First Act GarageMaster VW Limited

Underrated for sure, "First Act" was originally a custom one off builder, and many of these features can be found in the "Garage Master". Some cheesey pieces, pearl peeling off guard, tuners, etc, all easy to fix or upgrade. Fairly comfy, flat slab neck, 10-12 radius, with Glued in frets. The pre-amp can be a speaker trasher, watch your settings before you engage it. The body appears to be one piece poplar, again going back to their roots. These are not the K-mart specials! I bought mine on Ebay for $125 + shipping. Well worth the investment. As a luthier, I would easily charge $125 for the pre-amp or pup's. The pickups are actually great little pup's. Have a very clean sound, but can be brought into a "TV Classic" jangle with adjustments, or full on EVH distortion. Overall, if you can snag one of these for under $250, you won't be disappointed. I have had mine put some hi-end Gibsons and Fenders on their stands. These are the moped's of guitars, fun to ride, just don't let your friends see you!

Features have been covered in other reviews so I won't repeat. I really like having the built-in power booster and effects. Adds to the versatility. I bought mine used and the neck and frets were fine. Tuners feel loose and not the best but work ok. The action was high but easily adjusted with an allen wrench and now is low w/ no buzzing.

Pickups have a nice clean tone to them and are clear. They can get real powerful if adjusted high but I lowered mine and adjusted the poles so they wouldn't distort except when I upped the gain. I tried them on my Champ 600 tube amp and my Peavey 158 Rage and they sounded great on both amps. Easy to get them to distort with the gain level up. When I switched on the power switch on the guitar, I turned it all the way down and turned it up to an acceptable level so as not to blow the speaker. 2 switches can tailor the tone you want from a boosted clean to a boosted overdrive. One tone pot controls the sound whether in power on mode or off. Separate volume pots for power/non power. The OD setting is a lot of fun. I turned the tone pretty much all the way down to eliminate the digital sounding high end and to get a more percussive drive. At this level, it will sustain for days and I can get a great Santana tone which I have searched for a long time. Many here have stated they didn't care for the pickups or the OD but I think they are great.

Maybe I got lucky but it was pretty good.

It's an inexpensive guitar but seems like it will hold up. May replace the tuners someday.

I got this guitar as it was cheap and a future collectable and I like cheap but fun guitars. They were only available if you bought a new VW so not many around and as time goes by.... I didn't think I would like it as much as I do but I get great tones out of it that I can't get with my other guitars and I own a lot of guitars. If I could play as well as this guitar sounds I would be ecstatic. I hope more people bash this guitar so I can pick up more cheap so I'll give it a low rating ;).

You probably know the story if you're reading this--given away with VWs for a brief period in 2006. Asian-made, white with black pickguard. I think the body is basswood, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, plasticky nut. Faux-chrome knobs and endearing VW accents. Stock pickups are Alnico humbuckers connected to a three-way switch and volume/tone. There are additional controls for the onboard preamp. Tune-o-matic style bridge, generic tuners. The package comes with a good gig bag, a long, durable-looking 1/4" to mini-stereo cable, some VW guitar picks, and a strap made of seat belt material. I must say, it is a fantastic strap.

All in all, this is a decently-made guitar. Probably middle of the road quality to slightly above average for an Asian build. I did replace the three-way switch with a Gibson three-way after rewiring since it was causing some issues. However, the guitar stays in tune and the wood seems to be solid. Simple design means not a lot can go wrong.

One more thing to note: this is a great-looking instrument that won't be mistaken for too much else. Some nice design work went into the body and headstock shapes and the pickguard design. As a second-hand buyer, this is what attracted me in the first place.

The stock pickups were functional and inoffensive but not what I'd call inspiring. Maybe just a step above generic import humbucker sound: lacking clarity and top end, sounding a bit muffled overall.

The good news: I replaced with some Vintage Vibe Guitars humbucker-sized P90s and now this thing really screams. Excellent rock tones, good bridge/neck contrast, and a decent approximation of LP Junior squeal. Obviously this is more a selling point of the pickups than the guitar but the Garagemaster is resonant and responsive enough to make this setup workable. The rating reflects my upgrade.

