starbuck26
New member
hey fellas,
found this gem while reading reviews of an agile as-820. i loved it.
Product: Agile AS820
Price Paid: US $199 (not kidding)
Submitted 12/15/2004 at 10:46pm by Pale Face
Email: conchmusic<at>yahoo dot com
Features : 10
I purchased this guitar last week from Rondo Music via Ebay. It's the second guitar I've bought from them. If you want to know whether or not to buy one of these, the answer is yes, you should. Immediately, because if you currently have the opportunity you won't for long. They are becoming increasingly difficult to find due to a lawsuit from Gibson. The three that Kurt had available on Ebay lasted about an hour, and these were all lefties. I've had a lot of guitars, including a very expensive Heritage 335 copy, and suffice it to say that if you are in the market for a 335 copy, or for that matter a real 335, you should buy one of these.
The only thing to note feature-wise is that the guitar was advertised as having chrome hardware, a black pickguard, and a spruce top. I arrived with gold hardware, a tortoise pickguard, and a flame maple top. Now, ordinarily this isn't anything to complain about - those would all be considered upgrades. But in this case I actually was interested to see what the spruce top would sound like, given that expensive archtops all have spruce tops and 335's are typically all maple. Whatever, this thing cost $200 and is a ridiculous value. On of the reviewers below described it as "free" and he's basically right. If you have $200 in the bank and don't own one of these, your life is empty.
Enough of that. I am going to use this opportunity to talk about the Harmony Central Review Database. I've been using it for years, and I think it's one of the best things on the web. But I've noticed in my time as a Harmony Central reader and growing musician that much of this database is completely absurd. In fact, much of the gear market is completely absurd. If you're interested in hearing my opinion, read on. If you just want to know whether to buy this guitar, I already said buy it, so hurry up and email Kurt.
Sound : 10
When it comes to rock and roll, there is no such thing as a good guitar. There is also no such thing as a bad guitar. There are only guitars that stay in tune and those that don't.
When you come across a review of some Pensa Suhr or Jaros or Benedetto or whatever, keep this in mind. No one - I repeat - no one who you listen to or care about plays a $3000, or even a $2000 guitar. They are the guitar equivalent of a Rolls Royce. Tacky luxury items for fat people. They do no better at their stated task -making noise - than the cheapest pawn-shop beater. And the people who have sold the most records and had the most influence in the last 20 years all played the kind of gear that could be smashed to bits at the end of the show. The only guys who are writing reviews of PRS Dragons and crap like that are stock brokers, bar mitzvah bandmembers, Paul Allen and the kind of sexually frustrated Boomers who think cars and guitars will make up for their growing paunch and disappearing hair. The notion that there is some kind of guitar heirarchy in which $2,000 Tom Andersons are at the top and $200 korean guitars like this are at the bottom is only useful to people who feed their families by convincing musicians that expensive gear has anything whatsoever to do with good music.
It doesn't. Neither do abalone, flame, quilt, translucent paint, gold hardware, laminated or solid, brazillian, bone, brass, tap-tuned Englemann Spruce, five-ply binding or any of the other things that people use to gild the lily. You can't hear any of that from more than three feet away, and barely through an amplifier, and not at all through a PA, and no way on earth through Pro Tools. All you need is a guitar that stays in whichever tuning you prefer. There is no good sound or bad sound. There is only the sound you want to make.
An expensive guitar matters a lot to Pepe Romero, who has to be heard, unamplified, over an orchestra in a 1,500 seat hall. Everyone else should buy their gear from Kurt at Rondomusic.net, or their local pawn shop, for as little as possible, and focus on actually learning how to play, and more importantly, write good music.
Action, Fit, & Finish : 10
One of the inlays is a bit cockeyed. Whatever. The thing came with low action and no buzzing. It was a full step out of tune across the board, which suggests that it had already been tuned and checked out before being detuned and sent. Beat that.
Here's another reason why buying expensive guitars is for losers. Action, fit and finish are completely subjective. Someone like me is thrilled when a guitar comes out of the box with superlow action. A slide player hates that. People are obsessed with joints and routing but then go and spend $6,000 on a 50's strat with a huge gap in its bolt-on neck. And all these dorks go on and on about quilted maple when Rivers Cuomo and Billie Joe Armstrong put stickers and magic marker all over their guitars before playing in front of 15,000 people. Send an email to anyone on this site who gushes over their 5AAAA spruce top and ask him how many people were at his last gig. He won't write back.
