some places where the wood grain doesn't like up perfectly between the pups, but the lower bout looks good (this is where most of the flame shows). Overall, the flame top is very attractive, though.
Binding on the body was very well executed; seamless.

This guitar has a few finish flaws that I noticed upon close examination.
-Overall the abalone inlays look really good, but there are a couple of places where it looks like they routed the fretboard a little too big, or the abalone was cut a little too small. If you look closely, you can see where they used filler to close the gaps.
-There are some scratches in the finish on both sides of the neck. It looks like the factory tech was a little careless when filing the frets, but this is purely aesthetic. That is, I can't feel it while playing & I've since sanded the neck down to the bare wood (this is a personal preference as I hate the feel of a glossy finished neck).
-The finish on the binding (clear-coat) has a couple of very small bubbles/pin-holes in the left hip of the body, but you've literally gotta have your nose 3 inches from the instrument to notice it.

I really can't rate this one yet. This guitar has only been through one rehearsal so far, but it stood up to the usual beating I put on a guitar. All the hardware seems comparable to my Gibson & should hold up.

NEVER GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP (& that's exactly what I purchased this guitar for)!!!! If you do, you're doing nothing but begging for trouble.

I'll beat the sh|t outta her & pop her cherry this weekend at a show we're doing this weekend.

As a road-test, I plan to play the Agile primarily at the show this weekend & let the LP Custom sit in reserve for a change. I'll update this review after the show.

For now, I'll give it a 5, pending live action.

It's hard to rate this, as I've had no need to access customer support over at Rondo, but Kurt seems to be a stand-up guy. Everything was delivered on time & as promised. I've got no problems at all & would definitely do business with him again.

I've been playing for 30+ years & own a ton of gear.

Aside from the Pete Traynor combo that I primarily play, I also have a Marshall JCM800 head & a '69 straight cab, but this very rarely gets played cuz it's just too loud. I might use this rig once a year or so if we're playing at an outdoor venue.

Other guitars include: Vintage '74 LP Custom, '87 Jackson Rhoads V, '84 ESP strat, '88 BC Rich USA Warlock, '88 BC Rich USA Mockingbrid, '72 Fender American Strat, '89 Ibanez RG650, '00 Alvarez FD80, '81 Alvarez Ironhorse.

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

Favorite freature about this guitar is how it's spec'ed (just like a Gibson). I can't believe how closely it plays & sounds to the Big "G". This thing weighs in at around 10 lbs, & can really wear on you during long sets, but that's the beauty of it. It's really damned close to my Gibson & as they say, "No pain, no sustain!" It's scary that you can pay less than $400 for an instrument that easily plays like a $1000+ guitar.

I compared this to all kinds of other LP copies: Jay Turser (sucked), Epihpone (sucked), LTD (sounded nasaly & had no sustain), & Tradition (close to Gibson, but didn't quite have the sustain) to name a few... this is by far the best copy out there!

Comes with a graphite nut for those that don't like bone.

All the other features have already been explained by everyone else =P

Without being plugged in, the guitar sounds MUCH better than my previous Epiphone guitar. The sound is brighter and has tons more of sustain. I slided from the 5th fret to the 12th, and it actually sounded like a slide. And all this time with my old guitar, I thought the problem was me. Bends ring out a lot longer too. Plugged in, the neck pickukp can get a little muddy. The bridge pickup isn't too bad, a nice bright crunchy sound for rock and a rich bluesy sound for well...blues! I plan on replacing the pickups with Seymour Duncans for added clarity.

Here's where the rating takes a hit. After hearing so much about how great these Agiles were, I was expecting perfection in this aspect of the guitar. Let's start with the good, the action was set very nicely at about 2mm on the bass side and about 1.75mm on the treble (I may lower the treble to 1.5mm). Absolutely no string buzz, the guitar rung like a bell! It came out of tune (to be expected), but the intonation was close to perfect. Now the bad, there were many flaws in the finish that left me a little disappointed.
#1 There was a chip of paint in the headstock about 1mm in length.
#2 It looks like there are nicks in the fretboard from fret 12-15, you can't feel most of the nicks but there are a couple that feel somewhat indented.
#3 On the back of guitar guitar, there appears to be a "worn out" spot as if someone lightly scrapped a screwdriver across it. There are about 5 light scratches all grouped together, and at least one of the scratches can be felt.
#5 There is a slight crack in the abalone on the 5th fret. It seems like a bad piece of abalone was installed, doesn't seem to be human error because abalone is nice and shiny with a slight crack and not an accidental nick.
#4 The finish on the body is perfect on the front and back, but along the sides there are slight "bubbles" and "holes" in the lacquer. When you look closely, the "bubbles" look like something got in the finish and got painted over. the "holes" are little pock marks. You can't see them unless you look closely, but you can feel them if you run your fingers across the sides of the guitar.

