Samick Unknown Bass

Yep...a Samick..

And for the smart cookie who couldnt find the model (thats kinda hard to believe...), its an LB11 P bass. Anyway, its a standard four string bass, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, I think the body is bass wood, but one cannot be sure. Runs standard factory passive P pickups, red finish with black pick plate.
My parent purchased this for me as a package deal with amp, lead etc etc as a gift.

Well the amps I use are: a behringer BX3000T 300 watt solid state head. This is put through a Warwick 410 pro 4x10 bass cab and Warwick 115 pro 1x15 cab, a mesa boogie 400+ 500 watt tube head running through a Carvin RL810T 8x10 bass cab, a Warwick Take 12 combo amp and the best of them all...the Samick SB15 15 watt practice amp that came with the bass. I dont really dig effects but I do use a Sansamp bass driver from time to time with the behringer, and also a Gallien-krueger Diesel dog distortion pedal that I have grown rather fond of actually.

The bass is rather special and sentimental to me because my parents bought it for me quite a while ago, but I must admit, this bass does have a great sound. That nice warm yet punchy tone that one would expect from a more expensive "in brand" bass. Some brand bashers (*cough* that justin tool *cough*) would immediately dismiss this bass as a complete and useless utter piece of crap that should be made into an ashtray all because of the brand, but I dont see it that way and I dont give a shit about brands. Sure I got a Fender deluxe American jazz bass running Active EMG's and a Fender Precision bass with S-1 switching, but that doesnt mean this bass is any less inferior in tone, quality, and playability.
My mates give me shit all the time when I bring this baby to rehearsel, before I threaten to squash them with my rig, but this bass is great for the job. Id rather keep it for recording however, as I would be heart broken if it was damged while on tour but I imagine that it could handle touring easily.

ANYWAY, enough rambling. I play old school punk rock music in one band, and am a backup bass player in another band. Because this bass runs passives you dont have a vast array of tones compared to my fenders, but you can still get that nice high frequency, bright tone, good for when using a pick (that I do alot) or that nice warm dark tone for when using the fingers. The nice, warm, dark tone is excellent when using flatwounds.

The sound of this bass in general is excellent. The pickups can be rather noisy however, kinda annoying.

I absolutely hated the action of this bass when it was purchased. Those chinese manufacturers cant be bass players...but that was soon adjusted with a little DIY. After that, and throwing away the factory bass strings, it was great. Pickups havent needed to be adjusted and everything else remains untouched...for now.

Well, Ive never used this bass in a gig, so I cant really comment on that. I have used it in the studio and it was excellent. I have used it through my concert rig (the 8x10) at concert volume (with earplugs in of course!) and it sounded great. The fact that my cab is ported meant that it wasnt muddy, it was punchy and tight sounding.

The Hardware (Tuning pegs, machine heads, etc etc..) are chrome and are still in great cond. The strap buttons are solid etc. The one thing that does annoy me is that I have had to adjust the truss rod on 6 different occasions because the neck keeps bowing to the left a bit. I know Im careful with my bass. There just seems to be no rational reason behind it.

Been playing for 15 years now, and this bass is generally great. I was quite surprised with how it sounded for the price (it was a package deal with amp, lead etc etc) and after adjusting the action, how it played. I wouldnt recommend this bass to a professional. Chances are they would think samick = shit anyway...it would be great for a beginner however. Just get the action adjusted after purchase.

this is a p-bass copy, thats all the model info i can find. 4 string, 20 fret. as for knobbage, i have no idea what is going on here. i will try to explain. playing through a yamaha B100-112, both knobs seem to be volume. knob number one can be turned about 75% of its turning motion without producing a variation in level going out, and then when you get into that last bit of turning thats when the volume begins to go down. eventually i figured out that if you leave knob number one at what is best described as 'half', knob number two can be turned and as you turn it, volume will go from silent , to loud, and back down to silent again, all in one motion. this confuses me and i just leave it and anyways its my backup so whatever. there is one p-bass style pickup. it is passive. maple neck/fingerboard, and the body wood i will never know.

