Wattage
High Voltologist
Got this from FretFire oh maybe 2 months ago give or take and I thought I would do a little review of it.
Soon as I saw it I liked the look of this guitar since it is a cross of 3 of my all time faves - a Jr., a Special and a Melody Maker - with some tweaks. It is all mahogany (what type is anyones guess but it is solid feeling, light and resonant) the body thickness of a Jr/Special (1 7/8") but top routed ala the MM with a Jr. style "dogear" P-90 bridge pickup and a soapbar P-90 at the neck. A little odd at first but I think it looks good, sort of like someone's Hot Rod not something you'd think a factory would pop out. It also has a belly cut which makes it ultra-comfortable.
The bridge pickup output measures 8.68k and the neck 7.75k. They are great sounding pickups, I was shocked. I wouldn't say I am snobbish but I couldn't imagine an inexpensive MIK guitar to have legit sounding stock, no name pickups in it. I may go to some SD's at some point but no rush on it that's for sure. They were noisy though and I needed to tame that somewhat, I'll list that under the mods I did.
The tuners are Grovers and work as they should. The nut is a graphite, I originally thought it was plastic, cut well too, nothing needed to be done when I strung up 11's on it. It needed very little in the way of a neck adjustment, just a minor tweak after getting here from FF's and it's fine. The frets are well cut and polished but they have a rather flat crown and they are not the best quality wire. I have already worn some of the lower frets in a bit so I imagine it'll need a file or refret sooner than I would normally expect.
The stopbar is fine and has enough room to adjust for decent intonation, the G string being the typical pain but it isn't far off, no need to change it at all.
The pots were re-done by FretFire when he got it so I can't comment on the stock ones but the stock switch was decent, better than the import box 3-ways that come in most Asian guitars.
So I have gigged with it, rehearsed with it, lived with it around the house and I couldn't really be anymore happy with it. All my guitar buddies were really impressed with how it sounded and I got a lot of people asking what it was after the last gig, I take that as a good sign. I have heard a lot of good things about the Agiles but everyone I had played prior to this one was a boat anchor (referring to their LP style guitars) or fairly gaudy so I hadn't really considered one for myself. I was looking for a Jr. or a Special and figured for the price I had nothing to lose but it really turned out to be a score and a half.
My only real issue with it was noise. I know P-90's well and expect some hum but I just had too much. So I pulled it apart and there was very little shielding on anything, though they did use a shielding paint in the wiring cavity. The pup routs were cleanly painted but unshielded and the guard only had 2 small pieces of shielding around the pots and the switch. So I tape shielded the pup routs and the back of the guard, wax potted the pickups (actually my buddy Cris Mirabella potted the pups for me) and grounded all the new shielding. When doing the re-wire I had a weird ground issue and ended up replacing the switch since I broke off a wiring lug. Figured out the switch was hitting the shielding paint so we used a piece of electrical tape to block that and now it is fine with considerably less hum out of it. I also added a set of black Gibson reflector knobs that look way better than the cheapo black speed knobs it came with and Schaller Straplok pins to go with my other guitars.
I can't really recommend this guitar enough. A few tweaks and it is a monster but really it is such a good guitar out the box that it has to be one of the best values out there. It may need some extra maintenance on the frets and I would really encourage Agile/Rondo to use a better wire because this is really a special guitar they have.
Factory specs - http://www.rondomusic.com/ad201vwht.html
Flat top, three piece, solid Mahogany
Two P90 pickups
Volume, tone and a three way switch
Stop-Bar w/adjustment
Mahogany set neck
Rosewood fretboard with 22 jumbo frets
Width at the nut: 1 11/16"; 22nd fret: 2 3/16".
Bridge studs are 3 1/4 " apart
Weight: 8 lbs (factory lists at 9)
Soon as I saw it I liked the look of this guitar since it is a cross of 3 of my all time faves - a Jr., a Special and a Melody Maker - with some tweaks. It is all mahogany (what type is anyones guess but it is solid feeling, light and resonant) the body thickness of a Jr/Special (1 7/8") but top routed ala the MM with a Jr. style "dogear" P-90 bridge pickup and a soapbar P-90 at the neck. A little odd at first but I think it looks good, sort of like someone's Hot Rod not something you'd think a factory would pop out. It also has a belly cut which makes it ultra-comfortable.
The bridge pickup output measures 8.68k and the neck 7.75k. They are great sounding pickups, I was shocked. I wouldn't say I am snobbish but I couldn't imagine an inexpensive MIK guitar to have legit sounding stock, no name pickups in it. I may go to some SD's at some point but no rush on it that's for sure. They were noisy though and I needed to tame that somewhat, I'll list that under the mods I did.
The tuners are Grovers and work as they should. The nut is a graphite, I originally thought it was plastic, cut well too, nothing needed to be done when I strung up 11's on it. It needed very little in the way of a neck adjustment, just a minor tweak after getting here from FF's and it's fine. The frets are well cut and polished but they have a rather flat crown and they are not the best quality wire. I have already worn some of the lower frets in a bit so I imagine it'll need a file or refret sooner than I would normally expect.
The stopbar is fine and has enough room to adjust for decent intonation, the G string being the typical pain but it isn't far off, no need to change it at all.
The pots were re-done by FretFire when he got it so I can't comment on the stock ones but the stock switch was decent, better than the import box 3-ways that come in most Asian guitars.
So I have gigged with it, rehearsed with it, lived with it around the house and I couldn't really be anymore happy with it. All my guitar buddies were really impressed with how it sounded and I got a lot of people asking what it was after the last gig, I take that as a good sign. I have heard a lot of good things about the Agiles but everyone I had played prior to this one was a boat anchor (referring to their LP style guitars) or fairly gaudy so I hadn't really considered one for myself. I was looking for a Jr. or a Special and figured for the price I had nothing to lose but it really turned out to be a score and a half.
My only real issue with it was noise. I know P-90's well and expect some hum but I just had too much. So I pulled it apart and there was very little shielding on anything, though they did use a shielding paint in the wiring cavity. The pup routs were cleanly painted but unshielded and the guard only had 2 small pieces of shielding around the pots and the switch. So I tape shielded the pup routs and the back of the guard, wax potted the pickups (actually my buddy Cris Mirabella potted the pups for me) and grounded all the new shielding. When doing the re-wire I had a weird ground issue and ended up replacing the switch since I broke off a wiring lug. Figured out the switch was hitting the shielding paint so we used a piece of electrical tape to block that and now it is fine with considerably less hum out of it. I also added a set of black Gibson reflector knobs that look way better than the cheapo black speed knobs it came with and Schaller Straplok pins to go with my other guitars.
I can't really recommend this guitar enough. A few tweaks and it is a monster but really it is such a good guitar out the box that it has to be one of the best values out there. It may need some extra maintenance on the frets and I would really encourage Agile/Rondo to use a better wire because this is really a special guitar they have.
Factory specs - http://www.rondomusic.com/ad201vwht.html
Flat top, three piece, solid Mahogany
Two P90 pickups
Volume, tone and a three way switch
Stop-Bar w/adjustment
Mahogany set neck
Rosewood fretboard with 22 jumbo frets
Width at the nut: 1 11/16"; 22nd fret: 2 3/16".
Bridge studs are 3 1/4 " apart
Weight: 8 lbs (factory lists at 9)
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