I haven't had it too long, so I won't comment.

Kurt from Rondo Music is a one man customer service team, and he's all you need. Really helpful, although sometimes a little too concise.

I've been playing for 5 years and the only other guitar that I have is an Epiphone Xplorer. Aside from the finish problems, I think that it's highly probably that I will get another Agile guitar. When it comes to value, these guitars simply cannot be beat. The AL-3000M is easily better than any of the standard Epiphone copys. Both in terms of quality (materials, electronics, etc.) and sound. I did get a chance to recently play a Epiphone Elitist, and I wondered why it was priced at over $1100. The AL-3000M is approximately in the same league as the Elitist, but at 1/4 of the price.

I think I may have gotten a lemon when it comes to quality control, the finish isn't as great as I expected. But for the price, I guess I can't complain. Even after my planned pickup modifications, the Price/Quality ratio is virtually unbeatable.

All the features of a gibson lp, 3/4" maple top ,1/16" flame maple, mohagony body & neck, wilkinson pups w/alnico V mags, ebony fretboard w/abalone inlays, mother o pearl pick guard, grover machine heads, natural binding body and head???. tune-o-matic bridge w/spring to prevent intonation screws from buzzing & stop tailpiece.

unbelieveable sound, between the woods, construction & pots & pups sounds quite similar to a gibson lp.. and Since I live close to Rondo music I get to sample all models, The sound is typical between the al3000's & al3500's. Great tone variaty.

Can't Believe these guitar's are under $1000!! amazing at under $500. mine is flawless binding, fretwork, electronics Everything perfect or near!!
Except no binding on neck (no big deal).

Rock Solid Much better than my epi. and I thought My Westbury was Uniqe.

Great Bunch Of Guys at Rondo
And since I live close by I can drop off and pickup at any time.
By the way mine was a floor model soI got it for only $249
And it still was flawless After who no's how many hands were on it.

I've been playing heavymetal & hard rock for over 20 years and I'm planning on buying two more Agiles another 3000m & a 3500 to keep for show. I've toyed with the Idea of buying a gibson l.p. but balked at the prices... no need to now this is more than close enough!!

I'm just going to submit an overall rating on this for the reasons stated below. I just bought a used Agile AL3000M off EBay. The previous owner gutted the hardware and upgraded everything. It now has Seymour Duncan Antiquities pickups, Tone-Pro bridge and tailpiece, Earvana nut, and Grover locking tuners. The result? This guitar feels and sounds so close to a $2000.00 - $2500.00 Les Paul it's scary. And I have played quite a few expensive LP's.

The Agile workmanship is unbelievable in this price range! Real abolone inlay - not mother-of-plastic like the Epiphone LP's. A great neck, real 3/4" maple cap, excellent woodwork. Nothing, and I mean nothing, I have seen in this price range (Epi, Samick, Schecter) can touch this guitar stock, and the Agiles and cheaper than most of the above guitars. Add the better pups and hardware and you have a killer tone machine for less than half the LP price. Better than the Epi elitist line. The finish is a bit heavy, but I can deal with that considering the tone machine it is!

Seriously, these are THE LP copies to buy. I've been playing over 25 years and have had more equipment than I care to remember. I know junk when I see it, and I know a deal. This is the real deal - a quality guitar and a stupidly low price! I'm looking at getting another Agile and upgrading the parts - though they are very good stock from the company.

I just got a new 3000M in Wine Red from rondomusic.net.

These guitars are made in Korea, but are of very high quality for the price. There is a bit of confusion about the 3/4" maple top. It does measure to 3/4", but on top of that is a 1/16" flame veneer cap. If you want a true 3/4" top you have to splurge for the 3500. However, the veneer does not affect the sound, so you still get the 3/4" sound with the 3000M. The natural binding is of quality craftsmanship, also.

*Mahogany body
*Ebony Fretboard
*Abalone Inlays
*Jumbo Frets

I give this guitar a 10 in features b/c it boasts very high quality materials for such a low price. You will not find this quality from any other brand in this price range.

