First Act ME-537

2007
22 frets
1 volume, 1 tone
1 humbucker pickup, first Act alnico
Alder?, Basswood?
single cutaway
Non tremelo bridge
3x3 tuners
Maple neck, Rosewood? fretboard

Here's my story on this odd, cheapo, but not bad guitar.
When I go home a couple of times a year and visit the folks,
I go around to the pawn shops in town and see if I can find
something to fool around with and clean up and set up, etc,
for cheap$ and have fun with it, then do something with it.
Usually, I'm in the market for an '80s Japan guitar that looks
like hell or some sort of decent squier Strat, but the shops are
so barren these days with absolute junk strat knock offs that you
can barely play and overpriced mediocre guitars, that it's hard to
find anything.
I found this hiding behind a speaker in the 2nd shop I checked.
It had been out for a day and priced at $35, so I think someone
stuck it back there so they could think about it and maybe come
back later. Anyway, I played it through a cheap little Crate amp
(that didn't sound that bad) and it played well and sounded pretty
good, so, for $35 plus tax, I bought it.
I've seen these First Act guitars around and picked up a few,
but usually they were overpriced or just forgettable.

Keep in mind that the rating numbers I'm giving here are with respect
to this guitars priceline. I'm not saying it compares with a Gibson
that might get an 8 rating, but for the money it rates high.
I agree with "TANGO"'s review of this guitar, so I won't go into
too much detail, but is just a very likable guitar for the money
and has pretty good action without any setup from me and the
tone is surprisingly enjoyable and just plain old sounds good.
It does respond well to the volume and tone knobs and, with these
horrible tuners, still somehow stays in tune fairly well.
The humbucker sounds really good too. I haven't heard it through a
high quality tube amp yet, but through the little practice amps,
it's got surprisingly good tone.
I like the bridge, though one of the other reviewers does not.
Again, for the money. I doubt this guitar was played much before
it hit the pawn shop and was lost. So, again, yes, set up very
well from the factory. Frets are quite nice, unlike the Fender
MIM strat my buddy just bought for $4509 from guitar center.
Decent Strat, but the frets are like razors on the edge. Shame Shame,
boys down at the plant.

Seems fairly well put together. The components are not high grade,
of course, but also don't have that junk, crap feel that most
budget guitars have.
I'm not sure if I'm going to just keep it like it is,
do crazy things to it, or upgrade it.
If I try to use it live, my bandmates will probably have a shtfit,
so I'm thinking, (hehe) about putting some phone logo on it and
calling it a Danelectro from the 70's or something and just see
what the response is. When they say how badass it is on screaming
humbucker songs, I'll later tell them it's a $100 Walmart guitar
I paid $35 for and they'll shut up forever, lol, hopefully.
Too soon to rate for durability, but I think it will hold
up pretty well. I'll give it a no opinion for right now, though.

Don't know about this.
I think it's supposed to be warrantied for quite
a long time, but I didn't buy it new so who cares.
It's a simple guitar, which is one of it's strong points,
so not much to be mystified by here.

Overall, a cool, likable "little buddy" guitar to have around.
Great for a beginner due to the good sound and good action
and overall good feel when playing it, so no getting soured for the
wrong reasons.
I've had the USA strats and Custom Les Paul, PRS's and all that
along with many "fun" guitars, so it's being held up against the
"real deals" as well as the other "nice surprise" guitars.
If you think you want to be a Strat guy, go buy a $99 Squier at
guitar center. They're not that awful for the money. If you
want something more screaming tone-wise and a little different flavor,
pick one of these up and have fun with it and learn on it.
Get both, then you'll be learning both sides of that coin.

funny story actually.

i was in fred meyer's looking for a new headlight bulb (they didnt have it) and i saw this thing. now, mind you, i knew perfectly well what it was (a $130 cheapo chinese slave-labor log), but i have had enough garbage guitars to know pretty much on sight whether or not an axe has got what it takes. the original design humbucker looked awesome, the body shape was attractive, and the neck looked like it was of decent quality, so i took a major gamble and bought it.

and i havent looked back.

so theres the original design humbucker, volume, and tone. ultra basic, ultra effective.

nice well balanced body in a beautiful shape with a flawless seemingly bulletproof black gloss finish that i can see my reflection in.

