Question About A First Act Body...

[BJC132003]

Can anyone tell me if first act guitar...the double cutaway with strat-style pickups...is made of complete wood? It's not that compressed paper crap is it? I have the chance to get my buddies and turn it into something cool...but I wanna make sure I won't run into any problems like that.

Thanks in advance!

PS: http://www.shop.com/op/~First_Act_Discover...13?sourceid=298

I believe that's the one.

[westhemann]

yuck...waste of $140

so many better options..i think maybe YOU might need to go to www.rondomusic.com ...at least they are a little better than that...

and they cost less..if you are going to buy trash,buy it cheap.

don't anybody think i reccomend those rondo instruments or anything...

i think i need a shower just writing this.....(shudder)

[BJC132003]

Actually it's 50 bucks..

Can you give me some examples of why it's so bad.

[westhemann]

umm...because it's $50...means it cost them $10 to build it?

what else is there to know?you think for that price they can build an instrument that will last longer than a minute and a half?

but keep in mind i am a bit of a guitar snob...if that was the last guitar in tthe world i would not make my worst enemy have to sully a finger with it.

maybe that is a bit harsh...what i mean is that there "aint enough glue,paint,and duck tape in the world to make that a good guitar"

my "first act" as owner of that guitar would be to smash it into little bits and use the little bits to throw at the guy who manufactured it

i guess whhat i am trying to say is you cannot turn that into anything but a toy guitar short of replacing everything including the glue joints

i'm sorry..i amjust a little bitter because i woke from my nap a few minutes ago to find out that i wasn't dead yet

[Prostheta]

Hey, don't knock my duck tape man. Mine's black and worth the world to me.

[spazzyone]

Wes might sound a bit harsh but its the truth

and the duct tape would be to expensive to use on these

[low end fuzz]

what you have there is plastic and plywood;

jst look at the company name 'toyland';

its made for some 8 year old to have , so his parents dont slap him around for throwing it down the stairs;

even for a beginer, you have to have something that will stay in tune and not break, these guitars cant even offer that, as well as sounding like crap!

stay away;

if you wanna have a project involing gutiars...make one!

even just the body out of some pine and buy a completted neck; it would be cheaper and you can learn something

[Prostheta]

I think you need a frame of reference to have before you build one though L.E.F. I would personally recommend a Squier, Epiphone, low-end Ibanez or whatever takes your fancy. Can't go wrong with a cheapy Squier Strat as a first instrument!

[BJC132003]

Alrighty then...thanks for the opinions.

How about they're higher end guitars? Like the Lolas? We just got them in at the shop but I have yet to play one...

EDIT: While I'm at it...I have acess to a Behringer too if I want it....any thoughts? Thanks!

Edited December 10, 2006 by BJC132003

[Prostheta]

I wouldn't have high hopes mate. Low end companies compete in low leagues for no prizes in the end of it all. It's like comparing writing your name on paper in pen as opposed to scratching your name in ****. You'd best avoid the maker in general and aim higher in the recognised and reliable.

[Vade]

This is kinda funny actually.

A few weeks ago I visited some friends out of state. Due to some scheduling snafu's, I wasn't able to return on Sunday as planned and was "looking forward" to spending a whole monday doing absotively nothing while my amigos were busy at work.

I was wondering what to do when the answer practically fell in my lap. One of their neigbor kids, about 7 or 8 years old, had a first act mini acoustic that he got from his cousin a while ago. It was a ganky piece of crap but little more than a toy. But when he saw/heard me playing my guitar outside, he suddenly became very interested in becoming a guitarist. He was upset cause his little guitar only had 3 strings and he thought the flames on black paint looked "dumb."

With his mom's permission, I took the guitar saying I'd have it back to them in a couple days with new strings and maybe some modifications to make it play/look better. Then a trip to the local music store and walmart.

I gave the POS black-painted-with-cheesy-flames guitar back tuesday evening, sanded, stained cherry & clearcoated, fret burrs filed smooth, tuning machines oiled & bent back to straight, new rosewood pegs with fake MOP dot inlays on them, nut & bridge carefully dressed & a set of bargain-bin elixirs freshly strung on. Oh... and a vinyl guitar strap.

AMAZINGLY... the guitar actually sounded pretty good for the little piece of crap that it was. Once it was tuned up, it stayed in better than I would have thought and the intonation was miraculously almost spot on. I printed out directions for his mom and dad on how to tune it & told them to try and teach their son so he wouldn't have to run to them a couple times a day. <lol> I knew that I was just polishing a turd, and I'm sure that it'll be trashed pretty soon if it isn't already but it felt really cool to do it, it was a lot of fun and the expression on the kid's face was priceless enough to make the whole thing totally worth it.

[crafty]

A cheap guitar isn't a bad guitar if you buy it knowing that you're going to have to put as much time and money into it as you would have on a better guitar. Having said that, this is why they call it Project Guitar.

Buy it, toy around with it, and smash it when it no longer serves a purpose.

[BJC132003]

Thanks for the replies.

Quick question..I'm definitley going to tool with the Behringer...but only if the whole thing is wood...and not liminate paper crap. Anybody know?

Thanks!

[Cracked]

Sorry, don't know the specifics but you could try scouring their site (or emailing) to see if they actually say what it's made of, but if they don't and this is a $150 guitar, I'd just assume the worst...

Try taking the pickups out and if they haven't used any shielding paint you could possibly see a cross section of what it's made of. Same thing with the control cavity. If it is painted, I don't think scraping away a bit of the paint in a cavity would hurt the value . Good luck!

[BJC132003]

Thanks! Any advice into detecting wheather it's definitley wood and not laminate junk?

[soapbarstrat]

I remember back a ways, when they were marketed as 'First Mistake'

[AC50]

Thanks! Any advice into detecting wheather it's definitley wood and not laminate junk?

Often times on these cheapo guitars, you can see the relief of the laminations through the paint. Another way is if you can remove a pickup and look in the cavity. If the routing is through a laminated body, you should be able to see it.

Good that you're checking for this.

[MidnightLamp]

Hey, where are you located? If you are in North America, go with RondoMusic for sure. The SX guitars off of there make much better starter projects then most other cheap brands. The prices are also very competitive too!

[BJC132003]

NEPA...

I'll check it out.

AC, Thanks for the advice.

[westhemann]

the rondo guitars are crap by my standards..but they ARE much more quality than the others you are mentioning

[BJC132003]

Possibly so....

But since we're on the topic of the website, can anybody give me personal opinions on their humbucking pickups? I'd think about putting them into a cheaper build. Maybe even into the S S H I have ...