Double cutaway electric guitar, familiar classic shape and look, 3 single coil pickups and 5-way switch provide wide range of tones, angled headstock for added clarity and sustain, tremolo bridge, slim-taper neck with rosewood fingerboard.
ME300
Reviewed by:
Scribbler, on november 14, 2005 4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 98.88
Purchased from: Walmart
Features: A 21 fret bolt-on guitar. Strat-look-a-like and Tele-style bridge. One volume knob and one tone knob. A single humbucker pickup and no Switch. Okay for a beginner but bad if you actually want something worthwile. Not only is this guitar excessively poor performance-wise but it can't stay tuned for longer than a week. Surprisingly, the strings provided with the instrument have still not snapped and it has been over two years now! This guitar is played on a regular basis. Comes with a 10-watt portable amp, gig bag, cord, and that's it! No strap and the cord died out on me after a month. // 3
Sound: Pretty lousy since you can either have the tone knob on 10 or 1 or in between if you prefer; with no Switch basically making it sound the same. It sounds bad through a 10-watt portable amp and even through a 30-watt Dinatouch 300 DSP Champion Fender amp, it still sounds like crap. The G string is horribly out of tune at all times and this may be due to poor worksmanship. It is very noisy with distortion on and no matter how hard you palm-mute, the high strings can always be heard. Don't expect to woo anyone with this. // 2
Action, Fit & Finish: It was tuned and that's about it. After a week, it wasn't tuned anymore. There is a significant flaw, the third fret is misplaced and slightly hanging over the edge of the neck, therefore the high e string sometimes gets caught behind this fret, not very good at all. The knobs are not loose but the pickups move around. // 2
Reliability & Durability: This guitar will probably be able to play live but it will not produce a great sound at all. The hardware will probably not last but the strap buttons are on solid. It isn't really dependable due to its inability to stay in tune and would definately not be used as a backup. // 1
Impression: You basically get what you pay for and my advice to anybody would be to steer clear of this guitar. Get a guitar worth your while because I am sure that this guitar has caused many people to hate playing guitar and even discouraged others. I have been playing for 4+ years now and wish I had tried this guitar out before buying it, althoug it did come in a case, so that was out of the question. No wonder this can't be found in any reliable guitar shop. If this were stolen or lost, I wouldn't really care, good riddance. There is nothing to love and a lot to hate. // 1
ME300
Reviewed by:
ooblah, on march 14, 2006 1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 50
Features: This guitar is the kind of guitar you buy for someone who isn't sure whether or not they want to start playing guitar or not. You got your basic volume and tone, along with the neck Switch thing, but thats it. Everything else on it looks generic, I don't think anyone could tell you what brand of parts on there. It is very limited overall; 21 frets, not a very fast moving fret board, just a good old Walmart guitar. // 6
Sound: I found this tone to be some of the dryest I have ever heard. It can't really handle being cranked through an amp too loud because it feeds back and isn't made for anything huge. It isn't bad if you have a decent amp and keep it at a reasonable volume, but you can't get too much versatality out of it such as going from metal to blues or something. It sounds just like what it is, one of the cheapest guitars you can buy. // 7
Action, Fit & Finish: Now I am not just ranking down on this guitar because it is First Act, but when I looked at the wireing inside I couldn't help but laugh. The wireing looked like a disaster, and seemed like they were doing the sawdering as if it was in the middle of an earthquake. The action was normal though, and the pick ups were set just fine. Another flaw was that for some reason the higher frets on the high string buzz horribly because of a messed up fret. Other than that it looked pretty normal. // 7
Reliability & Durability: I could never trust this guitar to be honest, this thing is meant to practice with by yourself but not for a reliable guitar during a gig. The hardware and overall put together just doesn't seem like it would last very long when you compare it to more expensive guitars. I wouldn't try to see if it can withstand damage because I would be afraid of the poor thing snapping. // 6
