Product: First Act ME-636
Price Paid: USD 99.98
Submitted
08/09/2008
at
04:46am
by
Mad-Mike
Features
:
7
- 2008, not sure of country of origin once again
- 22 Jumbo Frets
- 1 volume, 1 tone
- Single "Hi-Output" Humbucker, 15.91K Ohms, large slug pole pieces
- passive electronics
- Poplar Body (surprisingly), Maple Neck (with some bit of FLAME!!), and Rosewood Fretboard
- The body style is a strange new one, reminiscent of Paul Dean (Loverboy's guitarist's) early 80's Hondo signature model, except the treble side horn is chopped down a little
- The bridge is a regular hardtail strat top loading bridge, same piece of crud they put on all their Wal-Mart models. This is goin away for a Leo Quan Badass most likely, either that or a Floyd.
- 2X4 Tuning machines, black plated, same cheapies put on all models
- 25.5" Scale, flat thick D shape neck with 22 Jumbo Frets and pearl dot inlays
- Came with 2 extra strings and "chord playing cards) or whatever, basically, more beginner level kit that I'll likely never use.
Basically, another one of First Acts more recent single hum, volume-tone setup guitars they sell at Wally World for $99. insteresting thing is I was looking at this model on the internet, and apparently they changed the body style, as the initial body was more like the Sheena Styled ME-537 with bevels added, but apparently they "rocked it up" for Wal-Mart. The newer version says "Made for Metal" on the box.
Sound
:
8
If you saw my ME-537 Review, then this is not much different here, except the overall sound is a little different due to the beefier pickup.
Clean it's a bit warmer, not much of a change in definition though, sounds about the same as the 537 except louder and less focused.
Distorted, the sound is thicker, and drives the amp into "saturation" more. Very thick warm and smooth distortion sound...compared to my 537, which has more of a raspy Van-Halenesque edge. Overall, I really like the sound of the pickup in this one for my style of melodic hard rock, I could see this as a good thrash around guitar live.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
This guitar came a bit better set up than the ME-537. The ME-537 had some issues in the action area, this one came in with better than usual action for something so cheap. The intonation needed a slight tweak on the E, A, and D strings. Otherwise, quite well setup for a bargain basement guitar, I'm rather impressed.
Reliability/Durability
:
8
As far as reliability, this is yet another tank, though I do see some potential headstock breakage weakness with that interesting cutaway on the headstock.
As far as hardware goes, the TUning machines are still crud, I guess that's where they cut it down to $99 on these things, that and the pain in the arse to restring bridge. This one is getting swapped as well, probably for a Leo Quan badass or something similar.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I am my own customer support. I've been hot-rodding and modifying these things for years.
Overall Rating
:
8
I've been playing 15 years, I've got plenty of reviews spanning around HArmony-Central over the years from my time as Mike.J in the late 90's to Mad-Mike that I use now. I mostly stick to Fenders, but I do play the occasional cheap guitar because I like having some stuff around that I can take a screwdriver to without feeling bad.
If this were stolen, likely I'd just replace it given the cost and the fact that it's not likely to be stolen anyway. For pete's sake, it's a First Act, it doesn't get much lower cost than this.
As for what I like, the sound and playability, but I kind of dislike the shape of the treble side horn, should have made it longer, more like a Hondo or Odyssey Paul Dean model.