I play every thing from classic rock to blues to reggae. It's an LP so it can basically play anything. The sound is very articulate and the tone is smooth. It's a bit bright sounding though. I might swap out the pickups for a '59/JB combo. This is not because the stock pickups are crap or anything, it's because I'm on the proverial "tone quest."

I live in Hawaii, so this thing had to travel around the world to get here. Surprisingly, it arrived in-tune. The fit & finish were beautiful and it's obvious that this guitar was finely crafted. If I had to describe this guitar in one word it would be "classy." At first, I thought the abalone inlays were nice, albeit, a bit ostentatious. But they've grown on me, and they truly contribute to the aesthetic quality of the craftsmanship. Sometimes I find myself just admiring my guitar as if it were a work of art.

However, there was a bit of fret buzzing so I got it a professional setup and slapped on some new strings. The difference was astounding.

This guitar is as heavy as a hippo and as sturdy as a rock. Which means I have to be as strong as an ox. But I don't mind b/c it's as pretty as a peacock.


(I'm as high as a kite)

But on a less stupid note, it does feel very durable. The strap buttons are very large, too.

Rondo Music has a very helpful and friendly customer support honcho named Kurt. I think he owns rondo, actually. He is accessable through email, and is usually very quick to respond. There is also a very decent return policy. I got the impression that it's like a nice Ma & Pa store where Kurt would be happy to help with any problems.

I'm a meager 20 something. I've been playing the acoustic for about ten years. I only picked up the electric a few years ago, and it's become something of a passion. I own a veritable plethora of guitars and guitar-related equipment and this 3000M is the best of the bunch for me. Everybody needs an LP, and this one suits me just fine. I was on the market for a LP and it was a toss up between the 3000 and the 3000M. The reason I opted for the latter was not for the 3/4" cap, or the natural binding; it was for the Wine Red color. Yes, I'm that superficial. But I have no regrets. To each his own. Different strokes and all that. If this guitar was stolen, I'd weep. Then I'd pull myself together and probably get the 3500 just to see what that sounds like. Overall, this guitar was a fantastic value.

Features have been noted by others. One thing that should be emphasized is that this guitar does NOT have a bound neck, odd considering its other "deluxe" features, and also because nearly every other guitar in this AL- line HAS a bound neck.

I bought this guitar after buying a Samick AV-7. I was very impressed by the quality and playability of the Samick, but wanted a Les Paul that was A) heavier (the Samick weighs less than 7 lbs), and B) brighter. From what I'd read, I thought this Agile (weighing in at 10 lbs., with a solid maple cap) would be just the ticket. But when I compared the two guitars side by side, the Samick was just as bright, sustained just as well, and to my ears sounded better--more of a focused, grainy sound like a real Gibson.

This is a gorgeous guitar--the workmanship is fabulous and I had high hopes for it taking it out of the box. But where it falls down, in my opinion, is the neck. Other reviewers have commented that the Agiles require a set up and perhaps that's the only problem, but the neck feels to me--for lack of a better word--cheap. The guitar plays like a lot of less expensive guitars play, with an inconsistancy in terms of the feel and sustain as you bend notes at various points on the neck. I've been told that these Korean guitars can be inconsistant and perhaps I just got a bad one, and perhaps I just got really lucky with my Samick, which played very, very well right out of the box and feels like a Gibson Les Paul Custom.

I plan on selling this guitar, or if I can't find a buyer, returning it to Rondo Music. I've only had it two days. But it seems very soldly made, with excellent components.

I bought this over the phone from Rondo and found them very helpful. I have not yet tried to retrun this guitar, but I'm assuming it won't be a problem. I WAS surprised at the shipping materials. Other guitars I've bought through the mail have been double boxed--a large rectangular box holding a smaller one, with padding in between. This came in two triangular boxes tucked tightly inside one another , which doesn't seem to offer much protection. I should add, however, that this guitar arrived in perfect shape, whereas my Samick (with the seemingly better packaging) arrived with a broken toggle switch and needed repair before it could be plugged in.

It's a little risky to buy a guitar you haven't actually played. What a surprise, huh?

Black, LP style guitar

# 3/4" thick maple cap (And they aren't lieing. I always remove the plastic T/R switch plate completely, and tilt my switch. You can see the cap when you remove the switch)
# 2 piece solid Mahogany body with natural maple binding
# Nickel plate hardware, including Nickel die-cast Grover tuners with 18-1 turning ratio
# Type V Alnico Wilkinson humbucker pickups
# Two volume and two tone controls, three way switch
# One piece Mahogany set neck with 13.7" radius
# Ebony fretboard with 22 Jumbo frets and abalone inlays
# bone nut
# A pre-cut graphite nut is included
# Individually hand filed frets
# Neck is somewhere between a 50's and 60's style
# Overall length: 40"; Scale length: 24.7"
# Body thickness: 2" at edge; Width at the widest point: 13"
# Bridge pole spacing is 3", and the Tail piece pole spacing is 3 1/4"
# Weighs 10 lbs (get a 3 inch strap)
# Strap buttons are huge like plates. I may not bother with straplocks.