I should note the onboard preamp: from my brief experiments it's definitely usable and produces passable rock tones, although it compensates for its nature with an extra dose of gain. If you use it through an overdriven amp you're headed for blowout mode, which could be a selling point in itself. If you play through a stereo it sounds like you're playing through a slid state amp. Could do worse.

Factory setup was fine though a professional setup was welcome. The stock pickups definitely could have been balanced better. The neck comes a bit dry and the fret ends aren't totally smooth but that's OK.

It's a perfectly playable guitar; the neck is pretty thick but I have no problem with that. As with most mass-produced guitars it was strung with 9s, which in this case is insane--this guitar takes VERY well to thicker strings. You end up with a muscular, thick string/thick neck setup that isn't for shredding but is really solid for anything else.

As stated above it's a simple, reasonably well-made guitar that should hold up fine. Replacing the three-way switch is the one modification I would recommend for durability's sake. The pots are good and the knobs are very smooth (nice feature in this class of instrument).

I have had a few strings break on me and I'm not one to break many strings, so gigging with a backup is a definite. Beyond these points it's a guitar that seems to invite live playing and all associated abuse.

No experience with First Act.

I've been playing for over 10 years--Fender guitars and tube amps, higher-end effects pedals. I make no time for cheap gear that feels and sounds that way.

That said, all the good stuff about this guitar is in the context of how much you can pay for one used. I see these regularly in the $75-$125 range (being sold by VW owners who know nothing about guitars) and for the quality of build and accessories that's an absolute steal, probably $200-$300 below what it's worth.

Given the cool look and solid basic construction, it's begging to be modified--all told I realized my desire for a P90-equipped axe for about $350, and that would have been less if I knew how to work on the electronics myself. I'd grab another one if I saw it at a similar price, swap out the pickups, maybe install a Bigsby. There's pretty much no downside to getting a fun, unique guitar for under $150, so grab one of these if you see it.

This (made in china, i assume) guitar is sort of a cross body-wise between a Les Paul Special and a Mosrite. it has 2 passive alnico humbuckers, a stopbar tailpiece, and tune-o-matic-style bridge. i'm not sure what kind of wood it's made of, but i have read it's a solid wood body.

The neck has a satin finish, with a rosewood fretboard and large frets. it's a little like a baseball bat, which makes the guitar fairly neck-heavy.

in addition to the usual 3-way-switch and volume and tone knobs, there is also an amp emulator built into the guitar (powered by a 9 volt battery). the idea was you could play it through your car stereo, but practically speaking it is useful for home recording directly into the computer. the sounds you get out of it are reasonably good. you should be cautious using it as an overdrive for a load amp, however, as the increase in signal strength to the amp could result in a serious "pop" followed by possible speaker and ear damage.

i play garage and 50's-style blues, and this guitar seems well suited for those styles. there is good treble response for a guitar with humbuckers.

i'm playing it with a peavy classic 30 tube amp, and even without the emulator you can get some pretty varied sounds out of it. it's loud, and has good sustain.

clean, it loses some of its flavour, but still sounds reasonably clear and full.

with careful use of the emulator, you can really get some great cheap-hound-dog-taylor-style noise out of it.

the frets are a little rough, but bending is no problem. the neck is easily bent - even a slight downward pressure produces an almost bigsby-like tremelo.

the knobs are cheap plastic, but the rest of the hardware is ok, and the guitar is put together pretty well.

after a pro setup by a guitar tech, it now has good action. the setup from the factory was terrible - the neck rod needed a tweak, and (even for slide) the bridge was set too high.

i've only had it for a few months as of this writing.

no idea yet. i'm not optimistic, though, as these guitars were given away with new volkswagens last year.

i've owned a few guitars - gibsons, fenders, gretsches, and old silvertones. this guitar, for the prcie you should be able to find it for on ebay, is a steal. you'll need to spend about $25 on a good setup (unless you do it yourself) but for the price these things are going for, they are fantastic. even for $250 or so, it would still be a good value. i enjoy playing it.

