A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

I never saw myself with a black LP, and I didn't think I'd be buying a guitar today. Those changed when GC Used listed an AL-3000 for $249.99 in "great" condition with no pictures. I asked for pictures, and they sent me two. I bought immediately. Old headstock, Seymour Duncans and 3000 build? That's an insanely good deal.

Damn, nice score! If that was a righty, I would have given it a serious look, even though I don't really want a LP style guitar...

Those can't be GC pictures they are far to high resolution and clear! Seriously though great score.

Rare lefty old headstock.
Congrats.

Win.

While the guitar was on brown trucks, I googled around and found a 5 year old Reverb listing for this exact guitar. All else being equal, it was easy to match it using the abalone inlays. At that point, it sold with a hard shell case. So I was hoping GC forgot to mention it had a case (they've done this before, happy surprise). The guitar arrived, but no case. Oh well, still an incredible deal. It weighs in at 9 lbs, 3.7 oz. I call that a typical Agile.

It checked out visually fine - some play wear here and there, but nothing bad, and certainly nothing broken. The action was a bit high and there was way too much relief, so I gave the truss rod nearly a half turn. Then I adjusted the bridge height just slightly, and the pickups were a little too close, so they got lowered.

Finally playing it, I am a happy camper. The neck is great, the action is now perfect. It plays so well. By my standards, these pickups are hot, but very articulate. I was not sure what model Seymour Duncans they are, so I measured them. Usually my multimeter matches pickup resistance to factory specs pretty well dead-on. The bridge is 15.7k, and the neck is 12k. I can't find a single SD set to match that. They're lower than SD's Distortion set (SH-6) which is spec'd at 16.6k amd 12.7k, but that might be what they are. They're near that ballpark anyway. They are 4 wire, but not tapped.

With the Duncans, this thing doesn't sound like my other humbuckered AL guitars, it is hotter, with perhaps a bit more clarity. They sound great for rock, even dialed back a bit. So I guess this is now my Agile that goes to 12.

I guess I also have to admit there are still deals to be had on GC Used listings, they're just more rare than they used to be. And I finally have an old headstock Agile, and a model I did not exactly have before. This is an AL-3000, but I do have an AL-3001. They feel the same - this is the slightly more rude sounding one.

Billy Duffy played a black LP on Sonic Temple. That’s all the reason I need to like one.
I’m not normally a fan of black or white guitars, basses, cars, or motorcycles, but on the right one it just looks right.

And that one looks right.