Agathis ???
Agathis ???
Agathis does have tonal properties or else it would not be used in guitars. For that reason, no guitars are made of oak, for example.
Agathis is a softwood, coming from a coniferous tree (spruce, pine, etc), unlike Mahogany which comes from a deciduous tree (hardwood). I am not a botanist, so I really cant say much more. Agathis is often referred to as "commercial grade mahogany" as its tonal properties closely represent those of mahogany but fall short of true mahogany. There are significant differences in the woods as well.
It tends to be a bit on the dull side as far as tone is concerned, but I don't think its awful by any means. I had an M200FM for a short time a year or two ago, it was a really nice guitar for the money, and stock it sounded pretty good. Worse comes to worse, throw EMGs in there, that'll take care of most tone issues since even a plywood guitar can sound good with a set.
I have owned 3 agathis guitars... and conducted a couple experiments:
I took a Cort M200, and stuck some Duncan designed 102's in it, and tested the sound... even thought there was improvement, the over-all tone was still too weak and thin sounding for me...
My MH250NT sounds really good compared to say... a Schecter C-1 Elite from a tonal perspective, but still a bit thin for high gain metal type stuff.
After getting my MH400NT, I have discovered what all the fuss was over in regard to the active EMG's in mahogany bodied guitars.... I doubt I will ever go back to passives now.
ok... i find my MH 250NT playing really well and have nice ringin sustain and no tonal inpropertise, and its agathis