I think the finish is really nice. I like the design of the guitar. The chrome parts are nicely finished. Also the body is great. The frets and Fretboard aren't as well finished as I'd like to see but it is still acceptable. I like that it has a preamp, with the cord that it comes with you can hooked it up to a VW or any car with an aux in jack.

I hooked mine up to my Honda Element and jam out just fine! Also haveing the preamp makes it easy to record to your computer. Just took the cord to your mic input on the computer.

I think the details are nice. I like that the VIN number is mounted on the back of the headstock.

It is really nice sounding. Don't be put off by the "First Act" Walmart cheap-o guitars, this isn't one of them. The sound is great. I like the built in distortion.

Nicely set up. The frets weren't finished as good as could be, however I've seen much worse.

Holds tune fairly good. So far it has been dependable. The strap buttons are solid.

never used it.

I've been playing around 6 years. I this is my first electric guitar. I have a Taylor Acoustic, Ovation Acoustic and 2 two other acoustic guitars. I'm glad to have this guitar in my collection! I love the VW features this sets it apart from other guitars. I wish I owned the VW that it came with!

First I'd say to pay no attention to the low numbered reviews. Finish is good. The guitar resembles a Les Paul Jr. It has a string thru the body and tune-o-matic style bridge. Non locking tuners but seem to be good quality. Neck is maple/satin finish. Frets are medium but a little rough...not really a problem...I bend all over the place. Comes with VW picks,gig bag,cord,strap & alan wrenches. Controls: Volume knob, Tone knob and Pre-amp/distortion knob with two tone switches and 3-way p/u selector. It has a built in pre-amp with 9 volt in back.

It's good for any style music> I don't subscribe to the philosophy that a guitar is just for one type of music...check out Ted Nugent. The guitar is not noisy at all. I got no feed back at high volume. I play thru a 65w Marshal 1-12 Valvestate or a Peavy Studio 70 Chorus. The pickups can me trimmed to play anything from smooth slick warm jazz to real crunchy Metal.....it's up to you and your amp to just dial it in. I like the sounds of this guitar.

The action was a tad high but that doesn't matter from the factory. You can't please everyone. That's why guitars come with alan wrenches, right? The entire construction set up was fine. I've seen worse $800 Gibson's and Fenders from the factory and I'm NOT kidding. The knobs are cool VW logo but they are plastic. I'd buy metal ones if they made them. hehehe First Act had an idea to get a guitar out to the public thru VW so I can't believe they'd make a pice of junk, ya know?

Hard to answer many questions about road use till someone takes it out there. Common sense tells you that hardware is easily replaced and no Pro goes out with just one guitar. Finish doesn't matter to a pro. My brother painted his with airplane dope. Zakk Wilde pounded bottle caps into his. Tell you what though. For what you pay for a good brand name you could by 5 of these in different colors and keep a couple at home to be pretty. LOL

Doesn't matter. If it's crappy take it back. Most other guitar problems can be fixed by the musician with just a little bit of savvy. First Act is known for entry level guitars but I also know that they have made some nice ones. This guitar is a giveaway with Volkswagen cars so I don't know what the warranty is...probably one year. I bought mine off e-bay for a song and can deal personally with any problems that come my way.

I own 17 guitars and have played most of my adult life. I also sold them for 5 years. I have recommended it to my friends. If I lost mine I WOULD get another. If I had the money I'd buy another one in a different color just for the heck of it. Frankly the look is not my style...it's kind of retro. If it wasn't for the VW collectibility I'd never have even looked at it but that's personal. I'd compare it to ANY major brand in the $400-600 MSRP range, easy. If you like the look, go on e-bay. You can get one in the $125-200 area and it's worth every penny. This VW guitar is a hoot!

Poplar wood body. LP style. 22 frets. Alnico PUPs
I got the white pearloid! Nice finish. On board preamp!

