Test Drive: First Act Volkswagen GarageMaster Guitar

The Deal

Buy or lease a 2006 VW Jetta, GTI, Rabbit, New Beetle or New Beetle Convertible and get a custom limited-edition First Act GarageMaster electric guitar that can be played through the car's audio system. (October 3 - December 31 2006)

The Package

1 - Custom First Act GarageMaster guitar. White with color-coordinated pickguard to match the car (blue, white pearloid, black, red). Plate on back of headstock has car's VIN.1 - Nice VW/First Act embroidered heavy-duty padded nylon gig bag1 - Super-cool VW/First Act embroidered heavy-duty seat belt material guitar strap with leather ends1 - Indispensable 20' Instrument cable. 1/4 TS to 1/8 TRS3 - Neat VW/First Act logo charcoal celluloid guitar picks-medium thickness

GarageMaster Guitar

So what do you get for nothin'? Quite a bit actually. Fresh out of the box, the GarageMaster is encased in a nicely embroidered nylon gig bag. Pulling it from its snug cocoon, the striking white guitar is an exercise in contrasts. The overall size of the solid poplar body appears diminutive but feels all of its seven pounds. The stark white paint is broken up by the three-piece black-on-white pickguard and bright chrome hardware. The body's rounded edges and high-gloss finish run cheerfully counter to the latest guitar fashions based on a distressed or gothic aesthetic.

The two-piece bolt-on maple neck feels solid and slick. It's medium thickness with a C profile and angled headstock. On the business side of the neck, you'll find a spacious sheet of tightly grained rosewood, 22 medium-jumbo frets, and dot inlays. The oversized mother-of-pearl dot at the 12th fret is cut in the shape of the VW logo. The frets are nicely crowned and polished but could use a manicure at the edges. The GarageMaster uses a string-through-body with proprietary string retainer and tail piece. The tune-o-matic-style bridge is allen wrench adjustable and uses waferlike saddles for adjustability and sustain. Up top are enclosed die-cast tuners in a 3x3 arrangement. All the hardware on the GarageMaster is chrome-plated.

The wide neck and large-radius fretboard makes fingering easy, even for musicians with large hands. The satin-finished maple keeps behind-the-neck position changes quick and smooth. The edge of the neck drops off rather sharply, occasionally reminding you of the protruding fret ends. Imported guitars - the GarageMaster is made in China - can have wavy, or even notched, fret surfaces, but the entire fretboard on the GarageMaster is straight and smooth, making string bends and slides a breeze.

Though its unique body and headstock design are First Act characteristics, the real heart of this collaboration are the electronics. This guitar possesses the basic hardware of its peers: a three-way pickup selector switch on the upper bout, two pickups, and the volume and tone controls situated by the bridge near the output jack. To work with the VW's auxiliary audio input, First Act had to boost the guitar's output. It decided to wick some technology from its V-Stack modeling amplifier line to achieve this. A small analog amp-modeling circuit is housed under the lower pickguard amid the tone and volume controls. This preamp is powered by a standard nine-volt battery housed in a snap-open plastic compartment in the back of the guitar. Augmenting the normal volume and tone controls are three sliding switches. They control preamp on/off (with an adjacent blue LED to indicate status), tone shift (treble cut/boost), and choice of output-clean or distortion. A separate master volume knob controls output only when the preamp is engaged. The three knobs sport an aggressive knurling and have a deep-relief VW logo in the top.

Behind the Wheel

A fresh Volkswagen GTI was parked in the Motor Trend garage ready to become our mobile sound stage. The supplied cable splits the guitar's mono output into two mono outs-left and right. Connection for the 1/8-inch aux input, used for iPods and other portable audio devices, is located in the glovebox. Plug in, turn on the radio, and hit the AUX button to get started. Throw open all five doors, snap the preamp switch to the on position, and you're ready to jam.

Testing the waters with a blues riff, initial output seems weak. Hmmmmm. An image of Slash's stack of VWs comes to mind. Sure it's loud enough for a small gathering but it falls far short of crossing the socially irresponsible guidelines for garage-band etiquette. It's still strung with the stock XL strings, but the problem seems deeper than that. After assuring that the guitar's volume control is set at 10 (or even 11), it's necessary to crank the radio's volume to maximum for the desired effect. Ah, that's better. With the switching set for a clean sound, the smooth Alnico V pickups sing out. The soul of the GarageMaster is encased within the vintage-voiced Alnico V "bikini-clad" humbucker pickups that provide the guitar's native chimey sound. The full tones from the neck pickup have a jazzy flavor while the bridge position pickup yields a more concise and focused tone with a surprising amount of single-coil twang for a humbucker. Mixing them creates a warm, round tone with high-end bite. The tone shift switch changes emphasis to either the highs or lows-similar to the old rhythm/lead switches of 1960s Japanese imports.

After meeting the GarageMaster's Dr. Jekyll, it was time to hear from Mr. Hyde. A slide of the distortion switch significantly alters the mood. Notes that once sang now screamloud. The pickup volume knob acts as moderator, dialing in more or less aggressive tone. Turn it down for a trickle of bluesy overdrive or crank it up to release a flood of sustainable hairiness. The Master volume now controls the gain or output to the amp. This preamp rocks!

The GarageMaster is a blast to play. After the brief garage gig, it spent time in the home studio. It needed a little tweaking to bring out its full capabilities.

Import guitars leave the factory ready for travel not playing. Like cars, new guitars require adjustment be made to suit the intended player's preferences. Tuning and setting up the guitar are the equivalents of adjusting the mirrors, seats, and radio stations.

After intonation and tuning, the bridge and neck are adjusted to set the action, or string height over the neck, lower for easier playing. A string change is usually done at this time, but we wanted to run the GarageMaster as equipped from the factory.

After setup, one persistent problem still plagues our GarageMastertuning. This GarageMaster's tuning keys are particularly sensitive to note bending, strumming, or being left in its gig bag overnight. Tuning issues didn't favor any particular string making it especially frustrating. Each tuning machine has what appears to be an adjustment screw to increase the turning resistance although tightening them showed no change. The minimum fix is a new set of quality strings. Maximum? A new set of tuners.

To a lesser degree, the three-way pickup selector also is troublesome. When it's moved from one position to the next it changes what area of the strings vibrations are sent to the output. Neck=broader tones; Bridge=focused tones; Middle=a little of both. Ours couldn't flick from neck to middle position without binding. The more sporty the player the greater level of frustration suffered.

Bottom Line

The GarageMaster may not be a high-end, one-off custom, but it is no promotional toss-away either. The musicians who test drove it thought it a respectable piece, giving it high marks for its preamp's sound and versatility.

First Act takes it's instruments seriously. At the Winter 2007 NAMM show, music's version of SEMA, Jeff Walker, vice president of marketing for First Act, expressed how this campaign moved First Act to a new legitimacy in the music manufacturing business. He looks forward to a lasting partnership with a global automotive company that prides itself on its cultural hipness. The Volkswagen TV advertisements provided an unmatched prime time merchandising blitz for both brands that continues to live on in the viral environs of post-your-own-video Web sites like YouTube.

The idea of offering a premium item to enhance the considerability of a VW is not new. The previous campaigns with Trek and K2 are not so distant memories. The GarageMaster, however, is significantly different from those campaigns because the GarageMaster is inextricabley connected, literally, with the vehicle. They're meant to work together as a unit. They do that well.

Specs