FLAMEY FIRST ACT

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toomanycats
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Picked this one up yesterday for $47. It spoke to me the moment I saw it and I knew I had to have it. I used to see First Act guitars more frequently in my travels, but they seem to have been scarce lately. This particular one I have never seen before. It's an ME-4016.

Overall the guitar feels extremely light. In my photos it looks sort of mustard yellow or ochre, but in reality its actually a khaki green color. Think army green.

It has dual ceramic humbuckers in the 8K range and one volume and one tone control with a three way toggle. There is no crackling in the pots and they have a nice usable sweep. The toggle is the mechanical type. The pups don't sound terrible, though they're not to my personal taste. I may try some different magnets in them to see if that sweetens the tone to my liking.

The tuners work fine and hold pitch with no discernible lash, so I see no need to replace them. Likewise with the very simple yet functional hardtail bridge.

There is something about the shape of the headstock that to me is slightly reminiscent of a Gibson Firebird; in the shape, the length, and the backward tilt. The strings follow a straight path from the nut to the tuning posts and there are no string trees. Once I had lubricated the nut slots it would not go out of tune.

The pictures of the figuring on the back of the neck speak for themselves, but seriously, would ya look at that nice flame! It reminds me of some of the flamely necked Squier Classic Vibes I've seen. It's quarter sawn, as can be seen in pics. Very stable feeling neck on this First Act.

Like a lot of guitars found used it was in desperate need of set up. The action was atrocious.

Here's what I've done so far:

Dress the fret ends and polish the frets.
Roll the fret board ends.
File the nut slots and lube them.
Soak the hardware that had rust on it in a vinegar/salt solution overnight.
Give the fretboard a good drink of mineral oil.
Restring with .09s.

After reassembly and a set up it plays like a dream. One thing I do need to do is cut the saddle adjustment screws shorter. A dremel will perform that task in short order. Other than that, I can't see doing anything else on this guitar other than messing around with the pickups to get them closer to my tonal preference. I'm just going to play this thing and would seriously have no problem gigging with it.

If these guitars get a bad rap, I believe it's only because they likely came new with a bad set up (or none at all), and are often found used in the same condition (or I dare say worse due to bad amateur luthiers). All the parts are there to make a perfectly good playing guitar, and in the case of this particular one, a surprisingly good one. :D

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“There are only two means of refuge from the miseries of life: Music and Cats!” Albert Schweitzer
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toomanycats
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“There are only two means of refuge from the miseries of life: Music and Cats!” Albert Schweitzer
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toomanycats
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“There are only two means of refuge from the miseries of life: Music and Cats!” Albert Schweitzer
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bleys21
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That's a nice looking guitar for under $50. Even if it had garbage everything, it looks like it would make a good modding platform. Fact that it actually plays fine with a little love and adjustments is amazing for the price.
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mkgearhead
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Nice! I had a First Act Strat copy that I picked up from a Goodwill auction for $15 and it had the most flame I've ever seen.
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bc rich
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Congrats , looks great after you gave it the treatment. Would you consider lining up your under $100 scores for a photo shoot?
Re the saddle screws, I bought a selection of screws and now have smooth saddles , the cone ones of course for the tones & sustain etc. :lol:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/175pcs-Flat-Co ... 2911293081
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dabbler
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Congrats!

I love my First Acts, too!
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fullonshred
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Those are some toasty flames. Love it. Have heard from others (here, probably) that isn't unusual on a FA guitar.
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toomanycats
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Well, some good news and same bad news.

First the good. I pulled out all of the adjustment screws and used the dremel cut off wheel to trim them flush with the saddles. Feels so much better on the the palm.

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Flushed with confidence over my success, I then decided that I'd put the aforementioned ALNiCo magnets in the pickups. The bridge pup mag swap went off without a hitch. I put an A5 in place of the ceramic and tuned the guitar back up to give it a try before proceeding to the neck pickup. It sounded so much better, aggressive and woody, but with that subtle sponginess that the ceramic was lacking. I decided that I'd put an A2 magnet in the neck position, as it was wound slightly hotter than the bridge.

That's when things went south.

Things started off well enough. I mean, I've done this countless times. It's routine really. But this damn little ceramic bar magnet between the two neck coils would not budge! The bridge magnet had come out so easy. Was thing this screwed in somehow? Before I knew it I had a flat blade screwdriver out and a hammer and was whacking at it. They're very brittle ya know and black shards were flying off. F*ck it, I wasn't going to save the magnet anyways. I need another ceramic magnet to hang cat photos on my fridge like I need a hole in the head. Still, it wasn't budging. Then the screwdriver slipped and the blade stabbed me in the index finger. When I saw blood I got pissed and kinda lost control. That son-of-a-***** was coming out of there! Well, I finally got the magnet out, but the pickup didn't look so good. There was a short white wire disconnected to nothing at both ends. I had no idea where it went. Another wire was hanging loose. In fact, the pickup was no longer connected at all. I have no frickin' idea how to fix this.

