Samick 2023 Ultramatic

I have the UM-4 in blue quilted top. This model has the wilkinson trem and no matter how much abuse stays perfectly in tune. The thru body kneck works like a champ

I play mainly blues, witha touch of rock. I play mainly with a Marshall amp but practice with a Fender Champ 300. This is the cleanest guitar I have ever owned and will play anything from extremely dirty heavy metal, to deep rich blues.

Cant say how the factory setup is as my dealer sets my guitars up the way I like them. However, the guitar is easily setup very low with no string buzz.

I've owned and used this guitar for 10 years and it is flawless. I own an SG, Strat, and numerous other top shelf guitars, but when I need one thats reliable and versital the UM is the one I reach for.

Never needed it, but I did have a few minor adjustments made at no charge by the dealer.

I love this guitar except for the weight. Its really not heavy but can feel that way if you don't use the right strap. I like it so much that I added a samick blackbird solid body accoustic to my collection.
Damn shame Samick dropped the UM-4. The UM-3 is ok if you want a solid tail but the tremlo adds versatility.

This guitar is incredible. It was made in korea it has about 24frets and a beautiful solid top. There is 1 tone 1 volume with 3 way selector. It has Duncan H/H pickups that are pretty Ative but not the most active. Mine if a flamed top with maple neck and body. It a PRS style body with string through body. The tuners are made by Grover. The neck is maple but i dont know if it is fat or thin But it fits my meduim sized hand nicley.

I play hair metal, classic rock and have been playing for three years. It suits this style very well i would have to say its a little more on the jazzy side a lot like a Gibson sound. I play through a half stack with a Marshall Cab and a Crate head with a Crybaby pedal. It has close to none fee back but it great at both loud or quite always sounds great. It can be a Jazzy sound to head banging and every were between.

It was Well set from the factory the action was heavy. The pickups were well adjusted and every thing is wired well. Nothing is wrong with this guitar from the factory.

I would say this guitar if well taking care of will last for ever. And the pickups are high quality. The finish is great and the srap buttons are bigger than normal so not as much worry about the gutar falling off. I think i would be fine without a back up guitar at a gig with this guitar but why risk it.

Havn't delt with them yet but if there guitar are anything like them i am sure that there great.

Playing 3 years I have a Les Paul. I would by another I love the look and the sound nothing to hate about it. I compared to other similar body styled guitar but for the price this is unbeatible.

Purchased November 2004, Fixed bridge with photo flame top

The Duncan Design humbuckers were pretty good, but I changed to Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck and Pearly Gates in the bridge. The sound is fabulous. Better than my stock Les Paul double cut or PRS Santana SE. The Jazz neck pickup with the Alder body and Maple top provides a very clear well articulated sound. Chords jump out of the guitar. The Pearly Gates has just the right sizzle for lead playing.

This is a very compact guitar with good body countours. The binding is perfect, the frets are nicely finished and the paint has no runs or imperfections. The photo flame is a little hokey, but overall it is a very well finished guitar. A very comfortable and easy playing guitar.

No problems to date.

Have not needed support.

I went into the shop with the intention of buying a Gibson SG. The feel and the price of the Ultramatic changed my mind.

I didn't want to wait for my guitar dealer to import the UM3 model so I bought the UM4 and locked the tremolo on it. It works just as well as the UM3 and it looks better in my opinion.
I didn't like the color of mine at first. I got the sunburst version and it has way to much yellow and too little red which makes it a bit too bright. I still like the green one better, but my dealer didn't have it, and this one kinda grows on you anyway.
The finish is wonderful for such a cheap guitar. There's a few flaws, but it doesn't really show until you take a close look. The brushed metal tremolo just looks sweet. The knobs looks pretty cheap though. I'll probably replace them with some chrome knobs later on.

The body is shaped like a PRS guitar but it has a Les Paul feeling too it(minus the weight). To be honest, it's one of the best looking modern guitars I've seen. Greg Bennett has designed a few ugly guitars, but most of them are just wonderful and this one is his best creation yet in my opinion.

The included gigbag was pretty nice, and I like the fact that I didn't have to beg the dealer to include one in the price. :)
They could have skipped the cheap guitar cable though.

So here we have a really good looking cheap guitar. Does it sound good too? You bet it does!

It's hard to find guitars in this pricerange that sounds good but this one does. It works for pretty much any kind of music, but it excels at jazz, blues and rock. It sounds similar to a Les Paul but a bit brighter. You can't get a strat sound out of this one, but then again, would you expect that with two humbucks?

The only complaint I have about the sound is a slight ringing when I strum open chords. But it doesn't bother me much.

This guitar sounds like twice the money it costs. The pickups aren't the best in the world, but they are suprisingly good. It's not something you feel that you need to change.
It sustains the tones fairly well considering the slim body it has.

I'm playing this through my Vox Tonelab SE and they make a lovely couple.

I don't know how this guitar was adjusted when it came from the factory. My guitar dealer always fix his guitars before he sells them, and he is really good at it. He adjusted the guitar to suite my needs (free of charge). So I'm happy with it.

I haven't had a problem so far. But guitars in this pricerange usually doesn't have the best electronics. I suspect that the pots and such will start acting up in a few years. But it's cheap and easy to fix that.

I usually have a small backup guitar when I gig, but I haven't really needed it and I doubt I'll ever will. I would feel safe gigging without backup.

It's a well built solid guitar. It will last for many years.

I've been playing for 14 years now and I've owned a few guitars. I'm not the guitar collecting kind of person. I buy one good guitar and I use it for pretty much everything.