Impression: This was a huge mistake on my part buying it from a friend who didnt want it anymore. It doesnt fit my musical style at all, whether it be Steve Vai, Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Helloween, it just can't accomplish a tone that can be taken seriously. I have been playing for about 4 years and this guitar I just use to take apart and put back together to learn from. However, besides all my complaining, this is an extremely cheap guitar, so don't ask 700$ worth of tone to come out of it. It is made to be what it is, a cheap guitar to give to your kid who "kind of" wants to start playing. However if your not careful they are going to pick it up and not want to ever play again! No, no I kid, but overall I say its not the best guitar, but it's also one of the cheapest. // 7
ME300
Reviewed by:
guitar21@WE, on october 14, 2005 2 of 4 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 49.99
Purchased from: eBay
Features: This 21 fret Strat style guitar has a rosewood neck. It has an ordinary medium glossy black finish. The bridge is Tele-style and it comes with the knob set up of your ordinary Stratocaster (5 way-sel., volume, 2 tones etc). It has a humbucker pickup for the bridge, and two regular strat-style pickups for the mid and the neck. This guitar is a decently looking guitar. It came complete with a 10 watt practice amp, strings, chord, guitar book and all the Starter Kit goodies. // 9
Sound: This guitar suits my music style well (classic rock to modern rock and anythign in between) I use a Peavey 30 watt amp and a MD-2 Dist. pedal. This guitar only gets really noisy on the bridge pickup. The variety of this guitar is not as good as an average guitar, but I did only pay 50 dollars for it, so I'm not complaining, a guitar is a guitar when you are starting out. // 5
Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar was very well set-up at the factory, I barely even had to tune it when I got it outta the box. The guitar did not contain any flaws that I can catch. // 8
Reliability & Durability: This guitar already has few chips in the paint, I'm dissapointed, because the finish chips right off and breaks in pieces, it doesnt take chunks, it cracks it good. I think that eventualy it will wear down becasue of the price I paid for it, but it has held up for the past 6 months pretty well. // 6
Impression: I play just about anything that I can get my hands on so I would have to say classic rock. This guitar I bought only to get the amp, and it is currently a display model hanging up to show off. If this was stolen or lost, or broken I would not consider getting a new one. I would save my money up for something more useful. But if you are looking to try guitar out, and give up easily, and you don't want to spend a lot of money, this package would be the one that you should want to get. // 8
ME300
Reviewed by:
guard50, on november 09, 2006 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 100
Purchased from: Walmart
Features: 21 fret bolt on neck. I don't know what kind of wood it's made out of or where it's from, but it's a piece of junk. Mines got a double cut away body done in a glossy black color. I don't know exactly what the bridge is, but it's also a piece of junk. First there are screws in it that are constantly getting stripped and lowering th eaction to an unplayable level, and the bridge just also makes it hard to PM. I don't know if I just have bad technique, but I borrowed my friends Ibanez and I could PM just fine. My guitar came with a decent strap (falls off often) and a crappy cable that has now stopped working. // 2
Sound: I run mine through a Fender 25 Watt amp with reverb and a Boss D-1 Distortion pedal. It comes with a small and cheap 10 watt amp w/overdrive that really doesnt't do to much. About a year after purchase the amp stopped working all together. I play mostly rock and metal and the guitar was decent sounding for it. It was noisy when you Switch to the neck pickup, but it gives off a warm and bright tone, it's decent to play the intro to Sweet Child O' Mine, or making somewhat acustic sounds such as the intro to Fade to Black. My guitar came with two single coils and a humbucker. The humbucker is usually what I play on or I will use the neck. I usually don't use the middle pickup. The guitar comes with a volume and two tone knobs, which really don't affect anything. // 2
Action, Fit & Finish: The guitar is not a great one by any means, but there wasn't to much that was wrong with it right out of the box besides just being extremly out of tune. I would recomend putting on new strings almost immediatly though. The finish isnt great and picks up small scratches and smudges easy, and the pick guard is next to impossible to get to look nice. The action was a little high out of the box, but nothing that made me not want to learn to play. // 5
