Samick 3120 Greg Bennett Torino

The body is made of alder which gives a fair amount of sustain coupled with the set neck construction. The duncan designed humbuckers are a great bonus and four knobs control the volume and tone of each pickup. There's no tremolo bar, which might annoy some people, but I don't use tremolo anyway. When I bought the guitar it came with a gig bag, two picks, and some Elixir strings. Probably the best deal I have ever been, and will ever be given.

I had a choice between two Torino's and found that the first one had a much grainier and grittier sound than the one I eventually chose. The preferred model had a cleaner, smoother sound that i liked, and had less feedback. It works well with any style of music: metal, jazz, funk, even classical sounds okay on it.

Although I may have to adjust the intonation on this guitar, it plays really well. I love low action even though I stick to rhythm mainly, and it stays in tune really well. Very comfortable.

Alder is a fairly dense wood, so I am positive it will last the distance. It is well constructed although I wouldn't smash it on stage (it's too good for that ;p). Even so, the bottom strap buttons (did I mention there are two of them?) seem to come ever so slightly loose after having a strap in them a while.

I've never had to deal with them.

I will use this guitar for my whole life. The only flaws are fixable with a couple of screw drivers. Great bargain.

Bought this fine Samick slightly used off eBay for a cool $140 bucks having never owned a Samick in my life. Had heard a lot of smack about Samick being a marginal brand at best with a rep of manufacturing sub-standard instruments with quality control issues. Well, let me tell you right now mister-man that that's a bunch o' frikkin' hooey. This Torino slipped right into my hands like an old girlfriend eager to please and felt just oh so right in all the right places. Nice and light with attitude built for speed. I was blown away with the light weight of it and how good it hung around my neck. Some folks equate quality and sound with heavy, weighty units - but I ain't never seen no anchors with strings.

Gawd! If ya wanna growl you can peel the paint offa the walls. The Seymore Duncan designed Hummers deliver distortion deluxe or, at the flip of a switch and the turn of a knob, smooth, silky light jazzy sounds that remind me of the back streets of the Big Easy, without the stale beer pissy street smells. I guess you could get hotter pick-ups - but why bother. Try a better amp instead.

Ain't nothin' lacking here. The neck feels sweet and even my tired ol' fat sausages can find the frets without a foul-up. I LOVE the weight of this thing. The action was spot on (low) and the set-up flawless - no doubt from the previous owner - a real joy to play. My Torino is the red translucent model and it sure is pretty. No doubt an SG knockoff but maybe even better than a true SG. The fit and finish are absolutely right on and the craftsmanship outstanding.

This is not the type of axe you can Pete Townsend into the stage every night, but with reasonable care it should easily outlive its owner without ever breaking a sweat.

Why bother? This guitar is near perfect.

I've been playing since 1968 and owned all the big names in different nomenclatures over the years. Heard tell that Samick makes up to 30% of all guitars manufactured today under various labels and licenses. This Samick I own is well crafted, well built and and a quality instrument throughout. How do I know I bought a great guitar? I smile everytime I pick it up.

transparent wine red, very beautiful, sg stlye with a higher waist, tune-o-matic bridge, grover tuners,24.75 scale nice medium sized neck with lower fret wire than a gibson, thank god, rosewook fingerboard, mahogany neck and body, 22 fret, 2 vol 2 tone 3 way switch, passive pickups

i play all types of music, if someone wants to play it i will, unless of corse it is punk rock then i tell them to go away, but this guitar sounds amazing, especially for the price, my setup is kinda a work and progress, it goes Samick Torino TR-1>Morley Little Alligator volume pedal> Dunlop Original Crybaby which i am goin to customize with a Torres 5 way switch frequency knob> a digitech whammy ii which i need a power supply for so i cant really use it at the moment> finally a line 6 flextone II hd head which i know may not sound exactly like the amps it trys to model i like it because i dont want to sound like everyone else. Anyway the sound is full and bright its just all around great. I like to use a slide just under the neck pickup to make some swirling sounds in the middle of one of my songs, thank you pink floyd, but its very versitile, i like everything except its neck heavy which i think greg bennet tried to fix with moving the waist up but other than that no complaints its my main guitar

everyone who plays it loves it, im not sure of the factory set up because i bought it new, the pickups are just like seymour duncans, only not made in the US but oh well, they sound great, everything about is is great, especially the neck, its not too thin or too thick like other guitars

well ive never had to work on it, and the finish was good, until i dropped it, but very dependable, i have giged with it without a backup, the switch broke off when it fell to the ground but i can still use it, and the strap button screw bore a bigger hole but thats my own fault, so i just put a longer screw in, overall i love it

havnt had to deal with them, nor do i plan

ive been playing for 5 years and i own 12 other guitars and 2 basses, mostly high end japanese guitars from the 60s and 70s and plan on buying a carvin bolt which i will customize to suit my own, i only recently have been debating on replacing the neck pickup with a humbucker sized p90 because i was playing my friends faded gibson doubel cut les paul, but thats still in debate

