Product: Agile AM-1E Electric Mandolin
Price Paid: US $349
Submitted
07/02/2005
at
12:54pm
by
Nils
Features
:
10
From the Rondo site:
Hand carved F-style Mandolin
High quality Solid Spruce top
Solid Maple back and Solid Maple sides
24 fret flat radious Mahogany neck with adjustable truss rod
Rosewood fretboard with Mother of Pearl inlays and side dots
Width of the nut is 1 1/16". String spacing at the nut is 7/8"
Dovetail joint, Ebony bridge, gold hardware, and pearloid tuning buttons
Ivory binding adds a rich look to the body front, back & peghead
The mandolin includes a piezo pickup and preamp w/ volume/treble/bass sliders
The instrument sounds great stand alone, or with an amp!
Sound
:
10
This is a great sounding Mandolin unplugged, or plugged in. I have had several mandolins, and have played many from the cheap $200 fender electric plywood ones to $2000 rare Gibson ones.
This has a solid spruce top and solid maple sides and back. In an F-style mandolin, you are looking at at least $1000 for anything else made like that. This sounds very close to the high end Gibson F-type mandolins, you would have to have then side by side to no notice any tone difference. This is a Korean Made mandolin, but I was blown away by the acoustic sound.
Plugged in, again I was amazed how good this sounds. I dont know the made of the pickup, but is sounds very alive.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
8
Hey, it was made in Korea, and cheap, but the only flaw I have with it is that when the bridge is in the correct place for the intonation, you can see the hole for the Piezo wire. Otherwise the action can go very low without buzzing. This was made in a factory, probably much of it by machine, but still looks great. Not a Nitro finish, but still looks good. Kicks the butt of anything by Fender, Gibson, Ovation, Kentucky, or any other in the price range
Reliability/Durability
:
10
I only have one mandolin, and only use it live on one song, so I would bring this by itself because I only have one, and for one song it doesnt make sense to get another. I think it seems solid and will last a while.
Customer Support
:
10
Excellent. I have bough a few others, and have receive the wrong guitar once. They are super quick with shipping (I am on the east coast also, and I get their stuff in 2 days). They answer all questions, easy to reach, and friendly and reasonable. They deal with lots of people, but you are not a number to them.
Overall Rating
:
10
Cant beat this for the price, as with all the other Agile stuff. They probably get it made for them directly and cut out the middle man.
I have too many guitars and other stuff to list.
I have been in the biz for 20+ years
