Agile AS-1000

I'm surprised no one has reviewed this guitar yet, but at the moment, Rondo Music, the only dealer I know of who sells them is out of stock. Anyway, the AS-1000 is a step up from the AS-820, but it's more like a leap in that it has better PUs, an ebony fingerboard with only side dots for a neat look, binding all around, and a flame maple top, back & sides. The grade of maple could be better, it's probably an A or AA, slightly off in the bookmatch, but so pretty all over, no one's going to notice the one minor "flaw." It's a 335 -45 clone, but far nicer than anything other than a custom shop Gibson. For the price, even twice,3-4x the price, you won't even get close to the quality of this guitar. Typical 335 setup, dual PUs, double cutaway, 2 vol two tone controls, I put a graphite nut on mine, and saw later models ship with one in the bag if the buyer prefers that to bone. Yeah, I said bone.

I play a variety of style, even stuck a new GK-3 on it for MIDI kicks and grins, and the mag PUs hold up really well, smooth and loud, I think they're Alnico Vs, don't know the exact models, but it fits right in with my Les Paul Elegant's `57 HBs. No tone or volume changes noticed.

This guitar came with the best setup out of the box I've seen if 50 years of playing. That's saying a lot, even my Custom Shop Gibson needed more "tweaking" than this thing. No fret ends to slice hands, no filing to get rid of buzzes with a super-low action, and it uses a standard size stop-tailpiece, so I easily installed a Gibson USA TP-6 fine-tuning tailpiece. All gold hardware BTW, it all looks grand. The binding is perfect, even around the f holes, absolutely perfect.

Being only a few months old, it's hard to say how long it will last, but I have a feeling it will outlive me, especially if one of my grandkids gets it in oh, 30 or so years... ;) I have a number of good guitars, but if this got swiped for some careless reason or another, I'd definitely try to replace it, exactly. I don't play out because of a back problem, but I hope to soon, did it for over 356 years, and I'd be proud to pull this baby out at any gig from rock to jazz, casual to snooty.

Given the customer service of Kurt at Rondo Music, I'd say it wouldn't be a problem. Good people there, and that's from a lot of other people, too.

Well, I'm an old pro if you haven't gathered that yet, I played a gibson ES-335 for about 30 years, ruined my back, which had already gotten a dose in the military in 1962, or I'd be playing somewhere right now instead of writing this review. I've recorded professionally, have my own CD @ CDBaby.com/ZeekDuff so you can judge for yourself. Most of that CD was recorded on a Les Paul Elegant. This guitar cost less than 1/10 of that one, and compares favorably in every respect.