If you're particular about how your guitar feels, find a good tech. A good tech can make any guitar feel like any other guitar. Again, the idea that action and playability are a function of whether the axe was made in Paul Reed Smith's kitchen is absurd.
Reliability/Durability : 10
This guitar is subject to the same physics as the $2,100 version that Gibson sells. But here's one difference - if this guitar cracks, I can buy nine more before I've spent that much. Gigging musicians know that their gear is going to get messed up. That's why they don't spend $2100 on it.
I just saw Trail of Dead in Hollywood and they were all playing 335-style guitars. The show was completely sold out. They're on Interscope. Jimmy Iovine signed them. These guys are hot sh*t. Gibsons, right? Wrong. Epiphones. To those of you who insist that $2100 guitars are worth purchasing, I ask: Do you share a label with U2 and Eminem? Is the most powerful man in the music business your mentor? No? Then why are you spending 2 grand on a guitar when the guys who are living the dream don't bother? Everyone plays Korean guitars. There is nothing a Gibson can do better except bankrupt you.
Customer Support : 10
Kurt at Rondomusic is just as cool as everyone says he is. Go give him money.
Here's who isn't cool:
Ed Roman: Look at a picture of him. That's who plays his guitars. You wanna look like that? I didn't think so.
The Greedy Jerk who runs Southpaw Guitars: He's half the reason lefties are so expensive and hard to find. He snatches them all up and then overcharges in order to control the market. Don't ever, ever buy from him, it only makes matters worse.
Guitar Center: Killing independent music stores the world over.
Sam Ash: Ditto.
Everyone who publishes coffee table books with photos of expensive guitars: Absolutely no difference from these people and the ones who collect Hummel figurines. Not the worst thing you can do, but man, it's so not rock n' roll.
Overall Rating : 10
To sum up: Stop buying expensive gear, spend less time reading/writing crap like this and more time listening to records, rehearsing and writing songs, tell everyone who will listen to make more lefty guitars, don't buy gear from jerks or monopolists, don't buy guitars that look like they were designed by Bob Mackey and then try to play rock n' roll, stop thinking your guitar is going to revive your sex life, or replace it, stop reading the reports from NAMM and for God's sake cancel your guitar magazine subscriptions. And feel free to email me at the address below if you want to argue.
booya.
found this gem while reading reviews of an agile as-820. i loved it.
Product: Agile AS820
Price Paid: US $199 (not kidding)
Submitted 12/15/2004 at 10:46pm by Pale Face
Email: conchmusic<at>yahoo dot com
Features : 10
I purchased this guitar last week from Rondo Music via Ebay. It's the second guitar I've bought from them. If you want to know whether or not to buy one of these, the answer is yes, you should. Immediately, because if you currently have the opportunity you won't for long. They are becoming increasingly difficult to find due to a lawsuit from Gibson. The three that Kurt had available on Ebay lasted about an hour, and these were all lefties. I've had a lot of guitars, including a very expensive Heritage 335 copy, and suffice it to say that if you are in the market for a 335 copy, or for that matter a real 335, you should buy one of these.
The only thing to note feature-wise is that the guitar was advertised as having chrome hardware, a black pickguard, and a spruce top. I arrived with gold hardware, a tortoise pickguard, and a flame maple top. Now, ordinarily this isn't anything to complain about - those would all be considered upgrades. But in this case I actually was interested to see what the spruce top would sound like, given that expensive archtops all have spruce tops and 335's are typically all maple. Whatever, this thing cost $200 and is a ridiculous value. On of the reviewers below described it as "free" and he's basically right. If you have $200 in the bank and don't own one of these, your life is empty.
Enough of that. I am going to use this opportunity to talk about the Harmony Central Review Database. I've been using it for years, and I think it's one of the best things on the web. But I've noticed in my time as a Harmony Central reader and growing musician that much of this database is completely absurd. In fact, much of the gear market is completely absurd. If you're interested in hearing my opinion, read on. If you just want to know whether to buy this guitar, I already said buy it, so hurry up and email Kurt.
Sound : 10
When it comes to rock and roll, there is no such thing as a good guitar. There is also no such thing as a bad guitar. There are only guitars that stay in tune and those that don't.
