Samick Corsair

P/J Passive Pickups, Tone control. Made in Indonesia. Bought new in 2009.

I'm a guitar player of twenty plus years who finally bought a bass to record with. So while I'm a noobie with bass tones, I know a thing or two about guitar tones.

...and frankly, I'm blown away by the quality of these pickups. Are you kidding me!? I paid $187 for this bass at dcmusicstore.com (plus $5 shipping) I was thinking I was going to have to replace the pickups with aftermarket specials, but no way. These sound great.

You just really get nice, classic J and P sounds respectively. And then you can combine them any way you want. It goes from very deep and thumpy to brighter sounding. Very versatile. High quality stuff. You can cover a lot of musical styles with these. Probably, everything but metal.

They don't advertise Duncan Designed pickups anymore. My guess is that they dumped Duncan for a better-sounding and less expensive set. That's a twofer if you're keeping score at home...

Oh, I play this through an Acoustic B100. The combination works.

I'm blown away here too. For a $200 bass, this thing is awesome. Frets are nicely rounded off. Neck is firm and strong. Tuners stay in tune. Baseplate is thick and strong. They body has nice looking wood and feels solid.

Who cares how the action is? Can't you fine-tune it your damn self?! :-)

It feels strong and sturdy, but time will tell.

I played several basses at guitar center. They were obscenely expensive and/or felt like toys. This Samick feels solid and real and sounds fantastic...and it's very versatile tone-wise.

Companies really take advantage of us guitar players. We're such suckers for brand-names and the aura that comes with them. Holy crap, guitars are wood, steel and magnets. They've been making them for 70 years. Do we really need to pay >$1000 for a guitar???

My philosophy is to go for the best tone-value combination. Then I can buy more toys!!! And this Samick fits the bill totally. I'm very happy with it and recommend it without reservations.

What you would expect from a P Bass style instrument; standard split soil hum-canceling growls. ARRRR!!!!

Amazingly surprized at the sound. Lots of balls and thunder. You can play with the tonal & volume options and get everything from funck, rock, country, blues, bluegrass, and even some jazz tones. I was blown away at the quality for such an inexpensive instrument. The funk sound was trully amazing, dead nutz on. Perfect for slap style!!!

Set up was simple. Intonation is right on and the action is nice and easy, like a good prom date. Aye!!!!

Maple neck, hard as a rock. This thing is tough. I've used it for giging around the local scene and I'm not afraid to push it. For a couple hundred bucks (used) I can replace it, but I don't think it will go down lightly. She's a real battle axe!!!

Bough it at a pawn shop. No warenty, no support. Have yet to need it...

Get it now!!! No need to waist your money on squire. If you want P Bass balls get the greg Bennett, Don't think twice, it's alright...

Korean made 4 stringer (34" scale); Passive Split Humbucker (Cheap no-name kind); Volume/Tone controls; Bolt on Maple neck with Maple Fingerboard; Jazz style body; 22 frets (black-dot fret markers).

I'm not sure what it's made of; but it's probably cheap (I think it's Alder).

Mines a CR-2, which is now out of production. The only differences between this one; and the new ones are the side-mounted football jack (as opposed to front mounted), and that there's no pickguard (thank god). It's transblue.

Also; the strap buttons are great; I've heard of $2000 Fender basses needing new strap buttons/locks, but the corsairs all set with the stock ones.

Nothing special; but at this price, what do you expect? Nine (eight, plus one for the strap buttons).

The Corsair has very little character in the sound department. Then again; that's not such a bad thing! If you've got a decent amp, you can tweak your EQ to get pretty much any sound you like, but it won't be stellar. For example; I can kill my highs, boost my lows, and tweak my mids some, and I'll get a sound reminiscent of a Vintage P-Bass, but it won't be as good as the real thing (pretty decent though!).

Run through a flat(ish) EQ with the treble way up the sound is sort of thin/twangy, and with the treble down it's kind of muddy.

I use lots of effects; which this bass is really good for, as the characterless sound means I get exactly what I want from my pedals (I don't have to work around any unwanted tonal characteristics).

Unless it's run through a rediculous amount of distortion, there's no hiss/hum; which is nice.

Again, the Corsair scores an nine; the sound isn't stellar, but for the money...

I got this bass from a local store (Encore Music, winnipeg), and they lugged it out from the back, took it out of a box, and I tested it then brought it home. I'm not sure if the setup was factory or store; but it was fine.

The bridge is about topped out right now; and the action is still kinda low -- not lower than a jazzbass or anything, but it can't go any higher (fine with me, I love it!).

The finish is nice; but it LOVES fingerprints, an there were no flaws to speak of.

Since I've bought the guitar; I've yet to screw with this setup, and the only surface flaws are my fault...That's a ten.

This bass is a tank. I've had it for 19 months now; and it survived being my first instrument. That means it's been dropped, kicked, thrown, and smacked around; and all it's got to show for it is some hairline scratches (entierly my fault). I've taken out (literally) hundreds of chunks out of my walls with the headstock/horns on the corsair, it's got nothing to show by ways of injury.

In all my 19 months of owning this guitar; I've yet to touch the Trussrod, and the strap buttons have NEVER ONCE failed me.

This bass could survive live playing, no problem. In fact, I'd even bring it without a backup (when I upgrade basses, it will BE my back up!)

The only problem I've had with the corsair are the electronics; the pots, rather. I do alot of really fast, really hard swells, and after a year and a half the pots are getting kind of loose, but on a cheapee bass, that's to be expected. There's nothing wrong with them, but I'll get new ones when I drop in an EMG pup...

This thing would NEVER fail me; it's rock solid, and dead simple. The only fault so far is the fault of an uneducated newbee (me). Ten.

Never dealt with Samick; but I've had several bad experiences with Encore Music involving some Drum purchases...

This was my first bass, and I'm glad I got it. It's not a particularly good bass; but compared to other starter basses (Squire P's/Jazzes, Ibanez GSR200, etc) this is a better choice (IMO). It doesn't sound spectacular, but it doesn't sound cheap (you know?); plus, it's unbreakable.

If it were lost or stolen; I'd track down the f***er who took it, and break their legs, not because it's a great bass, but because it has sentimental value. If it weren't my first bass, I'd just collect insurance on it, and get a FAR nicer one (like a Music Man...).

Anyone planning to start/learn bass, I strongly suggest they try out the Corsair (especially if they find one without a pickguard!), It'll be worth your while. For it's price, it's a fantastic bass. Ten.

If anyone has any questions about this bass and/or my experiences with it, send me an Email.

Recent Korean production 4 string 'P' bass style. Real wood body with a maple neck. I stripped the plain old black paint off the body to find a multiple-piece nicely grained reddish wood body. I hand rubbed a few coats a satin polyurethane and it kind of looks like an oiled finish now with just a hint of reddish tint. I like P basses.

It has medium output (about 10K) pickups. It has a wider tonal range than I expected and still has the bottom I want.

Superb action after a little tweaking/setup. The maple neck is not quite as narrow as the real slim ones out there but it is less than average. It is perfect for me. I prefer a maple neck.

I plug it in - it works. I turn the volume and tone pots - they work. The tuners hold well. I don't have to tweak the neck adjustment - it's set.

I've never had to deal with Samick. They are the biggest manufacturers of guitars in the world. They will be around if I ever needed OEM parts which is highly unlikely.

I have been playing guitar for 40 years and bass on/off most of the time. I just got serious about bass recently and set myself up with a rig. I just jam with some local people but I am setup well enough to play out. I tried out quite a few basses and this is one of the keepers. Great action/sound for the $$$.