First Act guitars

[detuned]

So I'm walking down Boylston Street (Boston, MA) a few weeks ago with my mom & look into one fo the trendy boutique windows...
"Hey! That's a guitar!"
"Hey! That's a LOT of guitars!"

First Act (you may have seen their ads popping up in GP) has a store front in the Back Bay section of Boston. I browsed for a bit, then left so as not to bore mom.

Last week I got a card in the mail "drop this card off for a chance to win a free guitar". One of the expensive ones, too.

Today I broke down & went in. Tried the expensive ones, mid-level ones, & a cheapie or two. Nice solid guitars, from top to bottom. The Lola I tried was really heavy (hellooo solid mahagony ), but the $500 faux LP was really nice. Beautiful maple top, binding, nice sounding pups. Probably made overseas, but still a nice guitar.
The cheap guitars felt & sounded like... cheap guitars. You could probably do better with a Squire, price-wise. Once again though, I'm amazed at the quazlity available under $300.

The real find here are the amps. They stock 3 kinds:
1. Cheap branded SS practice amps. Pass.
2. Handwired Marshalls (yummy!)
3. First Act-branded tube combos, by Alessandro. They come in 2 flavors: rock & jazz. Both sound very, very nice.

Anyway, if you are in the area, I reccommend checking them out. It's a nice store with nice salespeople, the high end guitars are locally made, & they're decent guitars. I have my eye on the maple top Faux Paul (Who am I kidding? I had to scrape to buy a couple of $20 Carvin speakers!)


First Act

[photoweborama]

First act branded TUBE amps? wow!

[TT100]

Isn't that the brand Wal-Mart carries?

Man, look at this one! If you can't find the sound you want with all these knobs you should play acoustic.



TT

[photoweborama]

The Brad Whitford sees to have really good specs... great pickups, tuners, etc..

[NeoFauve]

The one w/the Teisco p'ups looks intriguing.
Some guy's name on the fretboard.

[detuned]

Isn't that the brand Wal-Mart carries?

Man, look at this one!

Wow. Didn't see *that* one there, or I'd have played it. Mostly funky "almost" shapes (almost a strat, almost a tele, almost a LP).

Phtot, Like I said, they're Alessandros, branded as First Acts. They're REALLY nice. Not cheap tho'. Starting at about 2K.

[photoweborama]

they're Alessandros, branded as First Acts. They're REALLY nice. Not cheap tho'. Starting at about 2K.

Can I try one out at Wal*Mart?

[Kap'n]

An interesting marketing concept. High end custom stuff catered to mainly flavor of the month players, and a whole flock of bottom-feeders for the kids to buy. Not a lot of in-between.

Love that Explor-o-rama, though.

[TT100]

I'm serious. Wal-Mart does carry a line of kids instruments with the "First Act" brand. Acoustics, electrics, harmonicas, recorders, drums and tamborines, maracas etc. All the stuff to drive parents insane.

TT

[Constellation80]

They allso sell them at radio shack as a beginers kit up here. I had no idea they had so many nice looking models. I thought they where cheapies of the cheapies.. pretty cool

[photoweborama]

Holy...$@$@! the Lola model is $1500.00!!!!

[photoweborama]

Isn't that the brand Wal-Mart carries?

Man, look at this one! If you can't find the sound you want with all these knobs you should play acoustic.



TT

And this thing is REAL.. it the Rick Nielsen/Cheap Trick model. and they have real photos of him playing it on stage.

[Constellation80]

I was kinda wondering though. Can you still feel cool with "first act" written on your head stock? serious ! lol

mean while the Gibson guy is pointing and laughing at you, :rofl :rofl and your many many knobs lol

[jefh]

Cool, a new lunchtime destination! ;)

[detuned]

jefh, if you work downtown, let's meet sometime & pursue some riffage...

I work just down the street.

Shoot me an email if you're interested...

[refin]

I was kinda wondering though. Can you still feel cool with "first act" written on your head stock? serious ! lol

mean while the Gibson guy is pointing and laughing at you, :rofl :rofl and your many many knobs lol

If you are better than him,it don't matter...... :rl

[STCrafty]

Hey, Jimmy Page played a Danelectro on some pretty mean tracks, so some of those cheap axes can have some pretty unique sounds.

I do wish they'd come up with a better name than "First Act" for the higher-end stuff, though. Even Silvertone sounds better than that.

[Constellation80]

If you are better than him,it don't matter...... :rl

very true lol. but still "first act" ?

not to mention wasn't Lola a drag queen, who took advantage of a nieve young man, new to the big city?

LOL someone in there martketing is getting paid too much haha

[Kap'n]

I do wish they'd come up with a better name than "First Act" for the higher-end stuff, though.

That's part of the whole marketing concept. They don't make money on the high end custom stuff, it's the thousands of cheap-ass offshore replicas of the high end stuff, with the same name on the headstock that makes 'em the bucks.

[refin]

I cringe whenever a new student shows up with a cheap First Act guitar,especially a 3/4 acoustic.The intonation at the 12th fret is almost 1/2 step off,and sometimes the strings and the fingerboard have different zip codes.I've never seen or played any of their "top shelf" stuff,but I wonder why they chose that name to begon with.
The band instruments they make that are sold at Walmart and Sams are pretty pitiful too---alot of band parents have bought them for their kids to use in school ! The band repair dept. where I teach won't even repair them anymore (policy) because of the cheap metals and resins that are used.They initially tried,but it got to the point where they were labor intensive with the customers,and could not make them happy.....under normal school band use,the things start to come apart.
I wonder if they do step up band instruments?

[BradKM]

A dealer had one of the high end ones at the Charlotte Vintage show last weekend. I thought about trying it out in the name of research for this thread, but it was late and I was tired...

It did look very nice, but even $99 guitars can look good these days.