Included graphite nut will not just drop in. It would require a luthier.

Sounds incredible. Very bright. I'd compare the brightness to an older les paul with an aluminum tailpiece. The pickups sound great, but they sound potted. I'm playing with the idea of "unpotting" them for more mid-range honk. The potentiometers had me woried at first because they "felt" scratchy. All of them in the same way. But in practice, they make no noise at all. It's almost as if there is a ridiculously tiny micrometer click in them when you spin them. It comes through your fingers. I'm not sure what kind of caps they are using, but they sounds great. These feel like a common 500k/250k combination. I haven't taken the plate off. I have some bumblebees I could pop in there, but I don't see the point at the moment. I'm really pleased with the sound. The pickups sound really really good. I was surprised. The guitar just sounds really really good. I compared it to a studio les paul, and there was no comparison. How do they get away with this?

The fit/finish is easily in the 1200 dollar neck of the woods. I'd say it's easily better than the ESP LTD clones in the 800 dollar price range. Epiphone doesn't make anything this good. Period. The electronics look, and feel very high quality. I'm pretty sure they are using some sort of special potentiometers as I mentioned earlier, but they work great!. The shape around the cut-away isn't exactly gibson, so you can tell they modified a standard allparts/generic pickguard by shaving the top a little. They didn't do a fantastic job. I fixed it with a sander drum and a dremel. The bone nut is cut absolutely perfect, but it snagged at the strings a little. I used graphite on the grooves and it's fine now. The fretboard and frets are absolutely amazingly well done. I'd say it's easily PRS quality. A VERY close inspection will show very tiny irregularies in the thickness of the maple band around the body, but you'd have to be within 6 inches with a micrometer. The intonation was PERFECT on the bridge. That's the first time that's ever happened to me. And I'm very picky. It comes with GHS strings. I can't stand them, so I put some slinky 10's on it. Everything is properly grounded.

The action was complete crap when I got it. That was to be expected when having a guitar delivered during a blizzard. I let the guitar warm up for a few hours, and the action was better. It took 3 days to get the neck adjusted perfectly though. I still get a very slight buzz in the low E, but my strings are sitting practically on the frets. They did an incredible job on the fretboard. It has my favorite knobs "top-hats". The tuners are really great if you know how to string a guitar. If you don't, planetwaves makes just the product for you, but you'd have to put holes in the head for them. If you are going to change the tuners, get the grover 1/18 locking ones. They have the 6 o'clock hole and will drop right in with no drilling. I don't see the point right now. The only thing I might do is put tonepros stuff on it, but I'm not sure if I want to risk messing up the sound of the guitar. Outside of "unpotting" the pickups, I don't see much of anything that needs dire replacement.

It looks like they put about a billion coats of poly on this thing. It's probably why it sounds brighter. I'm not complaining. When I was removing the stupid Treble/Rhythm plastic donut, I slipped and knocked the body fairly hard with a wrench handle. Not only didn't it dent, it didn't leave a scratch. Held it up to a light. That was on the maple cap though. YMMV on the mahogany. You could play cricket with this thing, and it would probably stay in tune. I'll do an updated review if I have problems later. I'm already recording with this thing, and gigging with it wouldn't be a problem at all. How do they sell this thing so cheap? I lucked out and got one for 360 before they raised the price to 399.

I ordered this from rondo off eBay on a friday evening, and had it in my hands on Wednesday despite a freaking blizzard. That's pretty impressive. I sent one email about the pickguard, and had a reply pretty fast. You get the impression they'll bend over backwards for you. That's kinda cool.

I've been playing for a few decades. I'm not a super serious musician, but I'm on the "tone quest" again. I've been writing a lot of music lately, and needed something with humbuckers made of mahogany. I can't imagine why anyone would purchase any other guitar if they want this kind of sound. If they doubled the price tomorrow and I lost this guitar, I'd buy another one just like it. No question. If you want the 3000M, I'd suggest getting one before they raise the prices again. Incredible value. How do they sell this thing so cheap?