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Post by Leftee on Feb 6, 2020 18:03:35 GMT -5
Not real Gibsons. Copies.
Last year I found this Agile single-cut on Reverb. The owner installed a Fralin P90 in it and rewired it like a Jr. No neck pickup (it was still installed, just not hooked up) and no switch (again... installed but bypassed). He also installed a Faber Aluminum wrap-around bridge. I was going after the Fralin, although the guitar had some appeal, as well. I landed a good deal for the guitar in a whipped but functional hard case.
My thought was to take the Fralin out of it and install a set of StewMac P90s and get the guitar back to a proper two pickup configuration. So that's what I did. I ordered the normal wound bridge pickup and a RWRP neck. I used Gibson 300k pots. The frets were in great shape so I just polished them a little. The nut slots were too high, so I addressed those.
I polished some of the fine scratches out of the body and neck.
This guitar plays and sounds great! It's a beast through a Marshall.
So that's the Agile...
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Post by Leftee on Feb 6, 2020 18:12:18 GMT -5
So I had this Fralin P90 hanging around.
After the Agile a Tokai Love Rock Jr. popped up on Reverb. It was nothing to get excited about. It's Chinese. And they really let the name down. But... I got it cheap and the owner had put some nice Grover vintage tuners on it and a Gotoh wrap-around bridge.
The tuners. The previous owner installed them and used one of the screw holes (below each tuner) to anchor them. So, no screws in the tops and the tuners ended up with a wonky alignment. I removed the tuners, doweled the holes, and redrilled so that the tuners are correctly aligned.
The frets. Ooohhhh the frets! The guitar had very little playing time. The frets weren't worn. But about half of them were high. There were tooling marks on some. It was the worst fretwork I've even seen on a "new" guitar. One of the frets has a scar on one side. It's below the crown, so I didn't worry about it. So a fret level, crown and polish and she plays nice.
I'm glad I didn't pay much for this.
The Fralin went in this guitar along with Gibson 300k pots.
Bottom line is that it plays and sounds great. But honestly, the Fralin doesn't sound any better than the StewMac bridge pickup in the Agile. They're both great P90 tone.
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Post by chronicinsomnia on Feb 7, 2020 9:29:24 GMT -5
I had looked at the Agiles when they were for sale at Rondo. Never pulled the trigger. Kinda wish I had. Love the color on the Tokai. I also love to see lefty guitars getting played.
Congrats
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Post by Leftee on Feb 7, 2020 9:45:55 GMT -5
I’d call the color school bus yellow.
The previous owner of the Tokai really gave it his all to get it where he wanted it. I think it was just more work than he was prepared to do.
I’ve never had a bad Agile. Even at new prices, they’re good bang for the buck. This one would have come with ceramic magnet pickups. The Golden Age P90s are excellent pickups. In fact, they’re on sale right now.
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Post by LM on Feb 7, 2020 10:20:42 GMT -5
Those Agile Jr's had a good rep back in the day for tones and playability.
FWIW, I replaced the stock P90s in my Agile Goldtop with Lollars and it made a huge difference. That guitar is a tone machine, albeit somewhat ugly.
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Post by Leftee on Feb 7, 2020 10:28:40 GMT -5
Those Agile Jr's had a good rep back in the day for tones and playability. FWIW, I replaced the stock P90s in my Agile Goldtop with Lollars and it made a huge difference. That guitar is a tone machine, albeit somewhat ugly. Yeah... the stock Agile P90s are quite “meh.” I found them bright and raspy. What didn’t help that, at all, was that they used 500k pots in those guitars. |
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Post by rickyticky on Feb 11, 2020 10:09:59 GMT -5
Love how in your pictures, right behind those guitars, it says "Only a Gibson is good enough".  |
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Feb 11, 2020 10:37:04 GMT -5
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Post by Leftee on Feb 11, 2020 11:27:59 GMT -5
I was wondering when someone would notice that. 😂
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Post by chronicinsomnia on Feb 11, 2020 17:28:15 GMT -5
washed and rinsed. Good "clean" tones. |
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Post by LTB on Mar 24, 2020 1:32:51 GMT -5
Not real Gibsons. Copies.
Last year I found this Agile single-cut on Reverb. The owner installed a Fralin P90 in it and rewired it like a Jr. No neck pickup (it was still installed, just not hooked up) and no switch (again... installed but bypassed). He also installed a Faber Aluminum wrap-around bridge. I was going after the Fralin, although the guitar had some appeal, as well. I landed a good deal for the guitar in a whipped but functional hard case.
My thought was to take the Fralin out of it and install a set of StewMac P90s and get the guitar back to a proper two pickup configuration. So that's what I did. I ordered the normal wound bridge pickup and a RWRP neck. I used Gibson 300k pots. The frets were in great shape so I just polished them a little. The nut slots were too high, so I addressed those.
I polished some of the fine scratches out of the body and neck.
This guitar plays and sounds great! It's a beast through a Marshall.
So that's the Agile...
That to me is a nice catch! Love the finish but I would have serious issues playing it. Maybe I could trick myself using a mirror  |
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Mar 24, 2020 7:57:57 GMT -5
I particularly like that you installed left-handed P90s.
Those are really hard to find.
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