I've was playing with a Washburn N2 for 7 years and while I think that was a great guitar in both sound and comfort it was a pain to tune and change strings. I finally decided to switch it in for something else. I was choosing between the Greg Bennett UM4 and the Tokai Love Rock II.
The Tokai Love Rock II is an awesome guitar, it's a Gibson Les Paul done right, for half the price. But it still costs three times as much as the Greg Bennett UM4. Is it three times as good? No way.
The Ultramatic looks, feels and sounds like a $1000 guitar. It has the tone and feel of a Les Paul but it weights much less and is more comfortable. Works great in the studio, and even better on stage.

I feel confident enough to say that you can't find any better guitar for this kind of money, at least not a new one.

Would I replace it if it was stolen? Instantly.
In fact, I'm actually considering buying another one. That's how much I like it.
A couple of months ago, I did an A/B test with a $3000 Gibson they had in the recording studio and the UM4. The UM4 sounded better for pretty much everything besides Jazz and Blues.

If you have tons of cash, then there's better guitars out there. If you want a humbucker rock guitar for $500 that's worth the double. Then the Ultramtic is the one for you.

Just off my previous review, i finally got my vol and tone pots fixed. No more crackling. Company was fantastic, sent it in, picked it up a week later, everything beautiful. They even polished my guitar! Good work to the music store and indeed to the importer here in Oz!

Same as what everyone else has listed. Got the 2003/2004 model, bought it nov 2003.

I play at church very regulary, once a week, sumtimes twice. If u count that as a "gig", then i've probably gigged about 20-30 odd times with it already, besides practice of course! I own a classic Peavey Deuce, it's a early 70s model, tube/solid hybrid. I run an AX1000G i bummed off a friend and frequently use it on his VOX AC-30 copy.

On the peavey, the tone isn't bad, the clean is not as glassy as i'd like it to be, not then again, it's not a tele and doesn't try to be one. THe sound in general when i play tho isn't as thick, lush and heavy as i would have liked it to be. Have played around with pickup heights and thethe rest of it, but it just doesn't "sit", however, theres' sum GREAT sustain to be had on this guitar. Recklessly 80's rock sound. SUmthing interesting to note: bring the gain to about 9 on the deuce, set the pickups to neck, and voila: a VERY close match to the kind of sound santana has. It's obviously not as rich, but it still makes you smile.

Through the Laney AC30 copy:
If you like sum serious tone, it's just gorgeous. Dial up the drive to 8 or 9, the harmonics of the guitar are actually very very nice. Like i said before, the sound isn't as thick as perhaps a Les Paul, nor does it have as much depth, but most people has expressed, it was a pretty cheap guitar. The pickups realyl aren't that great, but they do the job. Bit thin sounding, and the bass on this guitar really doesn't cut it, on clean or distorted. Too rattle-y, buzzing, not enough clarity.

yeh, action good, love the set neck. Feels like a evry short guitar after playing my strat and friends LP classic.

Yeh, so far ok, but my vol knob crackles around the top end, sometimes cuts out completely. I'm gonna visit my guitar shop and get that sorted out, it's only 4 months old! We'll see how time treats this girl. DIdn't expect to have such crappy vol controls so early tho.

Soon to get in touch with them.

Been playing piano for 14 years, 2 diplomas at age 13/14, lots of technical musical experience, self taught guitarist 4 years, also play violin, flute, bass, drums, keys (electronic stuff).

Its a very very thin bodied HH setup, very comfortable feel to it, light. The sounds isn't as good as everyone else makes it out to be. It's really not a PRS, but again, 1/4 of the price. Too thin, not enough body, love the tuners, not a bad neck, thin, but not overly fast(perahsp the wood?). Pickup selector switch in a little bit of an awkward position, esp for fast switching between comp'ing and soloing. Takes a while to really settle into this guitar to figure out how to make it sound beautiful. Felt uneasy when first played at home/church. Better now.

Hate the sound not being "tight" enough, one day i'll invest in a Gibson just for that. For now, shes a fine little guitar.

Right-O. This is not a 'quilted maple' top, but it is maple. Then a 'photo' of a quilted maple is placed on top. And you are correct as well about the fact that they all look exactly alike. I can take mine side by side with any other I've seen, as well as on the web-site, and they are exact. It is still important to understand that it is a maple top over an alder body, as the sustain and overall voice of the guitar are based on having those woods.

The arch top is indeed maple, but not quilted maple. The "High Tech Quilt" effect is created by using a photograhic process to transfer grain patterns to a clear film, the applied to the plain maple laminate. The top is then finished with stains and clear coatings. Thus the term "High Tech Quilt"

The technique has also been called Foto Flame (for flame tops) as used by Fender for their 1990's Japanese line...and by other manufacturers. It's pretty common.

These faux-grained tops are easy to spot because they all look exactly alikewithin the model type. Also...when you hold the instrument up and roll it against the light, you won't see any pattern shift in the depth of the wood grain. A 2D image versus a 3D image.

see above.

For the naysayer who posted previously, this is from Samick's own website:

(http://www.samickguitar.com/electric/ultramatic/index.html)
Alder body with maple top creates that clean warmth with bite and definition when you need it.

If you've got a good connection, you'll find a video about this that's very informative and it confirms the maple top. The person below is probably speaking to guitars that are not of Greg Bennett's design. (http://www.samickguitar.com/electric/ultramatic/low.html).

I still recommend this guitar. I got 2 after-market toggles installed to personalize the sound, so I could get more bite with less harshness. I play with 2 other guitar players in a southern/classic rock band, and we're all using Samick Ultramatics that we personalized. It may not have the resale value of some of the other brands yet, but with a little customization, these guitars smoke on stage.

This guitar does not have real quilted maple! It is "the result of a sophisticated photo technique." .....according to Samick. In other words THE TOP IS PRINTED OUT! So to all of those commenting on how beautiful the quilting is and how it is matched up so perfectectly, OF COURSE IT IS! It's man made and printed out!