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Good find

I think I made a pretty good score today and may go back for more. One of our local stores is blowing out their stock of "First Act" guitars for $49.00 each. I bought a solid body one just to strip it for parts and was totaly impressed with it! It sounds so good that I'm leaving it as is and buying another one to strip. It has a trussed, maple neck with either a mahogany or rosewood fret board and nicely bedded frets. Low action, a humbucker pup and adjustable bridge. It has tone and volume controls and flush fit jack. The machine heads are cheap but they work. The body is probably particle board or another composite with a melamine like plastic finish. The whole unit is very solid and comfortable. The bolt neck alone is worth the money, let alone the pup, bridge and matched electrics!

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on August 3, 2010 at 12:57am

I have 2 first act guitars, a strat copy and a tele like copy, both are decent entry level guitars and play fine. they don't make either of these anymore and I've been told that the newer ones are getting bad. $49 is a good buy, you can't buy a neck for that. The bodies on mine are wood, glued upp ieces but real wood, Let me know when you cut into one if it it composite wood or not.

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Permalink Reply by otis on August 3, 2010 at 2:22am

where do you buy those at im not familiar with first act?

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Tomlinson on August 3, 2010 at 3:43am

I got mine from "The Source" electronics store. Walmart sells them too I've heard. They also make an amp and other accessories for them.

otis said:

where do you buy those at im not familiar with first act?

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on August 4, 2010 at 12:47am

First Act sells thru department stores like Wal-Mart. One of mine was from Wal-Mart, the other was on clearance at a Marshalls store for $36 I couldn't leave it there. Google them they have a web site and make some interesting expensive guitars as there show pieces, but most are cheap entry level stuff. Like lots of inexpensive brands the early ones seem to be decent and then the quality goes down as they sell more.

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Permalink Reply by Andy Estabrooks on August 4, 2010 at 6:59am

I bought one at Target on clearance for parts, but found it had good bones. I took it apart, leveled and crowned the frets, made a new corian nut, reshaped, planed and veneered/ inlaid the headstock, made a new walnut pick guard with abalone inlay, then set it up nice. I'm very pleased with it - I think it rivals my esp ltd.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Tomlinson on August 4, 2010 at 4:40pm

Nice upgrades......I love that pick guard inlay....VERY VERY COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by YeahDoIt on August 4, 2010 at 11:51pm

Andy Estabrooks said:

made a new walnut pick guard with abalone inlay

You made that inlay? Looks nice.

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Permalink Reply by Scott L on August 6, 2010 at 9:38am

I picked up on a similar deal a couple of years ago at a flea market. It was a Lyon which I think they used to sell before they called it First Act. It had been dropped which left a nasty ding in the body but for $45 I couldn't pass it up because it came with a gig bag, small practice amp, tuner, strings and strap. Screaming deal for all that stuff. I still have it but can't decide if I want to strip that crummy plastic finish off of it or scavenge it for parts. I was thinking about steampunking it after stripping. It would need parts too because it doesn't stay in tune for crap so I thought about putting a locking nut on it. Either that or take the neck off of it and stick it on a CBG. I'm still split on the decision but I'm leaning towards just rebuilding it because I've really outgrown my red Squire II Strat.

I really need a higher end guitar now, I wouldn't mind a Tele or a Gibson even since I have a Strat. I actually had a job offer from PRS a couple of years ago but I couldn't walk away from some vestments coming up at my current IT job. I would dearly love to have an emerald green PRS.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on August 7, 2010 at 3:18am

Andy,

First Act eh? Didn't see that coming. NICE work!

-WY

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Permalink Reply by Dave Breault on August 8, 2010 at 1:19am

I've got a first act practice amp from Wally World, I think I paid about $30. I was going to hack it into a cigar box. It sounds just fine and is solidly built.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on August 9, 2010 at 6:32am

The Lyon guitars are made by Washburn, Target sells them in some stores, but not that cheap, good buy.

Scott L said:

I picked up on a similar deal a couple of years ago at a flea market. It was a Lyon which I think they used to sell before they called it First Act. It had been dropped which left a nasty ding in the body but for $45 I couldn't pass it up because it came with a gig bag, small practice amp, tuner, strings and strap. Screaming deal for all that stuff. I still have it but can't decide if I want to strip that crummy plastic finish off of it or scavenge it for parts. I was thinking about steampunking it after stripping. It would need parts too because it doesn't stay in tune for crap so I thought about putting a locking nut on it. Either that or take the neck off of it and stick it on a CBG. I'm still split on the decision but I'm leaning towards just rebuilding it because I've really outgrown my red Squire II Strat.

I really need a higher end guitar now, I wouldn't mind a Tele or a Gibson even since I have a Strat. I actually had a job offer from PRS a couple of years ago but I couldn't walk away from some vestments coming up at my current IT job. I would dearly love to have an emerald green PRS.