When you come across a review of some Pensa Suhr or Jaros or Benedetto or whatever, keep this in mind. No one - I repeat - no one who you listen to or care about plays a $3000, or even a $2000 guitar. They are the guitar equivalent of a Rolls Royce. Tacky luxury items for fat people. They do no better at their stated task -making noise - than the cheapest pawn-shop beater. And the people who have sold the most records and had the most influence in the last 20 years all played the kind of gear that could be smashed to bits at the end of the show. The only guys who are writing reviews of PRS Dragons and crap like that are stock brokers, bar mitzvah bandmembers, Paul Allen and the kind of sexually frustrated Boomers who think cars and guitars will make up for their growing paunch and disappearing hair. The notion that there is some kind of guitar heirarchy in which $2,000 Tom Andersons are at the top and $200 korean guitars like this are at the bottom is only useful to people who feed their families by convincing musicians that expensive gear has anything whatsoever to do with good music.
It doesn't. Neither do abalone, flame, quilt, translucent paint, gold hardware, laminated or solid, brazillian, bone, brass, tap-tuned Englemann Spruce, five-ply binding or any of the other things that people use to gild the lily. You can't hear any of that from more than three feet away, and barely through an amplifier, and not at all through a PA, and no way on earth through Pro Tools. All you need is a guitar that stays in whichever tuning you prefer. There is no good sound or bad sound. There is only the sound you want to make.
An expensive guitar matters a lot to Pepe Romero, who has to be heard, unamplified, over an orchestra in a 1,500 seat hall. Everyone else should buy their gear from Kurt at Rondomusic.net, or their local pawn shop, for as little as possible, and focus on actually learning how to play, and more importantly, write good music.
Action, Fit, & Finish : 10
One of the inlays is a bit cockeyed. Whatever. The thing came with low action and no buzzing. It was a full step out of tune across the board, which suggests that it had already been tuned and checked out before being detuned and sent. Beat that.
Here's another reason why buying expensive guitars is for losers. Action, fit and finish are completely subjective. Someone like me is thrilled when a guitar comes out of the box with superlow action. A slide player hates that. People are obsessed with joints and routing but then go and spend $6,000 on a 50's strat with a huge gap in its bolt-on neck. And all these dorks go on and on about quilted maple when Rivers Cuomo and Billie Joe Armstrong put stickers and magic marker all over their guitars before playing in front of 15,000 people. Send an email to anyone on this site who gushes over their 5AAAA spruce top and ask him how many people were at his last gig. He won't write back.
If you're particular about how your guitar feels, find a good tech. A good tech can make any guitar feel like any other guitar. Again, the idea that action and playability are a function of whether the axe was made in Paul Reed Smith's kitchen is absurd.
Reliability/Durability : 10
This guitar is subject to the same physics as the $2,100 version that Gibson sells. But here's one difference - if this guitar cracks, I can buy nine more before I've spent that much. Gigging musicians know that their gear is going to get messed up. That's why they don't spend $2100 on it.
I just saw Trail of Dead in Hollywood and they were all playing 335-style guitars. The show was completely sold out. They're on Interscope. Jimmy Iovine signed them. These guys are hot sh*t. Gibsons, right? Wrong. Epiphones. To those of you who insist that $2100 guitars are worth purchasing, I ask: Do you share a label with U2 and Eminem? Is the most powerful man in the music business your mentor? No? Then why are you spending 2 grand on a guitar when the guys who are living the dream don't bother? Everyone plays Korean guitars. There is nothing a Gibson can do better except bankrupt you.
Customer Support : 10
Kurt at Rondomusic is just as cool as everyone says he is. Go give him money.
Here's who isn't cool:
Ed Roman: Look at a picture of him. That's who plays his guitars. You wanna look like that? I didn't think so.
The Greedy Jerk who runs Southpaw Guitars: He's half the reason lefties are so expensive and hard to find. He snatches them all up and then overcharges in order to control the market. Don't ever, ever buy from him, it only makes matters worse.
Guitar Center: Killing independent music stores the world over.
Sam Ash: Ditto.
Everyone who publishes coffee table books with photos of expensive guitars: Absolutely no difference from these people and the ones who collect Hummel figurines. Not the worst thing you can do, but man, it's so not rock n' roll.
Overall Rating : 10
To sum up: Stop buying expensive gear, spend less time reading/writing crap like this and more time listening to records, rehearsing and writing songs, tell everyone who will listen to make more lefty guitars, don't buy gear from jerks or monopolists, don't buy guitars that look like they were designed by Bob Mackey and then try to play rock n' roll, stop thinking your guitar is going to revive your sex life, or replace it, stop reading the reports from NAMM and for God's sake cancel your guitar magazine subscriptions. And feel free to email me at the address below if you want to argue.
booya.
