Members fuzztone Posted February 20, 2017 Members Share Posted February 20, 2017 I won this on Ebay last night. It made me flash back to when I first joined this forum in 2004. In those days HC was like The Agile Forum,lol [ATTACH=CONFIG]temp_123312_1487609234791_142[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]temp_123313_1487609311674_374[/ATTACH] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted February 20, 2017 Members Share Posted February 20, 2017 Nice guitar! Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted February 20, 2017 Author Members Share Posted February 20, 2017 Thanks man! These are 2 Agiles I used to own back in in the HCEGF 1.0 era [ATTACH=CONFIG]n31923997[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]n31923996[/ATTACH] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members humbuckerstrat Posted February 20, 2017 Members Share Posted February 20, 2017 Happy New Agile Day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted February 20, 2017 Author Members Share Posted February 20, 2017 Thanks! I have wanted to find one of these since I saw this picture 7 years ago. [ATTACH=CONFIG]temp_123324_1487617934796_229[/ATTACH] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Congrats on the new guitar. Did you buy it new, or was it used? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted February 20, 2017 Author Members Share Posted February 20, 2017 Thanks,It is used.I won it on Ebay last night so I don't have it yet. I remember when I joined this forum in 2004 Rondo music had already changed the shape of the horn and the headstock of the Agile guitars so you couldn't buy one like this anymore.You had to find one on Ebay or Craigslist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Minitruth Posted February 20, 2017 Members Share Posted February 20, 2017 Still have my Agile, after all these years. Has no real re-sale value, so she's stuck with me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted February 21, 2017 Members Share Posted February 21, 2017 Congratulations and Happy (Pending) New Guitar Day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ancient Mariner Posted February 21, 2017 Members Share Posted February 21, 2017 Congrats on the clownburst. Hope she's fun and brings back happy memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Danhedonia Posted February 22, 2017 Members Share Posted February 22, 2017 I've always wondered why they have no resale value - they have their fans, and they're reasonably well built Korean guitars. But you couldn't give 'em away 'round here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted March 1, 2017 Author Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 I got my Agile yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted March 1, 2017 Members Share Posted March 1, 2017 I've always wondered why they have no resale value - they have their fans' date=' and they're reasonably well built Korean guitars. But you couldn't give 'em away 'round here.[/quote'] It's the same with Cort, who builds some of the best Ibanez, and Samick, who has built most of the good Epiphone. Under their own name, you can't give them away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AJ6stringsting Posted March 3, 2017 Members Share Posted March 3, 2017 I've tried some Agile guitars and they sure great guitars , easily as good as any Gibson or Epiphone LP out there 👍Happy New Guitar Day !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted March 5, 2017 Author Members Share Posted March 5, 2017 Thanks! I bought a new case for it tonite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted March 7, 2017 Moderators Share Posted March 7, 2017 Great to see you Fuzz:wave: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted March 7, 2017 Author Members Share Posted March 7, 2017 Great to see you Fuzz:wave: Thanks man! It's great to see you too.Remember when this place used to be Agile Central? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members The Rover Posted March 7, 2017 Members Share Posted March 7, 2017 That's beautiful burst. So were these the "Lawsuit Agiles" that made them change the headstock and the horn? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted March 8, 2017 Moderators Share Posted March 8, 2017 Certainly do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Ratae Corieltauvorum Posted March 8, 2017 Moderators Share Posted March 8, 2017 That's beautiful burst. So were these the "Lawsuit Agiles" that made them change the headstock and the horn? It's a wonder Washburn didn't "lawsuit" Agile Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted March 8, 2017 Author Members Share Posted March 8, 2017 Haha,yeah! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted March 8, 2017 Author Members Share Posted March 8, 2017 That's beautiful burst. So were these the "Lawsuit Agiles" that made them change the headstock and the horn? Thanks! Yes,This is some info that Kurt posted on the Agile Forum in 2015 "We trademarked the Agile brand name in January of 2000. We had been selling instruments on ebay since 1998, but there really was not all that much on line action for us until about 2001 or 2002. Before then we sold most of our Agiles in store. I cannot say the exact date we first started selling the them. It was fairly common for us to try different things we would find at various trade shows. Some would take off (SX, Agile etc) others would die out. We would basically let our customers tell us what they like and what they did not and we went from there, expanding, changing or dropping lines as the customer dictated. I seem to remember buying an entire booth from a Korean factory back in 1998 or 1999 and that ended up becoming our first supplier for Agile. As for the headstock issue I may still have the paperwork somewhere, but I believe Gibson contacted us sometime in 2004 and we were involved in 'aggressive negotiations' for much of that year. During that time we came out with