fat-ish neck (not too thick, not anorexic, just right for medium-large hands like my own)with a nice radius and profile. 3x3 les-paul style headstock with decent but far from brilliant tuners. they will definitely be swapped out.

surprisingly a VERY good fret job. with guitars of this price & manufacture bracket, a bloody slash-and-gash from the razor-ended frets is not only to be expected, but completely standard. but... not as such here. very nicely dressed and comfortable medium fender-sized frets and a nice fretboard which appears to be dark-stained hardwood, but who cares...

this is where it won me over.

mind you, i play lots of different kinds of guitars. anywhere from gibson flying v's to Ibanez to old Teiscos and any other cheap quirky foreigner guitar under the sun.

if you know what youre doing, you can make ANY guitar sound excellent. im not even joking.

this one gets major points, however, because i didnt even have to try. the VERY high output (im guessing approx 10k output - very loud coil) humbucker has a nicely rounded, agreeable and chimey sound that can go from zero to ***** in nothing flat. can give you jangly powerpop tone ala REM, full bright humbucker sound ala Nirvana, or tone-off dead tone for thick mind blowing meat-melting distortion ala Tool/COC.

the volume works perfect and the tone knob is extremely responsive - covers the full spectrum from twang to thud and all sounds in between.

so, what im getting at is, it sounds GREAT.

the action is shocking.

i mean that in a good way.

i used to have a gibson faded flying V, and it had fret problems. they were sharp and literally sliced me open on at least one occassion. the nut was poorly cut and it didnt sound that great to begin with.

and then (3 or 4 years later) i buy this thing, and the neck is flippin perfect - straight as a die, perfectly intonated out of the box, good fretwork, well-cut nut, good wood quality, perfect finish and it stays in tune and sounds fantastic!

...does anyone else not find this relative comparison slightly upsetting?

it can withstand live playing, and i can certainly withstand live listening!

my only criticism whatsoever lies with the tuners. theyre crap.

and maybe the knobs which are plastic with a chrome finish, which seems cheesy but hey, they havent worn out yet!

but that aside, think about how much else ive gotten out of this $130 childrens guitar... i mean, come on, this is no kids guitar... its a weapon in beginners' clothing!

no need - nothing shows any sign of slowing down

either i got extremely lucky with the production quality on my model or first act has got their head on straight! either way well done guys!

i will likely buy another like it as a backup. something about the way this guitar sounds and plays just interfaces perfectly with my band's sound.

- 2007, not sure where it was made, probably China or Korea
- 22 Frets
- 1 volume, 1 Tone
- Single white Humbucking pickup, bridge position, 9.20K Ohms, First Act
- Passive Electronics
- Poplar Body (surprisingly), Maple Neck, Rosewood Fretboard
- Sheena Body Style (according to First Act Guitar Builder)
- Top stringing Strat style hardtail bridge
- Cheap 6 on a side tuning machines, like found on Hondo, Harmony, and other cheap guitars
- Medium Thick D Shape neck profile, 25.5" Scale, Jumbo Frets
- Comes with the usual manual, "how to play" sheet (pfft!), hex wrench for action adjustment of the bridge saddles, and an extra E and extra B string (the two highest strings), plus manuals and warranties.

Overall, it's a fairly decent and plain basic electric guitar for $99 at your local Wal-Mart, okay for a beginner, but modification fodder for someone like me. I'll give it a 7, as it's not the most versatile thing ever made, but it certainly is a step above the Harmony Boat Paddles found in your average J.C. Penny catalog circa 1990.

I'm actually a pro-level guitarst. I know, I know "what are you doing reviewing a cheap bargain basement warehouse music dime-a-dozen beginners "kidz" guitar from a corporate cesspool of filth such as Wal-Mart, Mister "Pro-Level Guitarist?". Well, this is one of my hobbies, and favorite past-times, using my knowledge of scrounging up anything I could get in my teen years to find the **** and gold lying beyond a wall of $1000.00 Stratocasters. Before I bought my Fender Jaguars and Jag-Stang, I played stuff of this level as my main, and I LIKED it, yes I did.

Clean, don't expect more than a basic bridge humbucker midrange honk, the Tone Control makes a good bit of difference, but I rarely use it, actually, I rarely use a single humbucker guitar clean, unless I'm playing Nirvana or later 90's era "lets stick a generic humbucker in a vintage guitar and call it our original sound from our genius pop songwriter guitarist" bands.