Reliability & Durability: I would never even think of playing this guitar at a gig unless my guitars necks broke off or something catastrophic like that happened. It would probally be worth re-stringed a guitar with a floyd rose than play this Live. The strap buttons actually popped off because of bad screws put in, so I would also recomend replacing the buttons all together with bigger screws incase the holes get stripped, and if you want to use the strap it comes with get strap locks because the strap easily comes off. The jack you put the chord in has recently become very lose and the chord it came with wont even stay in any more. Besides the smudges and small scratches, the finish has held up decent over almost 2 years of playing. // 1
Impression: Overall if you want to get a starter guitar, only get this if the kid is young, or if you really don't think they'll stick with the instrument. Squier, Ibanez, BC Rich, and Epiphone all put out way better starter packs, but they are a bit more expensives. I've had the guitar for 2 years and it's still the only guitar I own besides my cheap yard sale acustic. If this guitar was lost or stolen I think I would thank the person and go buy something better. The only thing I love about this guitar is it plays music and I tought myself to play on it. The guitar was a surprise Christmas gift so there wasn't much I could ask anyone or compare it to but I recomend buying a Squire or Epiphone starter pack. // 2
ME300
Reviewed by:
johnnyblack, on june 13, 2006 0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Price paid: $ 175
Purchased from: wal-mart
Features: Well then I got this a year ago just something cheap to play on and smash around so my good guitar would be well still good. This is a 2005 or 2004 model, it's mostly a Fender Strat rip off same headstock, 21 frets, same setup but only with bad gear. The tuners are only good for scrap metal if thay are even metal, the pickups are very poor lots of buzzing. And the thing just falls apart without a reason. // 3
Sound: I play a wide range of styles and this cannot play eny of them metal forget it, punk's alright on it but only because of the cheap sound, classic rock no way man, rock no no amego, only a real bad cheap sound. And I play this on a Vox tube amp which plays with a charm on enything else. This try's to do what Strat does with three pickup deal neck, middle, and brige all are bad. // 2
Action, Fit & Finish: This came un tuned the action was good the pickup were at a good setting too. Everything was loose after a month or two the finsh was good though. The brige saddle's were a little low but a quick fix the nut was a little loose to. // 3
Reliability & Durability: If you want to go live with this forget it it would junk out into one song. The hardware is cheap what can I say not much time before that's gone. This make's a good smash up guitar just to mess around on that's really it. // 3
Impression: I have seen some bad guitar's but this is worse if you want a good guitar buy the one that this try's to look like a Fender Strat that my veiw of it. // 1
This is aweful! I did a dive bomb and the bridge SNAPPED apart!
I returned it for a new one. The new one has horrible craftsmanship... wiring a mess, tuning/action aweful, this is the worst POS ever and ill never buy another. Paint scratches easy too.
not this, but another first act, from walmart, was my first guitar. My dad bought it for christmas and he even regrets it, the thing is a flat out piece of crap.
I don't have a whammy bar on mine, but it's definitely a sucky Stratocaster-ripoff. I'd rather get a Greg Bennett Interceptor or some other badly reviewed electric and hope that it's better than the crappy one I've got
I can't believe someone actually gave it a 7.8. When I started lik almost 5 years ago I'm glad my parents weren't dumb enough to fall for this one. I still got a cheap beginner guitar, but better sammick than a wal-mart first act.
I bought my first guitar from Toys R Us, it was a First Act, no necessary this model. It held up just fine. I'd give it probibly a 6.5/10, simply because it was reliable. But yeah, no tone switch at all, it's a bare-bones starter guitar. I'd reccomend them to little kids who are just starting, or total newblies.
i bought a first act (not this one though) for my first guitar. not the best thing in the book but a 23 fret guitar for 100 is pretty good to start out on.
i dodged a bullet here! i was gonna get one, but then my friend who has a 2005 Mexican Stratocaster, so he recommended squier. anyway, i would just hollow it out, repaint it and use it as an acoustic if i got one, and probably put the humbucker in my squier as a fourth pickup ( my squier has single coils)
I had it and it works well for a beginners guitar. Just out of curiosity, I'm repainting the guitar, swapping out the neck, bridge, and the whole pickguard assembely in favor of an EMG KH-21 setup. And if I still dont like it, I'll take out the EMGs, the neck and the new bridge and scrap the damn thing and just buy another body from Warmoth or something.
