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I have a Michael Kelly Patriot Q that I cant say enough great things about.. It plays like a dream, sustains forever, sounds fantastic and was very reasonably priced. I have never got to play the Kelly thru my main amp rig (peavy Ultra plus and carvin cab) and have been wondering how it would sound and how it would compare to my LP? Well, today, I got to do a back to back comparo.. OMG!!!! The Kelly sounded amazing!!! Almost all the same full chunky sound but with less mud. I thought the LP would be brighter because of the thicker maple cap, but to my suprise, the Patriot has a more cutting tone.. Even more of a suprise is the tone I was getting from neck pups.. Im a tinkerer and change pups in everything. I hadnt had the time or money to change the neck pup in the Michael Kelly. But I was getting some of the sweetest and most musical tones out of it. Im just blown away!! I wanted to get a couple more LPs to have a variety of pup combos, but not anymore.. Ill save a pile of money and get a couple more Patriots! Plus, the patriot has a bigger fretwire which I like too.. Im amazed and Im stoked!!!

Excellent. I've never played one, but there are some good copies out there to be had. Sounds like you got one.

Enjoy it!

All the HC reviews said they were great...I guess they are, lol the satin black ones look SICK and the heel is very nice on those.

I've played a couple Michael Kelly guitars, they're pretty good for the price. Though, I'd like to see how an Agile stands up to them.

They must vary in QC quite a bit cos I played one against the Chinese Epi I ended up buying and the Epi crushed it...the Epi had tons more sustain, more quot;woody soundquot;, more resonance, and even the stock Epi pups were a huge improvement over the Patriots.

Really, there was no comparison. I had initially gone to get a Patriot based on the reviews.

It was put together fairly well, but...

Guess its like any $500 guitar , some are good some are dogs.

Lee, Yeah, Ive never played an Agile and have read so much about them. Im guessing they are around the same caliber. The workmanship on this guitar is fantastic, has grover keys and during the first couple of years, they put tone pros bridges on them. They stopped that now for cost cutting, but still use a very solid bridge assembly. A couple of thier models still use TPros
***For those that havent seen this model, the shape is more like a Dean EVo then a LP copy. Got the same type of thin heel as an EVO.

Yeah, my next purchase was going to be a black Agile or epi ELitist LP, but I after this comparo, Im getting the Patriot Shadow. (The sick black one referred to in the above post)

If ya want to learn more, go to: WWW.Arlinmusic.com Joel is the dealer that sold me mine. Great guy! He has a link on his site for Michael Kelly.

This is the one I played

Thanks for the link BR. I'll have to drive over there and take a look.

Artie

Edit: This is cool. I just noticed that they have the Oscar Schmidt OE30. I've been wanting to get my hands on one to see how they are.

Jeff,Yeah, that one is similar to mine. Mine is more of a honey burst color. Too bad you had that experience. I guess you can find bad ones in any line.. Personally of the several Ive played, they all seemed consistantly well made. I do have to admit, the one I got was the heaviest of the litter and seems to have the most robust sound and sustain.

Artietoo, Keep me posted on how your trip goes! Joel will let you try anything in the store. Last time he had me playing his homemade amp. Its a plexi copy. Sounded pretty cool. Had a MASSIVE transformer in it.