Samick Greg Bennett Series??

[Hammer97e]

I stopped by a local mom and pop shop yesterday while on my lunch to see if anything new caught my eye, I came across this Greg Bennett Signature series tele, I didn't have anytime to sit down and play, but it was used and seem pretty good for the $190 price tag they had on it. I have been gas'n for a tele and have never seen these Greg Bennett guitars so I thought I would see what you guys thought of them.

 

This is exactly the same as the one I saw, two lipsticks and the duncan humbucker, its even trans blue like this one.

 

 

http://www.bmusic.com.au/prod1721.htm

 

 

If I have time this weekend, have a collective soul concert, I will go back and check it out more in depth.

 

http://www.smcmusic.com/website_gregbennett/fa2.html

[GarysBlues]

Good guitars. I sold a Formula II recently for 200 pls S+H. Thats about what they go for. BTW thats what the Tele your talking about is.....Formula II

 

Do a search....lot of info on the Samick G.B. Serie's here.

[Tweedledee]

I had a red one. It was beautiful but that was its best feature, IMHO. The fretwork left a lot to be desired, though it was OK. The nut on mine was poorly cut as well.

 

I found the pickups to be unispiring. I thought the combo of the humbucker with the lipsticks would be great, but the 'bucker wasn't very articulate and the lipsticks didn't have any of that wildness that you get from a Danelectro.

 

I think it could have been a nice little guitar with some fret work and new pickups, but I wasn't willing to put in the time or money, so I sold it.

[ashasha]

I've owned a few of the other Greg Bennett series guitars and they were all very good. I did buy them all used so they may have had some work, but the frets on everyone of them was immaculate, easily some of the best fretwork I've seen. Out of about 10 guitars I've owned in the last 5 years I've had only 4 of them that needed no work, 2 of them were the Samicks.

 

I really like Samick guitars, but for me the necks are too thin for my preference and the pickups are usually a little on the bland side. They have all had the Duncan Design HB's, which are some of my least favorite pickups.

 

Some of the best bang for the buck guitars that you will ever find though.

[dilin]

Don't let their (Samick) bad rep influence you. I have a AV3 and an older Artist Series Les Paul which felt and played better than the MIC Epis I've played at half the price, with Duncan pickups! (59s in the AV3 and Seths in the Artist Series).

[johnbegone]

I have the red Samick FA-2, and it's my favorite guitar right now.

 

The pickups are very decent, but I do think I will swap them out someday once I figure out what I want to put in there.

 

The neck on mine is fantastic. It's a beautifully finished guitar as well, if you look closely it's not perfect but for the price is fantastic. The pickup combo is unlike any other guitar that I know of. I use the lipsticks for clean passages and swap back over to the humbucker for heavier stuff.

 

$190 sounds like an alright price, I ended up getting mine used for $140 in mint condition (still had the plastic on the pickguard) and a case. Can't beat that with a stick!

[guitarcapo]

Make sure you plug it in and play it to see if the tone agrees with you. Lipsticks sound very....different.

[Noise...]

Personally, I don't like Samick's very much. My former guitar teacher had one, and it wasn't that great of a guitar. I've also played a few other random Samicks and none of them were very good. Bad fretwork, weak, toneless pickups, and poor finish work.

 

Personally, I'd get something like a used MIM Fender Tele for about the same price or a few bucks more.

[tlbonehead]

I have four Samicks including this Benson model. They are pretty good guitars for the money. Never understood why they get trashed here. I've never played one that was junk like some people say. (bad pic)Its the only one I've ever seen in green. They didn't even have the green one in the catalogs, just blue and red.