an intermediate headstock to sell along with our original stock. The current version of the Agile headstock started appearing in early 2005. Production of the original stock ended sometime in 2004. However there may have been some older stock (2004 inventory) models sold in part of 2005 as well. Kurt" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted March 8, 2017 Author Members Share Posted March 8, 2017 This from an interview with Kurt in which he answer some questions about the history of Agile guitars. "One of my biggest problems is with delegation, so not only am I working on answering customer order emails today, doing accounting I even went up on the roof today to initiate work on a leak. So time is limited. I think the few articles linked to here already talk about the history of Rondo, at least as far as Agile goes, so I am going to skip that for now. I will address a few other specific questions here: *In what year were the very first AL models made? Kurt> I believe it was 1999. We only keep computer records back to through 2006. We may have the paper record, but that sounds like a project for retirement. I hand coded all the original inventory programs on an IBM 5120 back in 1979 so the digital record does exist going back that far somewhere as well. *Were they even called “AL” in the very beginning? Kurt> I believe the very first model was the "LP-2000" and "LP-2500" Gibson, however was not impressed by that name. *How much did the first AL cost? Kurt> I believe we have them at $199 with some occasional sales in the $159 to $175 range (for A stock) with b stock models in the $99 range. *What is the specific order in which subsequent models were introduced? Kurt>There were many models, such as the E1 http://www.rondomusic.com/e1blue.html and the EP-1 http://www.rondomusic.com/ep1acoele.html that came out after that did not sell all the well. So they were discontinued after a while. There are probably 100s of models that we introduced the past 16 years. *How has the price of the AL changed over the years? Was there ever a point(s) at which it jumped dramatically? Kurt> I recently saw some records of our Gibson purchases. USA made LPs and SG models in the high $300 to low $400 range. It seems like not all that long ago (mid 80s, early 90s). There are a number of factors relating to the increases which could take several pages to explain. The weaker USD, the higher cost of labor (overseas) the higher cost of oil (for freight costs), and the lack of competition (we used to have about 12 factories competitions for business in Korea, now down to just a few all contributed. *Has the evolution of the AL line even been an “evolution”? What I mean is, has there been a discernible trend of steady improvement over the years, has the entire thing rolled out in happenstance fashion, or has it actually degenerated? Kurt> I would like to think so - the first LP-2000 model did not offer an ebony fretboard, or Grover tuners or alnico pickups . The current models offer those improvements, plus improved bridges, tuners, dual action trus rods, graph tech nuts, and coil tapping. None of those features were available on the early models. Soon we will be introducing additional improvements (hint hint). *In your opinion, what was the high water mark for the AL? In other words, in what year was offered the best quality guitar at the best price? Kurt> IMO they get better every year. The highest water mark is yet to come. Yes some people like the shape of the guitar prior to the 2002/2003, before headstock and horn change. So those are some of the most highly prized and collectable models. The features and quality of todays models, as far as what's coming off the production line is unquestionably superior. Even considering the higher price. *What are some of the rarest models of the AL that were ever offered? Kurt>Probably some models I don't even remember. Over the years we would often get one of a kind samples which we sold out. Those are probably the rarest - quite a few acoustic models. *When was the first full maple cap model offered? Kurt> Possibly the 3000M - *When were Alnico pickups first offered? Kurt> When the AL-3000 came out. *For bonus points, name every Agile model designation code ever offered and what features the numbers/letters stood for. Kurt>That's like a 100 hour project so I am going to pass for now. Possibly one day we will create an archives section on the site and start building up that info." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted March 8, 2017 Author Members Share Posted March 8, 2017 harold h posted this on The Agile Forum: "One thing I do not see mentioned is what got momentum going, as far as Agile standing outin the crowded field of imports. So, back in the nineties, Rondo first started selling guitars out of the back of GP magazine,these were branded "TEAM", and were advertised as solid wood (S-copies) for $119. Then, shortly thereafter, probably very late 90's, Rondo asked a guy on the old HC forumnamed stratcat to review one of the new Agile Les Paul copies they had. He loved it, and reported back to the forum the details of the guitar. This started a mini-frenzy, as at that time solid wood Les Paul copies were not very common. Looking back, the crazy thing was, stratcat had a very wonky dial up web connection, andit started giving him trouble, and he soon disappeared from the forum. He was a pro playerand gigged a lot so the forum was not a priority for him. I bought one on stratcats recommendation, it was black, and I dont think it even had a modelname as they only made one style. It was extremely heavy, which was the only thing that didnt appeal to me, and a few monthslater another forum member named weirdchaz bought it from me." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fuzztone Posted March 9, 2017 Author Members Share Posted March 9, 2017 Got a new case today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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