Agile Chirality/Chiral Parallax Headless Models

[Hollowway]

I know we're Monday morning quarterbacking this, but I think a spoke wheel truss rod would make it way easier to get the headstock size down to something manageable. And I'm digging @Bearitone 's string lock idea. The thing I hate about headless designs is that so much care is taken in the design, and then you see the string locks, with little bits of string sticking out, all cut at varying lengths, and think, "Welp, I guess they stopped caring about design when they got to this step."

It might be cool to see a headstock that has a whale tail sort of design, like the Ritter Jupiter, but on the head end, and much smaller. But that way the string locks (or whatever the mechanism is) would be hidden behind it.

 

[spudmunkey]

The thing I hate about headless designs is that so much care is taken in the design, and then you see the string locks, with little bits of string sticking out, all cut at varying lengths, and think, "Welp, I guess they stopped caring about design when they got to this step."

That's just from people being lazy. You cut the string before you lock it, then just pull it back that tiny bit so it's recessed, and lock it down. The tuner, as long as you've backed it out, has plenty of range to be able to take up that tiny bit of slack you introduce by pulling the string back.

 

[spudmunkey]

*sigh* dblpost. Damnit, just let me delete a post! (or add double-post rejection).

 

[Pingu]

and then you see the string locks, with little bits of string sticking out, all cut at varying lengths

A really simple solution I'd like to see that might not even modify many designs too much is if there was just some sort of detachable or hinged panel on the headstock covering the string locks. Like on the Mayo Hydra, but functional.

 

[diagrammatiks]

actually the nub doesn't look that much bigger then the hideous nub on the first gen goliaths. but the goliath makes it work a bit better. same truss rod problem tho.

 

[Ordacleaphobia]

Aside from the Padalka Neptune, which is way outside my budget for "hey, this might be cool" purchases, this is the only headless I've seen so far that actually catches my interest.
But since this is SSO, I'm not quite pleased yet. Show me a fanned fret 7 with quilt / flame maple rather than djent burst and you just might have yourself a deal.

 

[Pietjepieter]

I think the headstock was designed for people who and smoke and whanne have a headless guitar and wanne look oldscool rock 'n roll

I quite like the design, but the headstock is a big miss in mine opinion, both for the looks and also the strings are not aligned as well as the trust rod is just weird

 

[Sideburns]

I totally love the body shape and cut of their new headless models. I hate the headstock, and im emphasizing headstock because that damn thing is big enough to be a headstock for what is supposed to be a headless guitar. Im also wondering what kind of tuning stability would come from the "headstock or whatever that is" especially on an 8 string set up. Thats quite a bit of string bending past the nut. The price is right, but if you planned on replacing the el cheapo hardware you might as well get a kiesel, i could see dropping 200-300 on decent pups, and the bridge....thats where it would start getting pricey.

 

[Konfyouzd]

This...

Glad I logged in today.

 

[Konfyouzd]

Not bad.

Ugly headstock nub, ugly burl, ugly bursts, but can't beat the price considering Kurt's level of service.

I can learn to love that headstock nub a bit easier than I can learn to love some of the Fender-ish headstocks that don't quite pull it off.

 

[Sideburns]

On 2nd thought, the brown burl multiscale in an 8 string version would look pretty good especially for the price, i could begin to love it for what it was. IF anyone has played one of these id love to know how it plays and holds intonation.

 

[Pietjepieter]

Just checked the rondo website and this one is really pretty sweet, only damn this headstock is really a miss with the arrow shape place lockers...

Just a little different top and better headstock, single trustrot and you have a really sweet 8 for the price I think!

 

[Robmcbob]

Hi I couldn't remember my old 7s login, but I'm back! And I re-reg because this post caught my attention. I will have tomorrow one of these I ordered one, I'm mostly curious but also the price point and Agile name made it tempting, as well as it's passives and multiscale 25.5-27" yada yada.

Some thoughts to consider guys....
A) You can easily upgrade the hardware (perhaps even the bridge) with strandberg parts, especially on the headstock, and if you have access to a CNC machine the possibilities are seemingly endless.
B) I plan on first purchasing the strandberg 5mm washers (or outsourcing them from ACE) to address the "String Breaking At The Headstock Lockers" concerns.
C) Agiles sound great, live or studio, so by saying Agiles are crap cause they're cheaper there's really no real merit to that claim because a perfectly decent setup one sounds great.
D) I dont understand why people are hating the body shape of the horns and stuff, people are way too anal or picky something wrong with you mentally if you think there's anything wrong with that shape or those beautiful burl tops.
E) I will keep you guys posted and try to get recordings in ASAP, please be patient.

 

[Hollowway]

Hi I couldn't remember my old 7s login, but I'm back! And I re-reg because this post caught my attention. I will have tomorrow one of these I ordered one, I'm mostly curious but also the price point and Agile name made it tempting, as well as it's passives and multiscale 25.5-27" yada yada.

Some thoughts to consider guys....
A) You can easily upgrade the hardware (perhaps even the bridge) with strandberg parts, especially on the headstock, and if you have access to a CNC machine the possibilities are seemingly endless.
B) I plan on first purchasing the strandberg 5mm washers (or outsourcing them from ACE) to address the "String Breaking At The Headstock Lockers" concerns.
C) Agiles sound great, live or studio, so by saying Agiles are crap cause they're cheaper there's really no real merit to that claim because a perfectly decent setup one sounds great.
D) I dont understand why people are hating the body shape of the horns and stuff, people are way too anal or picky something wrong with you mentally if you think there's anything wrong with that shape or those beautiful burl tops.
E) I will keep you guys posted and try to get recordings in ASAP, please be patient.

Are you planning on doing some CNC stuff to alter the hardware? If you are, make sure and post up so we can see. I have zero experience with CNC, but I'm curious to see what you come up with, because headless stuff is evolving, and I'd like to see what you come up with.

 

[MerlinTKD]

Been looking at these, and I suspect the necks are built identically to standard Agile necks with a modified head, hence the nut/no zero fret, truss rod access placement, etc. If I had to guess, I’d say he tried to do the design as cost-effectively as possible (maybe to see if they’ll sell before making large-scale changes?).

Even with all the iffy aspects, if I saw a multiscale 8 I’d be having a hard time keeping myself from it (especially in that galaxy blue or purple )!

 

[Robmcbob]

Ok just gonna reply to this anyone who's followed through this thread, coming from an actual owner. Everyone's worries are to no merit there is really nothing wrong at all with this instrument, over-analyzing youtube videos of dudes saying the locks break strings (they don't btw). The pictures where bg light is fading in on the rosewood, are you smoking crack?. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the neck, and I would say it's comparable to any boutique neck. You may install small washers more than likely like on strandbergs. The CNC work I'm referring to would be reshaping of the horns on the body if you really wanted to you could, it holds tune great similar to other headless since double locking, non-floating system. The stock strings suck but that's because they are probably base model strings of some kind, I use Elixir's 62-46-10 and dropped it to drop G. The rosewood came "okay" from the factory but I went ahead and oiled it down for 10mins with luthier oil and looks great comparable to a high end esp rosewood from korea (I believe this is korean rosewood don't quote me, if it's not then you had me fooled). I would think a good pickup upgrade for this would be dimarzio's (perhaps the Titan). Again let this be a lesson for everyone don't believe everything you read/see on the internet.

 

[stockwell]

No zero fret though. Zero frets are great.

 

[ChugThisBoy]

Holy moly that nub. But overall, I'm curious how this thing feels. Agile stepped up their game so this can be a nice alternative to Strandys/Skervys

 

[laxu]

It's like a bastard child of Kiesel Aries and Strandberg Boden. It's...not bad!

 

[Robmcbob]

One thing to point out you'll prolly have to do this if you bought this guitar, and it's easy takes less than 5 mins, file the corners on the nut cause they came pretty sharp but if you have a nail clipper file or something it can be sorted out easily by lightly filing off the corners at each end, the allen that came in the bag didn't fit the saddle screws or the intonation lock no big deal. I didn't know but it's actually a gotoh bridge, so it's not just a random nobrand bridge, and it seems to work okay you have to be careful not to lose the tiny washers that go to the tuners. So the few complains I do have are almost irrelevant. I'll see about making some recordings this week. I'm still super tempted to click buy on some titans.

 

[r3tr0sp3ct1v3]

Remember guys. If no one buys these, they probably won't make more. If no one buys these in the early stages, we can kiss them goodbye. Let' crowdunf them all and have a brotherhood of the traveling guitar