Rondo at it again!

That Agile would probably be a better guitar based on the specs. I say go for it as long as you can live with that instead of a Tele. Two different beasts.

Jason

im very wary of rondo. i feel that you get what you pay for, and rondo guitars just dont seem to have good quality to me based on what i have seen and reviews i have read. im sure you can get a good guitar from rondo, but i think you'd be far more satisfied with a better guitar.

Dunno what you've seen and read, but the two Agiles I've got are first rate. And I've read an awful lot of positive reviews of them, mighty little negative. Kurt at Rondo is quick to answer E-mail, and will make things right if there is any problem.

well let me be more specific...sorry, i was a bit vague there..

first off, i got this confused with another thread and thought it was an SX. i have heard crap about SX guitars.

Agiles, ive heard mixed reviews, never played one though. played an SX and felt like i needed to wash my hands when i was done. i understand they're made in the same factories, but that SX was just poor.

maybe im just a bit of a label wh*re, but i thinkt here are better places for me to buy guitars than Rondo. i want to buy a guitar i can see play and touch first. generally, i believe there are better guitars available for your money, simple as that.

to me, a $129 guitar is just a $129 guitar and will reflect that. i have a $150 that plays like a $150 guitar, and while i enjoy it, it's like a toy next to my Fender and my Martin. i firmly believe that there are very few guitars under the $250 price tag that are of decent enough quality to last and perform at a HIGH quality for a long time. you get what you pay for. im not saying not to buy the Agile, get it if you want, but if you really wanna do your relic project, do that instead. i think it's a much better endeavour.

They're not made in the same factories. SX are made in China. Agiles are made in Korea. They appear to be made by the same factory, and to be very nearly the same model line, as Tokai "Love Rocks."

to me, a $129 guitar is just a $129 guitar and will reflect that.

So if I sell you that $129 dollar guitar for $1000 then it will play better? I'm confused.

I've never seen anything but positives about Rondo except for the "label wh*res" who never owned one. But you can be sold anything for any price, simple as that.

Plus, if he buys a used guitar he is getting just that. It might be great, or it might suck. Same as a Rondo or any other guitar only it would be new with a warranty that apparently is backed pretty well.

They sound like great options for people that dont want to spend alot of money.

Geoo

geoo has a valid point. Many years ago, a hand cream was put on the market, at a very competitive price - and almost no-one bought it. After several months of lousy sales, they doubled the price and immediately dramatically increased sales - because price = value, right?

I think it's about time I chime in here...

I have this exact model except the Goldtop version and I DARE anyone to find a better guitar at even TRIPLE the price. It plays better than any Epi I have played (at the store) and if I dare compare apples to oranges here...better than many of the Fender Standards I have played and I LOVE Fenders. (Apple to oranges because Fenders don't make LP's). It is NOT a top of the line Gibson...but even they are dropping in quality and many of you know.

Geo and Greybeard give perfect examples of what kind of profit magins companies make. Kurt just decided to sell a good quality guitar and make less per guitar and more on volume...PERIOD. Agiles are solid guitars and sound great. I just REFUSE to pay thousands of dollars for something that is not THOUSANDS better than the inexpensive models. They may be hundreds better but definitely NOT thousands. I feel the same about Behringer vs Line6. I just do not see why Line6 is that much more than Behringer. I can see Fender and Marshall being better than Behringer (and LIne6).

***Soapbox back in storage waiting for next rage :wink:

Hey Mike, not seen you round for a while..good to hear from you again!

Keith

heeey mike, where you been hidin'?

you all make good points, but still, i have to say that there remains an intangible about the rondo guitars that to me, sets off a bit of a flag. it seems a bit hokey to me and i can't explain why. and i am totally soured after my experience with SX.

another part of it is that i don't like copies. i want the originals from the company that designed and presented the guitar to begin with. it's a hang up of mine.

anyways, im off for the weekend, be back on sunday...happy st patrick's day!

Friendly Moderator warning #1

This Rondo argument, not to mention the "you get what you pay for" and the whole "label" thing has been done to death all over these Forum pages.

If:

(A) you seriously don't have anything new to add

(B) you simply want to post an opinion and not take dissenting viewpoints into accout

(C) you take any of this stuff personal or as a personal attack (as people who take things personal are, as amply evidenced in these discussion, wont to do)

(D) you simply want to make a joke

(E) you simply want to promote the "this is what I've got so therefore no one else in the universe can get a better deal than that"

(F) want to make a comment that can, in any way be considered close to any of the above (and take into account I (and the other mods) read a lot of this stuff on very little sleep when we truly should be having a life)

THEN DON'T POST.