Great LP tones out of the humbuckers, but the real fun is in the boost circuit which was orginally designed to run in the VW sound system. It has a cool looking blue LED on indicator. Two switches produce onboard distortion which isn't all that great - except when you combine it with your distortion for added satuation. The boost has it's own separate volume control which used moderately sounds great. We're talking "On board preamp" here only found in higher end guitars.

The guitar mags gave this ax great reviews. It's not the cheap First Act guitars you see at Wal-mart. About middle range quality. Nice fret work and the neck plays fantastically!

Very well built. Could be a main guitar with all the tonal options.

I'm a guitar tech - I hope not to need them.

These guitars were produced in limited numbers and peaked on Ebay from Dec 2006 to March 2007 in brand new unopened condition. The people buying the VWs were sent these guitars, and the ones you did not play guitar listed them on Ebay where the sold from $200 - $350.
Unless you're a collector - you'll need all the origina packing/box and stuff - if these things ever become collector. But, me - hey, I'm a guitar player and I want to play the thing instead of looking at it. I got my second hand at Guitar Center in mint condition for $129! No box, no cable, no VW picks - just the seat belt guitar strap.
These guitars will eventually show up used on Ebay and if you can get one under $200 in mint condition - it's a steal. With all the elctronics and quality put into these things - I guess, if this guitar was produce by a more famous guitar maker - they would sell for about $400 - $500!!!

Hey guys and gals,
this is one cool guitar. Don't let the first act thing cool you off.
I had to buy one and check it out.
I am a guitar player, and a tech.
Got one off of eBay, and it was a bit rough.
After buffing the frets, a little truss rod adjustment, and intonn ation, the sucker was pretty good.
(definetly needs set up )

Forget about the internal preamp.
Maybe if you're drunk, and have a VW to plug into its cool.
The humbuckers sound okay.

Yo...
this is where gets good....
the neck is nice and flat with medium jumbo frets.
It widens out after the 12th fret to a nice highway.
It would be great for slide, though I don't play it much.

Cool gig bag, strap like a seat belt,
I don't think you can wear it out.
This guitar will hit eBay, or you will give it to your kids, for before you wear it out.

Don't know.

I've been jammin for over 30 years and this axe, is a great deal.
It's not my choice if I was stranded on a desert island, but then that would take some thought.
Go get one, and have some fun.
Maybe sell it in 10 years, and make some bucks

Flawless white finished poplar body with white mother of pearl pickguard. Maple neck with rosewood fretboard and medium jumbo frets with VW inlay at the twelfth fret. Two alnico V humbuckers, one volume, one tone, one knob and three slider switches to control the built in V-Stack preamp modeling circuit. Tune-O-matic style bridge with string through body tailpiece.

I play some rock and some pop but mostly blues. When I first opened the box I was sceptical as if I would like this guitar. At first I thought it had a little bit of a "cheese" factor. The fretboard was dusty looking and a little bit dry and the strings seemed just ok. I took the plastic off the pickguards removed the strings and cleaned and oiled the fretboard. I put on some D'Addario .009 strings on the guitar and lowered the action. I was able to go surprisingly low with no fret buzz and no neck adjustment neccessary. The guitar was starting to grow on me then. I plugged this in my Vox AD30VT amplifier and put it through it's paces, I was pleasantly surprised at how good this guitar sounds. The pickups sound amazingly good and are very versatile and the guitar sounds good with or without the preamp turned on. Now here's the plus factor, you can use the V-Stack preamp circuit as a clean boost or switch on the distortion for some really nice overdrive. All you have to do is experiment around and flip some switches and turn some knobs. I'm as critical or even more so than the next guy but this guitar is a kills, it's a real sleeper. I played this clean, distorted and used every pickup setting and switch setting there is and played it through everything I own including a Zoom G2.1u and this guitar sounded more and more amazing. I especially like it running through my Boss FW-3 wah, into the Vox AD30VT on the boutique clean setting, add some delay and use the switches on the guitar for distortion. Mind you i tried to find something I didn't like about this guitar and I couldn't. Even the frets were dressed nicely with no sharp ends and it stays in tune like a champ. P.S. This guitar sounds killer for blues!

