duhvoodooman
Addicted to solder....
A super-nice guy who plays bass in our church's adult praise band has been dying to buy a Les Paul for ages, but has been having family financial problems and just hasn't been able to swing it. I turned him on to the Agile LP copies over at Rondo Music, but even the $225 AL-2000's were more than he could swing in his current situation.
Last Friday, a mid-level Agile LP model, a tobacco-burst AL-2800, popped up on our local CL, for only $100. :what The owner claimed it was in good shape functionally and just need to be cleaned up, since he had stopped playing about 3 years ago. I contacted him over the weekend and it turned out he was only 10 minutes away. I went to his place Sunday evening and checked out the guitar--it was a bit on the grimy side, the strings were rusty and the frets needed a good polishing. But there wasn't a ding on it, the neck was straight, the frets had minimal wear, the electronics worked perfectly, and the set-up & action were remarkably good. I happily paid him the $100 and took it home.
I spent a couple of hours last night getting the guitar cleaned up--steel-wooled the frets, cleaned & oiled the fretboard, cleaned & polished the entire body & all the hardware. After putting on a new set of 10's and adjusting the intonation a bit, it's a very nice looking and great playing guitar. The pickups are decent, not great, but they will certainly do for now. About the only minor problem is that the truss rod cover was missing, but I've got one of those coming from Kurt at Rondo. Just an amazing value for $100! I'm going to surprise my friend with it at our weekly practice session on Friday evening--I think he'll love it!
Couple of pics--check out this little beauty:
Last Friday, a mid-level Agile LP model, a tobacco-burst AL-2800, popped up on our local CL, for only $100. :what The owner claimed it was in good shape functionally and just need to be cleaned up, since he had stopped playing about 3 years ago. I contacted him over the weekend and it turned out he was only 10 minutes away. I went to his place Sunday evening and checked out the guitar--it was a bit on the grimy side, the strings were rusty and the frets needed a good polishing. But there wasn't a ding on it, the neck was straight, the frets had minimal wear, the electronics worked perfectly, and the set-up & action were remarkably good. I happily paid him the $100 and took it home.
I spent a couple of hours last night getting the guitar cleaned up--steel-wooled the frets, cleaned & oiled the fretboard, cleaned & polished the entire body & all the hardware. After putting on a new set of 10's and adjusting the intonation a bit, it's a very nice looking and great playing guitar. The pickups are decent, not great, but they will certainly do for now. About the only minor problem is that the truss rod cover was missing, but I've got one of those coming from Kurt at Rondo. Just an amazing value for $100! I'm going to surprise my friend with it at our weekly practice session on Friday evening--I think he'll love it!
Couple of pics--check out this little beauty:
