The Official Agile ERG Thread

[Shawn]

Originally Posted by darren

I've opened a discussion with Kurt about it, and as we all know, Rondo is VERY receptive and responsive to customer requests. If you guys are interested in something like this, chime in and maybe Kurt can make it happen.

This looks slick, I really like this design.

[Ishan]

Yea it's about perfect, I'd have it with one pickup, oiled/waxed finish, and rosewood or maple board to cut the cost even more.

Originally Posted by Ishan

Yea it's about perfect, I'd have it with one pickup, oiled/waxed finish, and rosewood or maple board to cut the cost even more.

And a 30" scale on that.

[Splees]

They make 28" scale agile six strings, seems like a 28" scale eight string is definitely possible now. Hopefully within the year. We all know the 808s and the hipshot bridgers are available, those were one of the biggest concerns that held this project back. Now that ESP and Ibanez have gotten them into production mode, one would assume they're going to be cranking out a lot of them to keep up with demand.

If they dooo make an eight, there is always the "custom" shop. I'd like to get the Defiant design mixed with the new purple 727. I'd settle for a plain jane though. Transblack would be alright, not too sure on solid black. I'm getting sick of black guitars. (that means someone should make a lot of new mockups)

[Apophis]

I really would like to see how it's going to end

[JJ Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by msherman

Cocobolo is definately not cheap my friend. It`s around $25-$30 per bd. Ft. here in the states

At lmii.com for the 1st grade Cocobolo boards it's cheaper than maple, and not the birdseye boards, just the regular maple boards. The regular guitar sized ones are like $8 for Cocobolo, which is cheaper than maple, and the Indian rosewood, and only a little bit more expensive than the 2nd grade Honduran rosewood.

[Apophis]

^^ In Poland cocobolo is also more expensive than maple

[JJ Rodriguez]

Well, maybe I'm reading something wrong here. I don't know why lmii can sell the Cocobolo boards cheaper. Go there and see for yourself. I thought that was part of the great thing about Cocobolo, that it was cheap, any time I've ever seen anyone talking it up that's one of the first things they say.

[darren]

Kurt still thinks $100 for the Hipshot bridge is too much. I don't know if he's contacted them about getting an OEM deal, though.

He wants to keep the selling price for an 8-string closer to $500.

I think that's a pretty aggressive price point, but it some ways it does make sense, because it puts the guitar more into "impulse buy" territory. The Septor 727 was priced so perfectly that four of you guys didn't think twice and pulled the trigger immediately. So obviously that's a pretty sweet price point.

If anybody has any other ides about how Kurt could get a cheap 8-string bridge, i'd love to hear it!

[msherman]

Originally Posted by JJ Rodriguez

Well, maybe I'm reading something wrong here. I don't know why lmii can sell the Cocobolo boards cheaper. Go there and see for yourself. I thought that was part of the great thing about Cocobolo, that it was cheap, any time I've ever seen anyone talking it up that's one of the first things they say.

My guess is that they aren`t selling well for them, and they have been sitting on that stock for a while, and trying to blow it out.
In my lifetime, I have never seen rosewood prices cheaper than maple
and LMI is known for expensive pricing.
I just sourced some coco for a few builds and my cost was $18.00 per bd. ft.(wholesale).

[JJ Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by msherman

My guess is that they aren`t selling well for them, and they have been sitting on that stock for a while, and trying to blow it out.
In my lifetime, I have never seen rosewood prices cheaper than maple
and LMI is known for expensive pricing.
I just sourced some coco for a few builds and my cost was $18.00 per bd. ft.(wholesale).

What does that equate to per guitar? What's the dimensions per board foot? Like 1 inch thick, x inches wide and a foot long or something?

[msherman]

Basically, 144 cubic inches in volume equals 1 board Ft., so it`s length x width x thickness, divided by .144 to determine bd. Ft.

[technomancer]

Originally Posted by darren

Kurt still thinks $100 for the Hipshot bridge is too much. I don't know if he's contacted them about getting an OEM deal, though.

He wants to keep the selling price for an 8-string closer to $500.

I think that's a pretty aggressive price point, but it some ways it does make sense, because it puts the guitar more into "impulse buy" territory. The Septor 727 was priced so perfectly that four of you guys didn't think twice and pulled the trigger immediately. So obviously that's a pretty sweet price point.

If anybody has any other ides about how Kurt could get a cheap 8-string bridge, i'd love to hear it!

Well, given that the bottom level Hipshot dealer account is a 50% price break, I'd say he should be able to work something out to get the bridges for ~$50. He obviously has a deal with EMG as he's using 707s, so I'd assume he should be able to get 808s cheaper as well

I doubt $500 is possible, but depending on the kind of deals he can work for parts he could probably squeeze something out in the upper range of his prices ($599 - $699). I mean hell I've already said I'd go $800 - $900 for an 828 with a Hipshot and 2 x EMG 808s and specs otherwise in line with the 727 (I've emailed Kurt this as well).

[Blood Tempest]

Originally Posted by ibznorange

string through inline headstock?
thats some SERIOUS string length
oh kinda like the ....ing stef 7's
i wonder how well that works out really

How about the stef 8's? They're inline too I think it would look pretty killer.

[Ishan]

I've listed a few ideas to lower the price in another thread, here's a quote :

Originally Posted by Ishan

There's a few factors to consider to lower the price and still have a fun and playable instrument :
- MIK
- KISS principle, the instrument should be stripped down to its simplest expression (neck trough with one or 2 pickups, 1 vol 1 tone)
- Cheap and available wood (namely alder, ash or mahogany for the body, maple neck, maple or rosewood fingerboard. There's other cheap exotic wood that could be considered like bubinga)
- No complex construction (no carved top, no wood cap, no complex shape, etc...)
- Cheap hardware (cheap but good Gotoh tuners, graphite nut, hipshot bridge should be available in korea as they now produce at least 3 8string, etc...)
- A cheap pickup (808 are a bit pricey for such a low end guitar, maybe an EMG40 sized korean passive pickup)
- at least 28" 5/8, it would depart form the 27" scale standard and give a choice to the many waiting for a long scale 8 string (preferably 30" scale) hence would gives a market to it.

For all those screaming about the 30" scale, just try to play a Squier bronco bass, it's 30" scale and you'll see it's VERY easy to play.

I pretty much think it's doable under 800$ if someone come up with a solution for the hipshot bridge (still too pricey IMO)

[TimSE]

Originally Posted by technomancer

If it happens it won't have an ebony board, as pieces of ebony big enough for an eight string board are too expensive... I believe darren posted that somewhere earlier in the 8000 pages of the thread

Daaaang
ah well
the body shape of that alone would be bitchin'

[sepherus]

would individual saddles be an option to combat the hipshot price? i don't know how much they go for so i can't really say.

[Apophis]

it's going to be interesting

[technomancer]

I thought I'd copy my email to Kurt and his response on the 828

Originally Posted by technomancer

BTW I'm one of the guys from sevenstring.org and if you can turn out a Septor 727 style guitar in an eight string (say an 828) for between $800 and $900 I think you could probably sell a small run. I would think it would be doable given that retail for a Hipshot 8 string fixed bridge and two EMG 808 pickups is ~$300 and the current Septor 727 was $519. I know I'd order one in a heartbeat, especially if it was Tribal Purple or Tribal Green or Tribal Blue.

Not holding my breath, but it sounds like he's at least considering it

[MF_Kitten]

about string length and in-line headstocks @ 30" scale etc, i don´t think it would be a problem, i did a quick measure with my guitar strings and my bass, and the string is long enough to be used on all but one string on the bass, one of the tuners is just barely too high up...

measured them, and the strings are 41.5" long... i think that´s pretty much standard length for strings :P

so basically, no problem! :P

i´d still rather have a 4X4 headstock :P

[Ishan]

If it's a possiblity we should vote on a scale length, I'd say between 28" and 30" (preferably 30", I like thin strings )

[Blood Tempest]

I vote for 30" scale.

Some nice and cool mod should make a poll about this, so that we can see where people stand.

[JJ Rodriguez]

As long as it's 27" or above I'd consider getting one. Longer the better, though 30" may be too much.

[technomancer]

28" or 28.625" is pretty much ideal. When you get beyond that the timbre of the higher strings tends to start changing.