If you want to respond to the original thread, great.

If you want to try to persuade people of the value of more expensive instruments, or non-Rondo guitars, fine. But do so civilly and, when you get a reply, take all of the above statements into account.

*Sigh* No one's day should have to start like this...

Back to the thread:

Dali, it's not crazy to pass up. Ultimately you have to go with the best guitar for you and that includes working within a budget. I will echo the thoughts here on one thing, though - while the price makes this a huge consideration, I've yet to meet anyone who plays seriously ("seriously" meaning "a gigging musician") playing a Rondo. Many have them as "starter" guitars and I've met a handful that have one as a backup, but the the general tendency has been that once a person gets beyond the beginner stage, he or she will more likely than not move to a guitar that give them a little more help toward meeting their goals.

No matter what your budget, play guitars in all price ranges. If possible (and it's often not very possible), try to put manufacturers and prices out of your mind and simply concentrate on the feel of the guitar. Perhaps you'll end up with the Rondo anyway. It's not only been known to happen, it seems to happen a lot to folks here for some reason!

If you are just looking for a guitar to get yourself going, then great. But if you're trying to reach particular goals, then look and ask around and keep trying out gear.

Remember that any decision you make is simply a decision. You can always change your mind.

Peace

Thanks Dave & Crew.

I just felt that I had to post this since I couldn't believe the price. That is the lowest price I can imagine for a guitar with set neck, pearloid, Grovers, etc... Amazing.

I don't have a need for another guitar, certainly not a need for a starter guitar (been through about 15 of those). I was originally looking for a beater/cheap tele-type guitar that I could relic or play with as a project. I stumbled over this and almost bought it on the spot (which I guess, is the intention).

I have to agree with U2Bono - I would prefer to have the original of anything (Gibson, Fender, Guild, Hamer, Martin, etc) since to me guitars are both an instrument and somewhat of an investment. The beauty of the advent of the internet is that you canmake mistakes now with your purchases and then get rid of those mistakes. I've bought 15 guitars over the last 3 years, and I have 3 of those 15. You can take a chance on an unknown guitar and then "unload" it later if you need to. Or, as with my recent Schecter experience, you can buy a very nice guitar at a low price, play it and enjoy it, and then sell it to upgrade. A great time to be a guitarist.

Well, "Made In Korea" means that it's not going to cost a lot of cash because production costs there are sooooo cheap. It looks ok in the picture, and the spec reads well - mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard; all of these are good woods and mahogany has a great natural sustain (which is why it's used in Les Pauls).

Why not get one? For that money, if you stuck a set of Dimebag or Bare Knuckle pups on it to make it sound seriously evil, and even if you had to replace the pots, you'd still be looking at playing a fairly high spec piece of kit for a lot less than you'd pay for the "real" thing.

Best,

A :-)

Well, "Made In Korea" means that it's not going to cost a lot of cash because production costs there are sooooo cheap. It looks ok in the picture, and the spec reads well - mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard; all of these are good woods and mahogany has a great natural sustain (which is why it's used in Les Pauls).

While it wasn't an Agile, a friend and I tore apart a made in Korea guitar recently.

The wood was utter crap, made to look decent with the application of wood filler and putty under the paint. It was heavily cracked where the routing happened, and filled with defects that went well beyond the stage of "minor imperfections" to "big huge knots that would have sent this hunk of wood to the scrap pile in a factory that cared about quality."

I have no doubt the guitar would never have stood up to serious use.

On the guitar we looked at, the ads claimed Grover tuners, but we couldn't find a tuner in the Grover catalogue that matched what was on the guitar. The tuners themselves were not stamped with any manufacturer information whcih makes me seriously question the "Grover" claim. Even if they were stamped, I wouldn't necessarily believe that meant anything.

The pickups had terrible response. We hooked it up to watch the performance and it was clear that a great deal of the sound wave simply wsn't being picked up by the pickups.

The pickup performance, however, wasn't nearly the biggest issue with the electronics, the pots used for volume and tone control combined to steal a huge amount of the signal the pickups managed to catch.

The guitar looked good. It played ok. But having looked under the hood and kicked the tires around I'd never buy one.

I simply do not believe it to be possible to produce a quality guitar and make a profit in the $150 dollar range.

There is a bottom limit to where you can build quality, even in Korea.