Members Blueboner Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 I received (and promptly returned) this Tele a while ago, but I just got around to putting up the pictures. It seem to play OK and sound barely all right, but there were tons of interesting problems. To begin with, the body wood was terribly mismatched. However, that really doesn't even matter as I don't even think the body wood was alder, as advertised. It looks more like an agathis or nato to me. Add to all of that, the bridge didn't even completely cover up the entire pickup route; the corners of the route peeked out a bit. The nut was cut too deep, and the frets were super gritty feeling. The guitar was quite a brick too, in terms of weight. The good news, as usual, is that they took it back. Not only that, but they also refunded all of the shipping (to me and back). So I was out nothing other than the cost of driving to the UPS place to ship it back. What do you guys think of this body wood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Blueboner Posted November 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ItchyFingers Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Too bad, she's real purdy. You're right- the grain on that one piece looks like it is going perpendicular to the other wood patterns. Wouldn't be a show stopper for me though, I kinda like imperfections in my guits. And my ladies too. (oY0) Note the mismatched boobies, I don't even mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members HanSolo Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 I've seen a lot worse. Even from Fender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members docjeffrey Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Hmmm. The center piece could be a bunch of pieces of alder sandwiched between two agathis wings or something like that. But alder can be puzzling. Here's my strat which is definitely alder: It's not particularly well matched, but neither were the originals back in the day. I kind of like the look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bloolight Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Maybe its just the picture, or my eyes, but I can't see a problem with that grain at all. Of course, if it sounds bad then you don't have much of a choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ArKay Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 @omHeartMother Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members docjeffrey Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 By the way, pickup routs sticking out just slightly is a Fender tradition as well: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 9ball Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 The good news, as usual, is that they took it back. Not only that, but they also refunded all of the shipping (to me and back). So I was out nothing other than the cost of driving to the UPS place to ship it back. well there ya go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frets99 Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Looks good to me! Too bad she didn't work out for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xStonr Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 @omHeartMother Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Virgman Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Geez, it looks good to me. You must be anal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Minitruth Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Geez, it looks good to me.You must be anal. I wouldn't say that. If he didn't like these things, at least Kurt took itback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Blueboner Posted November 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Geez, it looks good to me.You must be anal. Maybe it just doesn't come out well in the picture. I can clearly see it, but then again, I've seen it in person. Although, the body pieces still look clearly mismatched to me, and the wood doesn't in anyway look like alder. But that's just me, I guess. Regardless, they guitar didn't seem to be of that great of quality. I'd say it's on par with the recent upper end Squiers that are about the same price, which is in great contrast to the other Agiles I've owned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Virgman Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Well, you can't beat the return policy. So what are you going to buy now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Blueboner Posted November 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Well, you can't beat the return policy.So what are you going to buy now? See my NGD thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members whatever Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 How was the action? Did you have to fight the guitar to play it? Or was it good? I'm just curious, what brand of tuners do they use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brendan Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Agathis. As stated above, tele routes normally do peek out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members docjeffrey Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Agathis. As stated above, tele routes normally do peek out. I read somewhere that Asian Agathis was in short supply. The trees are kind of small to begin with, and it's been used in a lot of products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Blueboner Posted November 10, 2007 Author Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 How was the action? Did you have to fight the guitar to play it? Or was it good? I'm just curious, what brand of tuners do they use? It played OK. Like I said, the frets were really gritty feeling, which made bending difficult. The finish on the neck felt a bit cheesy, but the neck itself was actually fairly comfortable. The tuners were genuine mini-Grovers--quite nice actually. Still, for the price, I'd probably try to hunt down a recent MIM Tele. All of the electronics on the Agile would have to be replaced as well as the bridge, which was particularly cheesy (aside from the route peeking out, which is normal, I guess). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ihavenofish Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 its difficult to tell under the finish, but it does look like alder to me. its quartersawn, and showing the typical rayflecks you would get in alder.agathis and meranti wont have this. it looks so different because typically alder used in fenders for example is flat sawn. us alder trees are smallish, and not often available quartered. theres a large variety of alder types around the world as well, they wont all look exacly like the us red alder in fenders. personally i dont mind the grain, or the matching. but if you didnt like it, thats that. send it back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ArKay Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Hey Jesse, think you can make it to the 5,000th post this time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metallica_00 Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Doesn't look the alder you normally see on a Strat or Tele to me... Yeah, it may be okay visually, but if it's not the wood that's advertised that's inexcusable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Highway_61 Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Ah, man, I sold you a brand new Fender trem bar. But now I'm afraid that there will be a little plastic niblet on the end of the tip or something. As a kind of sidenote, can everyone here really distinguish one type of wood from another? I mean, even in regard to weight, is it so consistent that one can say that something is alder or ash or etc. Won't it depend on where it's from, how well it was dried, etc? I'm just asking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ihavenofish Posted November 10, 2007 Members Share Posted November 10, 2007 Ah, man, I sold you a brand new Fender trem bar. But now I'm afraid that there will be a little plastic niblet on the end of the tip or something.As a kind of sidenote, can everyone here really distinguish one type of wood from another? I mean, even in regard to weight, is it so consistent that one can say that something is alder or ash or etc. Won't it depend on where it's from, how well it was dried, etc? I'm just asking. some woods are easy to spot, like maple. there isnt another wood that can be readily mistaken for maple. alder grows all around the world so it has alot more variation, but its still very distinct. the guitar in the picture uses quarter sawn wood, which shows a nice 3d ray fleck. this is very typical of alder (and maple and basswood and poplar) but i dont think its a characteristic of agathis and certainly not meranti (philipine mahogany). so all i can really say is "it could be alder", but not with any certainty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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