PSA: Triple humbucker AL-2000 at MGR - $165

[tobijohn]

I can't recall ever seeing one of these before. It's got some strange holes drilled in the top between the bridge and stop bar, and there's something that looks like some sort of protective sheath on the rear top of the body. (I can't think of what else it might be). I'm sure at that price, there's probably other flaws that aren't showing up in the pics but for $165, it might be worth a phone call. Price and shipping are sometimes negotiable with MGR , depending on how long it's been in stock:

https://www.musicgoround.com/product/40 ... tars-white

[dabbler]

Never seen one in that color with those inlays, but I've got one in black (without the extra holes of course).

[Razzle]

Nice collection @dabbler !

[dabbler]

Nice collection @dabbler !

Thanks, @Razzle. There are a couple more in the set, but I wanted to make it easier to see the triple, so I used that pic.

[slowhand84]

I can't recall ever seeing one of these before. It's got some strange holes drilled in the top between the bridge and stop bar, and there's something that looks like some sort of protective sheath on the rear top of the body. (I can't think of what else it might be). I'm sure at that price, there's probably other flaws that aren't showing up in the pics but for $165, it might be worth a phone call. Price and shipping are sometimes negotiable with MGR , depending on how long it's been in stock:

https://www.musicgoround.com/product/40 ... tars-white

Yeah I would probably recommend steering clear of this personally, it's clearly been ridden hard and put away wet. The holes are probably either from a different bridge that was on it (Bigsby maybe) or from a synth pickup. It's got a nice sized gouge on the back too from where the strap button was moved, and inexplicably what looks like two holes where the strap buttons used to be (aka maybe it was moved twice). To me when someone doesn't care how they treat the guitar (since all these mods can be done relatively neatly, or at least MUCH neater than this)...it's usually an indicator that there'll be other issues too. Just my two cents though.

[andrewsrea]

I can't recall ever seeing one of these before. It's got some strange holes drilled in the top between the bridge and stop bar, and there's something that looks like some sort of protective sheath on the rear top of the body. (I can't think of what else it might be). I'm sure at that price, there's probably other flaws that aren't showing up in the pics but for $165, it might be worth a phone call. Price and shipping are sometimes negotiable with MGR , depending on how long it's been in stock:

https://www.musicgoround.com/product/40 ... tars-white

Yeah I would probably recommend steering clear of this personally, it's clearly been ridden hard and put away wet. The holes are probably either from a different bridge that was on it (Bigsby maybe) or from a synth pickup. It's got a nice sized gouge on the back too from where the strap button was moved, and inexplicably what looks like two holes where the strap buttons used to be (aka maybe it was moved twice). To me when someone doesn't care how they treat the guitar (since all these mods can be done relatively neatly, or at least MUCH neater than this)...it's usually an indicator that there'll be other issues too. Just my two cents though.

I was thinking a synth pickup or a Bigsby. I am pretty sure the middle humbucker was a mod and not original. I recall Agile / AX 3 humbucker guitars had the middle pole pieces oriented to the headstock (like a Gibson) and not towards the bridge. I've seen those hip wear protectors on Gretsch guitars, which is probably what that was designed for.

[tobijohn]

I was thinking a synth pickup or a Bigsby. I am pretty sure the middle humbucker was a mod and not original. I recall Agile / AX 3 humbucker guitars had the middle pole pieces oriented to the headstock (like a Gibson) and not towards the bridge. I've seen those hip wear protectors on Gretsch guitars, which is probably what that was designed for.

You might be right about that middle pickup being added, along with the pickguard. The only old picture or Rondo product page with a three-humbucker configuration with a normal volume/tone layout that I could find was the black/gold one that @dabbler has. The middle pickup pole pieces on that one are aligned like the neck pickup, and it did not come with a pickguard:

https://www.rondomusic.com/al2500bk3hum.html

There is another AL-2500 triple HB model that does have the middle pickup with pole pieces aligned like the treble pickup, but it has master volume/tone controls and a Tele style selector switch. It also has gold hardware, the one at MGR has chrome hardware:

https://www.rondomusic.com/al25003hb.html

[andrewsrea]

You might be right about that middle pickup being added, along with the pickguard. The only old picture or Rondo product page with a three-humbucker configuration with a normal volume/tone layout that I could find was the black/gold one that @dabbler has. The middle pickup pole pieces on that one are aligned like the neck pickup, and it did not come with a pickguard:

https://www.rondomusic.com/al2500bk3hum.html

There is another AL-2500 triple HB model that does have the middle pickup with pole pieces aligned like the treble pickup, but it has master volume/tone controls and a Tele style selector switch. It also has gold hardware, the one at MGR has chrome hardware:

https://www.rondomusic.com/al25003hb.html

The first example is the only one I recall. The second is interesting and is also missing the pickguard. I personally thought of buying an AL2000 to convert to a Peter Frampton Phoenix. I ended up with doing that to my yellow Davidson SG and putting my own replication of Frampton's original humbuckers in there

.