AGILE /Epi/ Les Pual Copy Thread

[j9fd3s]

Re: AGILE /Epi/ Les Pual Copy Thread

ive got a 97 Epiphone les paul and a newer agile double neck, and the agile is a much nicer guitar. the Epiphone looks nice until you take the covers off, and then you can see they sorta just freehanded all the cuts, they didn't even use a router, its really sloppy. the maple cap is two pieces, like its supposed to be, but the body is 4-5 pieces.

by contrast the agile is actually nicely built, it came with grovers too, which is nice.

both guitars have turned out fine, but the workmanship on the agile was surprisingly good, and the epiphone is surprisingly bad

i should post pcs of the agile, a left handed double neck must be the rarest guitar on the planet

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: AGILE /Epi/ Les Pual Copy Thread

ive got a 97 Epiphone les paul and a newer agile double neck, and the agile is a much nicer guitar. the Epiphone looks nice until you take the covers off, and then you can see they sorta just freehanded all the cuts, they didn't even use a router, its really sloppy. the maple cap is two pieces, like its supposed to be, but the body is 4-5 pieces.

by contrast the agile is actually nicely built, it came with grovers too, which is nice.

both guitars have turned out fine, but the workmanship on the agile was surprisingly good, and the epiphone is surprisingly bad

i should post pcs of the agile, a left handed double neck must be the rarest guitar on the planet

What your seeing is the difference between a guitar done by hand on the cheap and a guitar built by a CNC machine. CNC was a HUGE boon for the cheap guitar business now instead of paying a 11 year old chinese kid 45 cents a day to try and carve bodies and necks he just has to monitor the machine and watch for errors. If you compare a new Epi which also has the benefit of being CNC machined they are much better than the ones from 15-20 years ago. I remember when squires showed up in the late 80's those guitars were rough and nasty barely playable. Now for the same price point CNC has allowed them to build playable guitars at all price points.

 

[j9fd3s]

Re: AGILE /Epi/ Les Pual Copy Thread

What your seeing is the difference between a guitar done by hand on the cheap and a guitar built by a CNC machine. CNC was a HUGE boon for the cheap guitar business now instead of paying a 11 year old chinese kid 45 cents a day to try and carve bodies and necks he just has to monitor the machine and watch for errors. If you compare a new Epi which also has the benefit of being CNC machined they are much better than the ones from 15-20 years ago. I remember when squires showed up in the late 80's those guitars were rough and nasty barely playable. Now for the same price point CNC has allowed them to build playable guitars at all price points.

i'm sure that is right, they need it!

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: AGILE /Epi/ Les Pual Copy Thread

I love that silverburst.... that's sexy as h3ll.

 

[FuseG4]

Re: AGILE /Epi/ Les Pual Copy Thread

I used to own the OP's guitar and had a PGb in it. The frets were OK for me but I like a medium action. I can't comment on factory setup because both agiles I've owned were from Ebay. But yeah, MM's guitar is cool for sure.
Anyways my previous experience with Agile inspired my most recent purchase:

The AL-3000M has more bite than I remember from MM's 3100, like a solid maple topped guitar should. Mine's also kinda heavy at 9.8 lbs.
Still looking for a good bridge pickup. I've got a potted BB2.. it's a little edgy and may end up going back to the PGb I liked in the 3100. But yeah... this Agile is quite to my liking, more so than the LP Studio Faded I sold, which cost more than twice as much as this and sounded kinda muddy... I'll take this guitar with asian "mahogany" and "dyed rosewood" over Gibson's chambered "real mahogany" and that "baked alaska" stuff any day!

 

[blueman335]

Re: AGILE /Epi/ Les Pual Copy Thread

ive got a 97 Epiphone les paul and a newer agile double neck, and the agile is a much nicer guitar. the Epiphone looks nice until you take the covers off, and then you can see they sorta just freehanded all the cuts, they didn't even use a router, its really sloppy.

by contrast the agile is actually nicely built, it came with grovers too, which is nice.

both guitars have turned out fine, but the workmanship on the agile was surprisingly good, and the epiphone is surprisingly bad

Epiphones back then were contracted out to various makers, often Samick. The quality was hit or miss. Since they opened their own plant in China in 2003, with new equipment and their own employees, they control production and it's as good or better than Agile. Set-neck Epi's have had Grovers for about 12 years now. The several Agiles I've seen (including the 3100 with 'upgraded electronics') have that awful 'mystery box type of toggle switch, which is really crappy. Epi started converting many models to better PU's in 2010 (Probuckers and Alnico Classic Pros) with push-pulls for coil cut. Since your Epi was made, many things have changed and they've gotten much more competitive.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: AGILE /Epi/ Les Pual Copy Thread

Epiphones back then were contracted out to various makers, often Samick. The quality was hit or miss. Since they opened their own plant in China in 2003, with new equipment and their own employees, they control production and it's as good or better than Agile. Set-neck Epi's have had Grovers for about 12 years now. The several Agiles I've seen (including the 3100 with 'upgraded electronics') have that awful 'mystery box type of toggle switch, which is really crappy. Epi started converting many models to better PU's in 2010 (Probuckers and Alnico Classic Pros) with push-pulls for coil cut. Since your Epi was made, many things have changed and they've gotten much more competitive.

Yep! There has been a Huge improvement in Epis in recent years.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: AGILE /Epi/ Les Pual Copy Thread

For the price, I'll take just about ANY guitar over a Gibson (even though I have several Gibsons that I really like).

Gibson's quality is no better than most decent guitars (and sometimes much worse), but they cost 4-10 times as much! Epi is great quality especially for the $ you spend on it. I haven't owned an Agile yet, but probably will someday.