i play a lot of nirvana, but mostly when i play the bass i play in a band that is more metal kind of sound mixed with grungesque features. this bass suits my style just fine. i can not vary the tone at all through the bass, only with the amp, but thats ok because comon, its just bass. its not like we're playing primus or anything where the bass is the most important part. setup: samick->crybaby->bigmuff->boss ce-3 chorus->yamaha b100-112 amp. the sound this bass gives is thick and warm. you can't change it, but thats pretty much ok. it doesn't sound like it's really cheap or anything. it may once have been a quality bass. the only thing i dont like about this bass other than the whole knob fiasco is the cheapness of the input jack. sometimes you have to take off the pickguard and bend the contact inside so it presses against your patch cord better. but this bass does sound pretty nice, so im giving it an 8. it has good sustain too.

ahah your asking about the factory.. thats rich. i know the previous two or three owners of this bass. it has gotten around. however the setup was fine. it still is fine. the action is comfortable, and it feels healthy. i think that this is a solid bass and i won't have to get it setup for quite some time. also since the bridge is so simple, if i ever need to get it setup i could probably do it myself. i bought this bass cheap because i wanted to take it apart and totally decorate it all to hell, so the finish used to be black, but now theres some wood grain patterns sanded into it and then the whole thing is covered with clear coat and varathane, and there are those metal spikes sticking out from the top that i put in. the kinds that kids put on their leather jackets so that they can look badass. so the original finish is totally dead. yes, i ruined this bass, but it looks so wicked that i dont care. ill say 7 because when i first got the bass the finish was normal/good.

this bass will last a long time. it is big, heavy, and noT delicate. the hardware seems fine. the strap buttons are mega solid, but at first they had kinda tiny thin screws that unscrewed after a while, not to the poing where the bass would fall to the ground but just to the point where you could hear them rattle around. i replaced the screws with bigger ones and they are good and tight. i can depend on it. i have adjusted the neck once. that was a year and a half ago. i would not use it on a gig because my other bass sounds/looks better, but its usually there on a stand as a back up.

i have not/do not anticipate dealing with samick.

i have been playing bass for about 2 years, guitar for 3/4ish. i have been in a band as a bassist for almost those 2 years and this is my second bass. usually i play through a friends crate 100w deal and it sounds so fine. if it were stolen or lost, i wouldnt be that sad, i just dont know why anyone would want a bass that looks like this one does. this is the most mediocre bass in the world. it sounds really good, and its not delicate, but there is nothing AT ALL to make one say 'wow, that is a great bass'. it's just so simple and basic. so that's it.

wow. what a terrible bass. it thinks its a fender p bass, but its not even close. looks just like it though. tone and volume knob, 20 frets, rosewood fretboard, plywood body - or so it seems. finished in black with matching headstock. one passive split p pickup. doesnt even say where the bass was made...just says SAMICK in huge ugly letters on the headstock.

oh man. i bought this bass for $10, fooled with it for a few hours trying to get a recognizable bass sound, and then gave up. it does make noise though, so ill give it a 3.

hehe...the strings were a good inch above the fretboard. someone must have mistaken it for a lap guitar. finish looks like spray paint, even though im sure it was from the factory.

well, here it the basses only redeeming quality. its a tank. i got so pissed off trying to get a good sound out of that i finnaly threw it down the stairs. didnt do anything to it. didnt make it sound any better, but it still worked like it did before.

this bass was hopeless, so i didnt even bother with support.

ive been playing a few years, have a warwick thumb, ibanez sr 1200, fender us dlx p bass, hartke 5000, mesa 1x15, and an alumabass 4x10. i bought this bass because it was ten dollars. you cant pass up a bass for ten dollars. if anyone stole this bass, i would hunt them down, and kick their ass for being so dumb. no human with any sense at all would even want to play this bass, much less steal it. what a piece of crap. dont ever buy one. ever.