worst peace of crap ever i got it for free from a freind thats how crappy it is i just hit people with it my good gutiar is a sechter dimand series hollow body built on nech scorpion ind has dunicam desighn destorsion pick ups its so good
Farewellmyhell :
I had it and it works well for a beginners guitar. Just out of curiosity, I'm repainting the guitar, swapping out the neck, bridge, and the whole pickguard assembely in favor of an EMG KH-21 setup. And if I still dont like it, I'll take out the EMGs, the neck and the new bridge and scrap the damn thing and just buy another body from Warmoth or something.
I hope Its not too late too tell you: DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! Buy a EMG set for good guitar, and use this one as wood for your cnimney so santa claus learns to not bring you this piece of shit guitar
You can't get decent harmonics with these like u can with Schecters, Hamers, hell u can't even get Charvel high-gain harmonics with this guitar. yesterday i played on a +$1000 ESP les-paul style that would put this thing in the ground.
I'm holding my first guitar (First Act FG-130 Acoustic), I have never had a problem with it!
P.S. I got it for christmas when I was five for $60 at waltard lol
As well as a canoe paddle, makes an EXCELLENT pizza spatula, rather than guitar. I work at a well-known guitar shop. People bring these Walmart wonders in for repair, wondering why this or that broke, then cant understand why it costs 55.00 to make an unplayable guitar work;we usually try to tell them to shitcan it and buck up for a real starter guitar.
This is aweful! I did a dive bomb and the bridge SNAPPED apart!
I returned it for a new one. The new one has horrible craftsmanship... wiring a mess, tuning/action aweful, this is the worst POS ever and ill never buy another. Paint scratches easy too.
what do ya expect? its $50 and its from Walmart!lol
i have had this guitar for 5 years and it is the only one i have. it is actually pretty great in my opinion. besides the tone knobs not doing jack ****, i have never had a problem with tuning, it can stay tuned for about a month of steady playing surprisingly. the bridge isn't great, but not bad. i have wowed many people with this guitar, and can play any style with ease. and for the wammy, i can whale on it and it sounds phenominal, the only problem i've had, was after 5 years, the nut broke by me putting heavy bottoms on it, which is my fault. i would recommend this to a beginner of any age, because it is solid. maybe i just got a good on,e but the craftsmanship is great. i really don't have a complaint with this. (side note) i just played a $3000 les paul, and i would choose my first act over it. even though that may be the craziest thing ever heard.
Normally I wouldn't even put a comment on here, but I decided to put in my two-cents. I find it incredibly stupid when people say they have had this guitar for five years and still love it. I have been playing for a year, and I have already sold my starting squire tele and upgraded to an Epiphone Dot (amazing guitars, by the way. Not perfect by any means, but surprisingly awesome for an epiphone). I really don't see how someone can play guitar for five years and own a poc guitar like this. Also, I find it stupid when someones like "I play blues, and it handles overdrive and distortion perfectly" because I doubt you know the first thing about even playing blues, you've been playing for about a week probably. Anyways, there you go.
i have had this guitar for 5 years and it is the only one i have. it is actually pretty great in my opinion. besides the tone knobs not doing jack ****, i have never had a problem with tuning, it can stay tuned for about a month of steady playing surprisingly. the bridge isn't great, but not bad. i have wowed many people with this guitar, and can play any style with ease. and for the wammy, i can whale on it and it sounds phenominal, the only problem i've had, was after 5 years, the nut broke by me putting heavy bottoms on it, which is my fault. i would recommend this to a beginner of any age, because it is solid. maybe i just got a good on,e but the craftsmanship is great. i really don't have a complaint with this. (side note) i just played a $3000 les paul, and i would choose my first act over it. even though that may be the craziest thing ever heard.
Also, if you actually knew crap about guitars after playing for five years, you should know any guitar over $200 can easily beat this poc first act to the ground, much less a $3000 les paul. Idiot
lawl