Samick Guitars, do they hold up?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dani Pace
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The guy's first name I don't know, but he was touring the U.S. with Bong Jae Lee, the CEO of Samick, in 2000. It's a family business, which started in pianos, and then branched out into subdivisions specializing in guitars and target bows.
I think they can probably build a guitar as good as you want to pay them to build. Their bows are widely used by the South Korean olympic team, the best in the world.-Richie
 
Let me be the first to say I don't like Samicks. I've played many, and not liked any. They are cheap in both cost and quality. That said, perhaps, for their price, they are decent guitars.
 
Samick Guitars, do they hold up?


the question should be "do they sound good????" .... what the hell does a crappy guitar help you in 50 years from now ...

its like buying crappy tires ... if they wear forever, youre forever stuck with crappy tires (get my drift)?

cheers
alfred
 
AlfredB said:
Samick Guitars, do they hold up?


the question should be "do they sound good????" .... what the hell does a crappy guitar help you in 50 years from now ...

its like buying crappy tires ... if they wear forever, youre forever stuck with crappy tires (get my drift)?

cheers
alfred
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Wouldn't crappy tires wear quickly?

A tire that lasts a long time is a good tire!

Unless, of course, they got bad tone. :D:D
 
my first guitar ever is and was a Samick... STill have it... still play it... in my home studio in fact... I forget the model... too lazy to go upstairs and look...

But I've never seen another Samick like it.. I've tried to find one cause I wanted another I like it so much...

It's been Dropped, chipped and abused on stage... Only thing I've had to replace in the past 13 years was the saddles...
 
YEAH..not all the Samicks are crap..Mine is a gem...I wouldn't trade it ...Someone musta been having a good day in the shop.
 
Halion said:
Let me be the first to say I don't like Samicks. I've played many, and not liked any. They are cheap in both cost and quality. That said, perhaps, for their price, they are decent guitars.
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They are really nice sounding guitars for the price. Also for the price above. I have played 500 dollar alvarez's who dont' sound as good as my samick. But hey, different guys different taste in the way their guitars sound! :D
 
In response to Adam P re: Texas Tele

Wow! Sounds like more than one of these was made! I have one, myself, and I have enjoyed playing it for the last 7-8 years. Same finish, same neck, same hardware, same Texas pickguard, three stellar Seymour Duncans (including a double-coil humbucker at the neck.) Did replace the saddles with Graph-Tech IOS saddles, and the guitar just sings. Paid $200 for it -- used -- did a little action/intonation work on it and took it back to Guitar Center to be fitted for a case. Guy who sold it to me picked it up and immediately wished he hadn't sold it. :)

If you find the one you saw a coupla years back, grab it!

Paul
http://www.wrydawn.com
 
Most of the samick guitars that I`ve tried was crap, I`ve tried a few of the gregg bennet ones and they were a big improvment.
 
Clive Hugh said:
I have a Samick electric made in Korea, I replaced the pickups with Bill Lawrence 450L's which improved the sound. I didn't buy it tho' a friend gave it to me as he was never going to play, I don't think I would have bought it as I had a bias against them, for no good reason.
It is made fairly well, action is OK. I also have a Epi acoustic made by them, it plays well but lacks a lot in the tone dept.
But it doesn't hold up against my Fenders.
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Since having made the original statement I have done a fret file of the Samick and have the action really low, I am thinking of taking the neck off and running the frets over a blueing table at work, I should be able to get the frets as close to perfect as it is possible other than setting it up and grinding them, I think that would be over kill but an interesting experiment, the reason for this is that the Samick has now become the no1 due to the humbuckers and the action being lower than I can get the Fenders without a fret job.
 
I found a samick strat copy in a pawn shop about 3 years ago and fell in love with the looks. Quilted top, pearloid pickguard, maple neck, hss pickup config. I played it some in the shop and it was great. I bought it and haven't had a single problem with it. Sound is a little warmer than my fender strats but nice. Neck is great. If I changed anything I would probably put a top of the line duncan in the bridge pos. for more of a rock tone. But it is a fine guitar as is. I just can't find any info about this particular model. The newer strat copies are called malibu but they are sss and the head is different. I can't find this one anywhere. Oh well, no matter. I can still rock on !
joe
 
While I've been aware of Samick for many years and have picked one up in a store from time to time, I never bought one and was never overly impressed. I actually thought a Samick electric piano I once tried was as good as a Kurzweil!

A few months ago I was looking for a resonator and one of the music stores in my area recently started to sell a lot of Samick (they simply could no longer meet the demands of Fender & Gibson).

I bought a "Greg Bennett" resonator for about half of what the Fenders go for. I thought it sounded as good as the Fenders and about 4 or 5 low priced resonators I looked at. It is very well made and I anticipate it will serve my needs for a very long time - but, it is not one of my "main axes".

I did try several Samick accoustics recently and while they seemed well made, none blew me away sound wise (I ended up buying a Takamine).

In my very humble opinion, Samick accoustics are on a whole pretty well made, but are averaging sounding and less than inspirational. I can't offer an opionion on the electrics, since I have not been looking at electrics.
 
Just curious if there is there any obvious way to tell which of the guitars from major brands that sell samicks as their brand name (Epi for instance)? For the Epiphone's was there a date where all or some started to be contracted out. Was there a significant quality change between, say, the older Epi's and the samick ones?

Daav.
 
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