First Act ME501 electric guitar

[kerc]

Features
Uniquely-styled single cut body shape, (see the pics). Solid basswood, about the same thickness as a Squier '51, finished in a thin, glossy and wonderful-looking crimson burst finish with cream painted binding. The burst is semi-transparent on the top, giving it a nice rose color showing the simple but even basswood grain. Subtle and effective. Cream pickup rings and pickguard. The effect is almost feminine.

Two-piece maple neck, very thick and wide, with a pronounced C-profile and bound rosewood fetboard. Seems to me the radius is around 12"--it's quite flat and has thick frets. Zero fret sprout, all are nicely finished. Has cheap tuners that hold the tuning well enough, even when I do my very wide bends.

Two Alnico PAF-style humbuckers, two volume controls, master tone. Cool-looking bridge with unique design, sits very solidy on the top, held by five screws in line. It's one of the most comfortable bridges I've used, very nice to rest your hand over it.

Sound
The Alnico humbuckers are very vintage in tone and relatively low output--their sound is closer to a P90 than a regular humbucker. Very nice tones, quite warm (definitely Alnico, no ceramic here!), especially the round and sweet neck pickup. It's not a metal axe--it's definitely a guitar designed for vintage sounds.

The pots are really the low part of the electronics...They go from open to a little muted to off. They will be the first change I'll make, buy a set of full-size pots from GFS. I think it'll sound even better then!

Action, Fit & Finish
After a nice setup, new strings, and the action raised to where I like it (strange, eh?), it plays wonderfully! The neck and fretboard were a little dry at first, but skin oil has done its job after a bunch of hours of play time. The neck has now a nice satin gloss! Nut is well-cut, frets and binding are good, no hack jobs here. They did get a bit sloppy on the "insides"--the inside of routings and holes are rough compared even to Squires. This is unnoticeable on the outside, though, where everything is well-routed and tight.

Overall rating
I dunno if I got lucky, but this is a very nice axe, on par with current Squier offerings. Must be the reason why Paul Westerberg uses one! It's light, sounds good, it's playable...And that unique shape and finish! I love the way it looks! It's the only axe I've been playing these days...It begs to be played!

Here are some pics I took and a quickie sound clip I just recorded:

Clip: http://cyberjammin.com/uploads/Music...kerc_me501.mp3

[ted s]

sounds great, looks great !

[Hogfullofblues]

Sure does. I already stopped by my local Toys R Us hopin to find one on sale, but no such luck. I will be hittin some others though.