"First Act" starfire bass copy

mellowgerman

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I'm sure you're all familiar with Wal Mart's "First Act" guitar brand. Well, they've extended their business with a custom shop and they have a whole bunch of endorsing artist from some fairly big bands. Anyway, check out their custom shop take on a starfire bass... 34" scale... complete with darkstars... looks like it's a bolt-on though :?
might be a decent instrument, but I wonder how much they go for

http://firstact.com/Products/CustomGuit ... Green.aspx


***EDIT:
here's yet another. slightly different
http://firstact.com/Products/CustomGuit ... _Bass.aspx
 

fronobulax

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Surprised it took you so long to find that. I knew about the green one a couple of years ago. The red one and the price are news to me, although when I used their "build me a guitar" application to approximate a bass, I got a price around $2,500. Interesting but at that price you can get a real vintage SF I. I had never heard about First Act before tracking down the Drive By Truckers bass so they don't carry all that "beginner crap" baggage with me.
 

mellowgerman

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fronobulax said:
Surprised it took you so long to find that. I knew about the green one a couple of years ago. The red one and the price are news to me, although when I used their "build me a guitar" application to approximate a bass, I got a price around $2,500. Interesting but at that price you can get a real vintage SF I. I had never heard about First Act before tracking down the Drive By Truckers bass so they don't carry all that "beginner crap" baggage with me.

Actually vintage SF-I's seem to be going for around $1695 currently ;)
 

fronobulax

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mellowgerman said:
fronobulax said:
Surprised it took you so long to find that. I knew about the green one a couple of years ago. The red one and the price are news to me, although when I used their "build me a guitar" application to approximate a bass, I got a price around $2,500. Interesting but at that price you can get a real vintage SF I. I had never heard about First Act before tracking down the Drive By Truckers bass so they don't carry all that "beginner crap" baggage with me.

Actually vintage SF-I's seem to be going for around $1695 currently ;)
Touche.
I should have said that for $2,500 you can get an '67 Starfire and maybe have change for strings or an amp or two :) Or maybe a beater car to get you to the gig...
 

stig

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I can't see spending more than $150 on anything that First Act makes. They've completely poisoned their brand by selling beginners guitars at warehouse clubs.

I know that Fender and Gibson have done similar things, but they're already established.
 
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price seems incredibly expensive for a first act guitar. It cost more that the instrument it's supposed to look like. I didn't know first act made anything other than cheapo beginner junk.
 

fronobulax

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kevin the bass man said:
price seems incredibly expensive for a first act guitar. It cost more that the instrument it's supposed to look like. I didn't know first act made anything other than cheapo beginner junk.
Like I said, I had never heard of First Act before I found their custom shop. I found it because they were one of the folks who would build a bass and offer Dark Stars as a PU option. Prices seem high to me compared to a Starfire although not necessarily high for a custom instrument. If I were really GASsing for a blue Starfire II I might be better off paying for a custom instrument than finding a vintage one where I wouldn't feel like cr*p for refinishing it. Still though, if First Act is really as bad as people say they are then a First Act custom shop is like Taster's Choice (makers of instant coffee) opening an espresso bar.
 

fronobulax

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kevin the bass man said:
don't diss taster's choice- I use it when cooking burgers over a fire- it makes decent gravy when mixing with the burger grease. :lol: :p :lol:

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

bassmyf

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stig said:
I can't see spending more than $150 on anything that First Act makes. They've completely poisoned their brand by selling beginners guitars at warehouse clubs..

+1 Added to the fact that their asscociation with Wal-Mart would lead me to believe that the " craftspeople " building them are probably earning 6 dollars a week....
 

plaidseason

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The First Act custom shop and the First Act guitars you find at WalMart are world's apart. It's like playing a Martin backpacker and then saying you'd never buy anything from the Martin Custom shop.
I'm not saying the Starfire copy is worth x number of dollars, I'm just saying that these guitars are made by a small shop of builders here in the USA.

Another bonus of the custom shop is that, much like the GAD Guilds, First Act makes "copies" of their better models. For example, there is a Paul Westerberg model that retails for $159: http://www.firstact.com/Artists/Paul_Westerberg.aspx

-Chris
 
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