My guitar needed a little bit of adjusting like I stated before. I cleaned and oiled the fretboard installed the D'Addario strings and adjusted the action. The pickup height was just right and needed no tweeking. The intonation was almost right on the money and needed just a slight adjustment to compensate for the strings. The neck relief was perfect from the factory. The nut was a little bit rough on all the edges and I had to smooth this using an emory board.

I think of this guitar will last a long time with proper care. It has some good quality hardware and is well made. This is a very well thought out guitar and is designed and built very well.

I haven't needed to deal with this.

I've been playing for about twelve years and have gone through lots of gear in that time. I'm an older guy (50's) and play primarily at home and with friends. I tried to pick this guitar apart but couldn't find anything I disliked. I think this is one of those guitars that people will be looking for in a few years. I'd think if it as in the same range as a Danelectro as far as appeal goes. It definately has an "it" factor and you can get these real cheap right now. These guitars will get harder to find soon so you'd better grab one while you can. I certainly want another one. One other thing, I wish people would honestly put a piece of gear through it's paces before writing a review. Too many people get dis-satisfied with gear before they even give it a chance. Too many people go by what their friends think of something, use your head, make up your own mind.

When I first bought this guitar off ebay I was mainly interested in it as a future curiosity piece, maybe even a collectible. At the price they were going for I could'nt resist. I did'nt even plug it in for the first month because I read some of the bad reviews. Well, I gotta tell ya, while it ain't a custom shop Les Paul, It is a much better little axe than it's being given credit for. The combination of active and passive electronics with the amp simulation thing is pretty cool. The fuzz setting was'nt as good as some of my boutique pedals could do but the clean run through my old Bassman was quite "chimey". I almost could'nt put it down. The tuners are'nt the best but the darn thing stays tuned. The frets could use a little steel wool on the edges. The neck is silky and the fingerboard on mine is much nicer than the old guitars that I started out playing. It ain't half bad to look at either. It sort of reminds me of Brian May's axe. I'm giving it an eight for features mainly due to it's bang for the buck factor.

This guitar has a pretty good variety of sounds. You can go from jazz to country to classic rock to full distortion without stepping on a pedal or touching your amp. I have'nt tried it direct through a PA but I'll bet it would do a fair job of emulating an amp. I tried it through 3 different amps, a Crate palomino 16, Fender 59 Bassman, and a Crate Bass amp. The tube amps were nice and round in the clean setting with the emulator turned off. the bass amp (solid state) was sort of lackluster.With the preamp on I found the distortion to be just as good if not better through the solid state. The sweet spot was when I went to the neck pickup in the clean position with the preamp on. The tube amps liked it alot and it had a chime that I was'nt expecting. This one nice little surprise alone for me rates it at 8

Intonation was good, action was good, finish was better than expected. I particularly like the way they joined the neck with the headstock. Frets are a little sharp on the edges. Take it to a luthier that you trust and let him polish them up and do any tweaking that might be needed. Pretty sharp guitar overall. With a little more work a great guitar.

This guitar will be okay for live playing unless you plan on using it for a baseball bat. I've read where some people have said they would'nt use it except for a beach party or something. That's ridiculous. It ain't gonna suit everybody's needs but if you are serious about playing music I see no reason why this would'nt make a great live guitar. It certainly looks good and sounds good enough. I've been playing guitar since the sixties and I've played gigs with guitars that were'nt as good as this. Always bring a backup. Even the best equipment will eventually fail.

If your gonna be opening for AC/DC or Brad Paisley or some other big name you probably need to invest in more than a $150 guitar. That being said, I like this little axe and plan on keeping it. I'll definitely use it in recording sessions and it'll probably find it's way into some live gigs. I am after all, a collector, player and enthusiast. If you find that you are of like mind then I will tell you to snatch one of these little puppies off ebay while you still have a chance to get one on the cheap. I believe they will only get more valuable as the years pass.