Tomate Palta - Posted - 02/25/2023:  05:42:44

Dear community,
I’m brand new to dobro and this beautiful forum. I am a profesional bassist and mandolin player and been wanting to add dobro to my bands for a while but being in Europe makes the task of finding something cheap, second hand, beginners basically, not easy at all!
I just found a Samick square neck in the UK, made in Korea, probably 70s or 80s for very cheap. Looks in good condition. Are these Korean Samicks comparable to the newer Recording Kings or Gretsch? Any worth it? Or is it just gonna be a terrible waste of money?
Thanks so much and looking forward to reading your advice!

sapbush - Posted - 02/25/2023:  06:48:28

No knowledge of the resonator but I felt the need to have an electric guitar a while back and wound up with a Samick Les Paul that I chose over a more expensive Epiphone version. It's quite well made for the price range, plays well and survived my brief foray into Irish electric music! So it seems that Samick can make a decent budget instrument.

gadobro - Posted - 02/25/2023:  06:57:51

Is it the one on Reverb? It looks pretty nice to me (the sunburst is better than those I've seen on some pricy boutique guitars). The slotted headstock wouldn't be my first choice. The nut also is a little unusual; not sure how far off the fretboard it is.

So much of the sound comes down to the internals (cone, spider bridge, inserts) and construction (open vs soundwell, etc.). If you would be able to put an upgraded (Scheerhorn, Beard, etc) cone in the Samick, it might improve it drastically.

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 02/25/2023:  10:14:03

I don't recall ever seeing a Samick dobro in person. 

In the musical instrument industry, they are a huge company, one of the world's largest. They produce instruments in multiple countries under a number of brand names and many that were made in Korea years ago have a good reputation - but that's a generalization. We usually hear about the electric guitars and acoustic flattops. 

But if it follows suit that a Samick dobro is a good value for the money and you can get it cheap, then you probably can't go wrong. 

Not seeing any information about  the instrument and being that it's from 40 or more years ago my guess is that it's going to be built like a traditional Dobro with a soundwell under the cone. This would be quite a bit different than for example a Recording King Phil Leadbetter model with open body construction and a more "modern" sound. It might be more along the lines of imported Regal dobros which began in Korea around 1987, and quite possibly were produced by Samick at the time. 

Tomate Palta - Posted - 02/25/2023:  10:25:47

Thanks so much guys for all the input! Because it’s so cheap (around 350) i might as well just go for it and try to get a better cone!

wlgiii - Posted - 02/25/2023:  10:29:58

My first dobro was a Regal import- late 80s or 90s. It served me quite well for years. With a new cone it served me quite well for many more years. Go for it.

MarkinSonoma - Posted - 02/25/2023:  11:27:05

quote:

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Originally posted by Tomate Palta

Thanks so much guys for all the input! Because it’s so cheap (around 350) i might as well just go for it and try to get a better cone!

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We will need photos after you receive the guitar! 

psikes - Posted - 02/25/2023:  14:43:12

I have owned a Samick L5 copy since somewhere in the 80’s and it has been a real workhorse of a jazz guitar. Good luck with the Reso.