Missed another VW Guitar.

[mikesr1963]

I've posted about this before as I've been looking for a VW guitar for a couple years now. I made a call about one just last week within 20 miles of my house. Lady sold it two weeks prior for $35 new in the box.

 

[Deep Eddy]

There's one for sale on Chicago CL.

http://chicago.craigslist.org/sox/msd/5793934099.html

 

[mikesr1963]

Has to be close enough for me to pick up in person. I've just made an offer on one 3 hours away for $100. This one is new in the case. To pay over $150 it will have to be new in box with all the wrapping in place and have the off white pickguard.

 

[jp_nyc]

I see them on Craigslist all the time in Colorado. Prices are always too high for me to care.

 

[PunkKitty]

I wish I knew. One recently sold for $50 at the pawn shop by my house.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Those look cool. I remember when they came with the car. I kinda jones for a Paul Westerberg First Act with the red plaid pickguard.

 

[iamjethro]

One in Little Rock Craigslist the last couple of weeks. I think it was 150 to 165. Something like that.

 

[gtrjunior]

Are they any good? First act isn't exactly known for producing fine instruments....or are you just looking to buy for its collector value?

 

[Jbird]

Anything much more than $200 should include a free VW TDI :rim:

 

[Bob411]

Are they any good? First act isn't exactly known for producing fine instruments....or are you just looking to buy for its collector value?

Depends. They have, or had, don't know, a custom shop in Boston $2,000 plus guitars. They also sold unplayable guitars at Toys Are Us. 10 plus years ago, they contracted with China to make some of their custom shop guitars. Dipped in plastic finish. Street price $300ish. My opinion, they were better than Epis and Squires OF THAT TIME. They were a huge failure. Nobody bought them, they herd First Act and, thought of the garbage sold at Toys Are Us. They blew them out for $100. Tons of people on HC bought them. I eventually bought three Lolas and, one Shenna. Had fun moding the Lolas. They were so cheap, great to learn on, if you screw it up, not such a big deal. Still have the Shenna. It's the only guitar I have never changed anything on.

I've never seen a Garagemaster in person, I would expect about the same.

 

[shoeless]

I bought a Sheena from the First Act website when they were blowing them out for $99. The Sheena, along with the Lola and Delia, were First Act's "For Artists" series and were definitely NOT the same quality as the Toys R Us or WalMart First Acts. I think that misconception had a lot to do with their failure. First Act did not do a very good job of delineating their product lines like Squire/Fender or Epiphone/Gibson. Instead, everything had a First Act label and unless you were familiar with them (which most folks weren't), everything with the First Act label was perceived as a toy. Sadly, the company seems to have embraced that and now only appear to offer that level of instrument. They used to have custom shop offerings ($1000+), but I don't see anything about that on their website anymore.

The "For Artist" series were originally sold in the $300-$400 range IIRC, and are well worth that IMO. I liked my Sheena so much that when I saw a Garagemaster pop up on the local Craigslist for $50, I jumped on it. It's not quite as nice as the Sheena, but if you can snag a Garagemaster for $100 or less, do it. You won't be sorry. It has a distortion effect built into the guitar that you activate with a switch, and has a high and low gain setting along with a pot adjustment. Cool idea I guess, but I rarely use it. It's a little over the top for me.

Here are the First Act sisters.

 

[gtrjunior]

Just stumbled across this one

https://reverb.com/item/2972620-limited-edition-first-act-volkswagen-garagemaster-electric

 

[12Pack]

Are these VW guitars air cooled?

 

[iamjethro]

The only reason I was looking at the Arkansas one was the vaguely (not really that subtle) Brian May look the Garagemaster has.

 

[Bob411]

One of the Lolas.