Some thoughts on an Agile 3100

[Monster]

I just picked up one of these cheap - I think its an older one. My overall take is that its a solidly built, heavy (10 lbs) guitar. Its quite attractive. Its not terribly resonant, some of that is the bridge - better after I replaced it with conversion posts and an ABR. Sustain is great. The niche I see for these is like a Norlin era Gibson. I think with hot pickups its a very nice "heavy rock/metal" guitar. The stock pickups are decent, not great. The fretwork is decent, not great - and the frets are average, not large. The neck is average size for a Les Paul - smaller than the older Historics, bigger than the older Epiphones. Overall, don't pay a lot, but an excellent guitar for some situations. If you're a metalhead on a budget and have a good back, this is a great choice, especially if you find one used and cheap like I did.

 

[gibbykohner]

Pics or it didn't happen



I'm gassing for these (*Not my pics)

*

 

[chasenblues]

Wonder when Rondo/Kurt added the extra trap inlay by the nut.

 

[kevinpaul]

Your guitar being an import is metric, so stay away from the Gibson stuff. Messed up and bought a bridge for my Strat, I got a metric bridge when the guitar is all USS. So close but it would not work. The off brand guitars can be a fun project and turn in to a great guitar.

 

[dspelman]

I just picked up one of these cheap - I think its an older one. My overall take is that its a solidly built, heavy (10 lbs) guitar. Its quite attractive. Its not terribly resonant, some of that is the bridge - better after I replaced it with conversion posts and an ABR. Sustain is great. The niche I see for these is like a Norlin era Gibson. I think with hot pickups its a very nice "heavy rock/metal" guitar. The stock pickups are decent, not great. The fretwork is decent, not great - and the frets are average, not large. The neck is average size for a Les Paul - smaller than the older Historics, bigger than the older Epiphones.

I have a 3100 Floyd, picked up used for $200, pretty much pristine. Identical to:

Ebony fretboard, real MOP inlays (and yes, with the first fret inlay ala the Custom, but in traps). Frets are jumbos (not overly wide). Upon arrival, mine had its frets superglued and then PLEK'd, but the PLEK analysis showed it not being all that far adrift. Fret ends were very decently dressed as delivered. Multilayer binding on body and headstock, single on fretboard, cleanly done. Overall, this guitar leans more toward the Gibson Custom than to, say, a standard.

There are three or four neck profiles available -- a slim, a wide and a standard (with a wide/slim out there, but not currently offered). Mine's a standard, which measures out closer to a '60's than a '50's. Nice clean C shape.

My "Floyd" was from the same Korean production line as the Floyd-branded "OFR" (I have a couple of those from Gibson guitars) and you can find identical machine marks. At the moment, there's a Schaller onboard with a large sustain block. These are heavy, dense guitars, and not a lot of string energy escapes into the body to make it ring; thus the "resonance" is low, but sustain very high. The pickups (AlnicoV's) are pretty good, actually (if I were replacing them, I'd leave the neck pickup and replace the bridge with a Suhr Aldrich).

The closest Gibson analogue would be the Studio Shred. Same Floyd, smaller frets, rounder fretboard, larger neck, no binding, Gibson pickups, same neck heel, but the Gibson *may* be lighter (the Agile is solid, the Shred may be weight relieved).

Mine's several years old now, and has been working for a living most of that time. No issues.