Cheap, Funky & In Your Face: Paul Westerberg Gets A Signature Guitar Cary Sep 20th

Hehe… I love it! Paul Westerberg, frontman of legendary drunken punk prodigies The Replacements–and one of my favorite singer/songwriters of all times–now has his very own Paul Westerberg Signature guitar from First Act. And trust me, no one’s going to be calling Westerberg a sell-out any time soon – the guitar goes for just $159. Too cool…

At the risk of dating myself, I’ll admit to having been one of the lucky few to catch The Replacements in Berkeley during their ’80s heyday (they were touring to support their “Let It Be” album, and I was just 15) and while I seem to remember both Paul and the late, great Bob Stinson playing Les Pauls (I believe Stinson was also wearing a nurse’s outfit) I know Westerberg has had a long standing soft-spot for the funkier American guitars.

That love for the lowbrow would explain why he turned to First Act for his signature guitar… the company makes make fun, funky instruments at an exceedingly low price-point. In describing his guitar Westerberg states–

“It has a single pick-up, and it sort of snarls. It’s lean, clean, and mean, and it doesn’t have that big, overdriven, fuzzy sound. You can get that with an amp, but the guitar itself doesn’t put it out, and that’s what I was looking for. There’s a definite old-school thing—it belongs in a garage. It probably sounds best in a garage playing surf music or something like that.”

As can be expected with a guitar this cheap there really aren’t a whole lot of technical details available, but from what I gather the Paul Westerberg Signature is a full solid body model (solid what I’m not sure,) with a maple neck, rosewood fretboard, a single vintage-voiced soapbar Alnico singlecoil pickup at the bridge, and that exceedingly cool “Punk Rock Plaid” pickguard.

Oh yeah, and I personally put one on pre-order as soon as I saw it… I mean, for $159 you can’t really lose, right?! You can expect a full review once it ships.

The First Act Paul Westerberg Signature ME580 Features–

• Custom Single Cutaway Body
• Maple Neck
• Rosewood Fretboard With 22 Frets
• Dot Inlays
• Single Vintage-Voiced Soapbar Single-Coil Pickup
• Volume & Tone Controls
• Punk Rock Plaid Pickguard
• Strings-Through-Body Bridge
• Patented First Act String Retainer System (For Sustain & Tone)
• Chrome Die-Cast Tuners

So go out and get one quick if you’re a Westerberg-freak like me, and if not, well… perhaps it’s time you caught a clue!

This entry was published Wednesday, September 20th, 2006 at 1:05 pm. Feel free to leave a comment, or better yet, trackback from your own blog/website.
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