Distorted it can get a huge range of tones using an amp modeler, from a clackety Cars type tone using a twin reverb type sound, to a Van-Haleny bite of a "British Hi-Gain" on a V-Amp Pro with an "EVH 78' " Cab sim. The overall tone regardless is tight, warm, and focused, very much like I'd expect from a medium output humbucker of around 9-10K ohms resistance. Of course it can do your generic shreds and so fourth, but It seems like it really shines at classic 60's, 70's, and 80's hard melodic rock mayhem.

As for me, I primarly play melodic hard rock style, or "oldskool metal" as the kiddies call it now. I ditched Nu-Metal or Screamo or whatever it's called now years ago, just too generic of a guitar sound there, not enough allowed to work with.

Overall, it's a good sound for what it is, but don't expect to get a whole smorgasboard of tones out of this thing. Remember, this is an "entry level" guitar, not a pro-level multi-switched monster like I'm now used to. Definatley fun for punk chord bashing too.

The guitar, out of the box, as one can expect, is set up "in the ballpark". It did need a good setup and tweaking to make it play perfectly in tune and make it sound good.

Of course this includes
- Setting the action, it was a little high at the onset, then I set it too low, so I had to find a happy medium, which is about average, it's not "shredder" low fast action, it's more a blues/classic rock type setup.

- Intonation on this guitar is very tricky to set due to the lack of a neck pickup. When setting intonation, the best thing to do is use the neck pickup with the tone control down to 0, but being as the First act has no neck pickup, I had to make due with the bridge, which had some additional harmonic content making it a little more difficult for my tuner to read the pitch accurately.

- Everything is well positioned, about my only complaint is that the tuners are a little flaky, but that can be fixed up for about $40 from a local guitar store.

So I'll have to give it a 7, my Squier tele came out of the box better set up, and it seems the tuners on the Squier are better.

I have full intents of taking this guitar out live, if it passes the microphonics test and does not squeak like a rat on crack, which I'm hopeful of, because it seems to surpass most of the old clunkers I had to deal with in the mid-late 90's that had heaps more problems than this did.

The hardware does have some low points though. I'm considering dropping out that bridge for a different bridge, likely a Tune-O-Matic and a stop tail, plus I might make some routing changes to add an additional pickup and Les Paul style switch on the upper bass side "nub", and did I mention those tuning machines...I got to get some Schallers on there first and foremost.

As for strap buttons, same ol' crap everyone uses that can only be stabilized if you drink a few Grolsh Beers. I took em' off and put on some Strap Locks, since that's a "new guitar ritual" in my house regardless of what it is. Yep, even a $99.00 Wal-Mart special like this gets the first class treatment.

As for dependency, it has had a rough life so far, and has been banished to the closet for months at a time with no case or stand, and seems to have only acquired one scratch on the back. It comes out mostly in tune, so I think I can depend on it to stick up for me if needed be, but I need to break it in first.

I'll give it an 8, because of the tuning machines and that god awful bridge stringing setup. I much prefer to have my bridge able to have the strings easily go through the saddles rather than have to perform contortionist moves with the string itself to get it from under the saddle over the other side of the saddle. Good guitar, but this and the tuners can make it a ***** to restring.

I'm my own customer support, why spend hours on the phone with someone when you can do it yourself in 20 minutes for less than the phone bill and shipping & handling would cost for a warranty repair.

I've been playing almost 14 years now, and I own tons of guitars for a guy at my young age (Fenders, Kramers, lots of home-brew stuff made of spare parts from my teen years ala Van-Halen). I tend to stick to Fender "offsets" (Jaguars, Jazzmasters, Mustangs, Jag-Stangs) the most though. I also play through a Behringer V-Amp for internet work, Bugera 333XL Halfstack for live, and a Roland Street cube for mobile jamming.

As for stolen, I'd just get another one, heck, they're only $99 from Wal-Mart, and even cheaper on E-bay.

As for what I love about it, it's that it's a cheap reliable guitar that is easy to get that does not look like every other strato-copy out there. As I said before, my only gripes are the bridge and the tuners, but that can be easily fixed for cheap from teh parts bin at the local guitar store so it's no issue to me.