I'm not Slash...

...but there's no point getting hung up on that small detail. One of the more memorable TV campaigns this fall was the series of Volkswagen ads featuring Slash, John Mayer, and Nigel Tufnel playing a special edition First Act GarageMaster guitar directly through a VW. The ads were the public face of a promotion that matched a guitar with every VW sold during the period. "Rock out just like Slash... if you're Slash" was the tag line for one:


Anyways, it was an exciting time for First Act, a Shore Fire client that's been getting a lot of attention for their line of totally hand made custom guitars from their custom shop in Boston, as well as a line of entry-level guitars sold in mass merchant stores. The former are being played by Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Brad Whitford (Aerosmith), Henry Garza (Los Lonely Boys), Nick McCarthy (Franz Ferdinand), and a whole mess of other guitar heroes. Meanwhile one of the entry level guitars was picked up by Paul Westerberg on tour (while he was heading to a Wal-Mart to buy shaving cream) and he ended up playing it every night on tour.

So with all that going on, heading out to this year's NAMM show with First Act was a lot of fun. The NAMM convention is the annual big bash for the musical instrument industry, where companies introduce new products and generally make a lot of noise. This year First Act was the toast of the convention. Thanks in no small part to the VW campaign their guitars have been everywhere, and they brought out a car for an on site demo:


I did my best to rock out just like Slash. It's a lot of fun, but when it comes down to it... I'm not Slash. I can do a respectable Steven Adler impression though in a pinch.