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Highest quality Korean-made guitars?


Goofball Jones

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I have not played a Reverend, but I have played some PRS SE's and the low end Gretsch stuff, and I still like my Agiles better (which are Korean made at the Unsung factory).

 

I played a Michael Kelly once that was pretty damn good too.

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Although I think they moved everything to the Gibson Quingdao plant, Epiphones were made by Unsung, Peerless, Saein and 1 or 2 others. In my experience the Unsung and Peerless Epi's were great. The Dillion's are also excellent.

 

 

I thought Samick made guitars for Epiphone way back when? Maybe the dot?

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I thought that was loooooong over, but I could be wrong. The Samick factory is shut down for good, I believe.

 

Now if you want to talk about awesome imports, let's talk Orville. I know, I know. Japanese, but hot damn those were a steal.

 

Now it looks as though they are way overpriced on the used market, which is a shame... If you were lucky enough to score an Orville back in the day, then you know what I'm talking about.

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Yea it's been a while I guess. I was given an old samick dot clone that was supposedly exactly the same as an epiphone that was made by samick. I still have it around here somewhere. This is an experpt from an interview with the president of Epiphone...

 

EPI: I understand Epiphone has even opened its own factory in China. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

 

JIM: Sure. And I think it's a great follow-up to the topic of quality. Ten to fifteen years ago, many Epiphone guitars were made at the same factories where many other guitars were and are currently made. In this case, it's difficult, if not impossible, to have a substantially better instrument than your competition when the parts, process and people to make them are the same. Therefore, in order to produce a superior instrument, we needed to open our own factory. So in October 2002, we opened Qingdao Gibson - our own factory near Qingdao, China dedicated to making Epiphone and only Epiphone guitars. To my knowledge, we are the only U.S. guitar company with their own factory in Asia. That's a significant difference.

 

EPI: I thought all Epiphones were made by Samick. (smiling)

 

JIM: I think that's what a lot of people still think. But that never was the case. Fifteen years ago, a lot of, but certainly not all, Epiphone guitars as well as other brands, were made at the Samick factory in Korea. Today, they don't make any guitars for us. In fact, they closed the Samick guitar factory in Korea a few years ago.

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I'm all about Korean guitars. I think they are absolutely the best value going. I've got Ibanez, Epiphone, Squier, Xaviere, Parker, Samick and Tradition guitars made in Korea and every one is a VERY decent, solid guitar.

 

Of the ones listed, I'd cast my vote for PRS mostly because I've played many of them. I've only played two Korean Reverends that I know of. Both were used so I don't know what might have been done to them. Hamer and Michael Kelly would get my second and third place votes.

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The three Reverends I've played were all excellent. One had some sharp fret ends, but every other aspect of them was utterly flawless. The PRS SE One that I bought a couple of weeks ago is equally good. In certain lights you can tell that the body is multi-piece, but as far as set-up, intonation, finish, and feel, it's just off-the-charts good. The tuning keys aren't as nice, but that's honestly my only gripe.

 

I call it a tie between these two.

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The hype about Reverends is legit. I tried a MIK PRS a few weeks ago and was mighty disappointed. Not only did it not compare to a real PRS, it didn't come close to my Rev Flatroc, which I find I keep coming back to over my Les Paul Classic Plus (electronics/pickups/tailpiece modded back to '50s era specs), '73 Tele, old Tokai Strat, and Jerry Jones Dbl Cut. Reverend doesn't seem to have a lot of dealerships but they're worth tracking down.

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The hype about Reverends is legit. I tried a MIK PRS a few weeks ago and was mighty disappointed. Not only did it not compare to a real PRS, it didn't come close to my Rev Flatroc, which I find I keep coming back to over my Les Paul Classic Plus (electronics/pickups/tailpiece modded back to '50s era specs), '73 Tele, old Tokai Strat, and Jerry Jones Dbl Cut. Reverend doesn't seem to have a lot of dealerships but they're worth tracking down.

 

 

NOT what I need to hear! I keep GASsing for a Rev. I also keep checking out the St. Blues guitars...

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