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“There are only two means of refuge from the miseries of life: Music and Cats!” Albert Schweitzer
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fullonshred
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Dang man, sorry it went south on you. If I don't just walk away sometimes I can have things go the same way.
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TVvoodoo
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I dunno 2many guitarma has smiled on you so many times, it was bound to end sometime.
Endless source of eye-rolling dad jokes, aspiring empty-nester, custom strap-maker https://reverb.com/ca/shop/well-hung-guitar-accessories
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Partscaster
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Very nice looking find. And with a built in bottle opener.
"The man that hath no music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. The motions of his spirit are dull as night, and his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted."
Zipslack
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Sounds like time to put an HB-sized P90 in there.
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zisme
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HNGD!

crack open a beer with that headstock and take a breather

i think for me that pickup would be a lost cause. i think i'd be shopping for an affordable replacement
frogs love to eat flies,
the devil's name, Beelzebub, lord of the flies
evil spirits love to spiritually feed upon those whom Beelzebub rules

joined AGF March 20, 2013
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toomanycats
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I was a little let down last night laying in bed thinking how I'd found a great low cost guitar and then went and messed it up. But the more I thought about it, I realized that it felt and played so good that I'd never have been satisfied with the stock pickups. I resolved to approach the issue of the pickups the next day.

This afternoon, over a couple bottles of Guinness Extra Stout, I pulled out my pickup bin, sorted though it, and began to brainstorm. I wanted to go slightly hotter than PAF, but with an A2 magnet. For various reasons I had to use the stock First Act pickups rings, which don't allow clearance for covered humbuckers. I found a pair of covered pups with the bridge reading 11.5K and the neck 9.5K. I yanked the covers, melted the wax, and replaced the ceramic magnets with a pair of rough cast A2. The bridge was double black, but the neck was black and white. I thought the combination looked very cool. When I had them wired in and the guitar tuned back up I was in for a pleasant surprise. They sound amazing! It now has what I would describe as an 80s superstrat sound. The bridge screams, bites, and sizzles, but it's also warm and spongy. The neck is creamy yet articulate. Hot A2 is such a beautiful thing.

This guitar is open, resonant, lively and tonally balanced, even acoustically. I mentioned before how light it is. Not sure what wood it is made out of, maybe basswood or poplar?

I've named this guitar El Draco.

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“There are only two means of refuge from the miseries of life: Music and Cats!” Albert Schweitzer
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bleys21
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Did kitty help with the wiring? My Siamese is quite fond of wires, strings, generally laying on things I'm working on, biting me, etc. :-)
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toomanycats
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bleys21 wrote: Mon Oct 12, 2020 9:06 pm Did kitty help with the wiring? My Siamese is quite fond of wires, strings, generally laying on things I'm working on, biting me, etc. :-)
No, he was just annoyed that the guitar was laying in his bed. However, my bengal mix named Shaw is right there anytime I'm working on a guitar.

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“There are only two means of refuge from the miseries of life: Music and Cats!” Albert Schweitzer
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jtcnj
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man that stock bridge pickup looks like an Aztec blood sacrifice of one for the good of the many.
But the gods have smiled and the harvest yields of plenty; Rejoice!
Old AGF since Feb. 2015; refugee of the Great MOMO Purge of May 2020.
AnotherJim
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Nice find!

I do believe purchase of a Hello Kitty guitar is now in order for you
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toomanycats
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AnotherJim wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:01 pm Nice find!

I do believe purchase of a Hello Kitty guitar is now in order for you
Hello Kitty is too rich for my blood, for a "cheap" import that is. I recently saw them on Reverb going for north of $700, which is just nuts to me. A few years ago I used to see them occasionally at the pawn shops for something like $40-$50. Who in the world would have imagined Hello Kitty was the horse to bet on as a guitar investment?!?!
“There are only two means of refuge from the miseries of life: Music and Cats!” Albert Schweitzer
AnotherJim
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[/quote]

Hello Kitty is too rich for my blood, for a "cheap" import that is. I recently saw them on Reverb going for north of $700, which is just nuts to me. A few years ago I used to see them occasionally at the pawn shops for something like $40-$50. Who in the world would have imagined Hello Kitty was the horse to bet on as a guitar investment?!?!
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Yeah that is crazy. I remember seeing these at $50. But just because someone is asking $700 doesn’t mean they will sell it
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jam
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Send me the first Hello Kitty you get for $50.
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ronnx
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Congrats TMC! Nice git. I like the happy ending as well. :)
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