This is an update to a previous review. Now that I've owned the guitar a couple years and have played it quite a bit, I've come to know it a lot more. Basically, the honeymoon is over.

Again, it's basically an SG...nothing more, nothing less. Just that the waist is cut slightly higher than on a Gibson.

Mahogany body and neck, rosewood board. Grover tuners. Duncan Designed humbuckers. Twin tone and volume controls. 3-way switch.

Stop bar tailpiece and tune-amatic bridge. Photo quilt top. Note: Any subsequent reviews stating "quilted maple top" on these Samick guitars are probably the result of misinformation or a salesperson's overzealous sales job. These are just PICTURES of quilt maple. Samick does not make a Torino with a quilt maple top.

Overall, a very visually striking guitar. I get comments on it all the time. Basic SG features...no more, no less. A solid 8.

I play mostly classic rock and blues. Plug into a Peavey Classic 50 with 4-10's...a really great amp, BTW. I built a small pedal board with compressor, overdrive, stereo chorus and delay.

Not noisy. Rich, warm, low mid sounds like a true SG should have.

The Duncan Designed pups are fine...after over 2 years, I still don't have any desire to replace them. However, I may do some adjusting to where the bridge pickup is slightly hotter than the neck. Will probably just drop the height of the neck pickup a tad to accomplish this.

For fat classic rock cruch and for playing slide, this guitar is perfect. It's basically my backup/slide guitar, but I've been playing it a lot recently. I always get two or three people asking questions about it, saying how great it sounds and how beautiful it is. Even other players at jam sessions are really taken with this thing.

At a recent jam, one guy who didn't bring his guitar played this one for two whole sets. When he was done, he asked, "What IS this thing? I really like it!" I informed him. Solid 9 for sound. Delivers fat, warm, low mid tones and crunches perfectly.

Everything on the guitar is fine. However, after playing it a lot recently, when I picked up my Strat again, it was like my hand was HOME. There's something about the Samick neck that causes my hand to fatigue a bit if I play it a long time. I definitely prefer my Fender neck to this one.

The only other thing I've noticed is the volume pots seem to have a slightly odd taper. Sometimes I'm aware that if the volume is on 8, there isn't quite the subtle drop in volume that I prefer...it's more like you roll the volume down to a certain point, where it decreases quickly. Not a real major issue, just different than my Strat.

This is a great guitar for playing slide. Nice, fat mid tones. And I've even used it to play jazzy stuff and it sounds great clean. So depending on your level of ability, it can be quite a versatile guitar.

So because of the playability factor (for me), I'll rate this a solid 8. The overall high rating gets points because of the excellent build quality of the guitar. I'm just not a huge fan of the neck.

I've used it quite a lot in the past year or so. No problems. The photo quilt finish is holding up fine, but I take care of it. I replaced the small strap buttons with strap locks...personal preference.

I would not gig without a backup playing this because I've broken the high E string twice. Actually, someone else broke it once, (he was hammering on it pretty good) and I broke it once. Both times, the bridge saddle fell out and I had to hunt around the stage to find it. Of course, that threw the guitar hopelessly out of tune as the other bridge saddles moved a bit. But once I restrung it and re-intonated it, it's fine. I'm just not sure if string breakage is an issue with this, because I've only broken 3 strings in over 30 years of playing.

So I would not gig without a backup (and now I don't) with this guitar.

Overall, it's been very dependable, but it is my backup guitar. I do take it to jam sessions frequently because local jams here are like the Stratocaster Club for Men. The guitar is solid and has held up well for over 2 years.

The couple times I e-mailed the company, their responses were pretty terse and not overly friendly. However, the store where I bought it is great. Not sure about warranty.

Playing 30+ years. If stolen or lost, I'd buy again. I wanted an SG, and that's what this is. It doesn't say Gibson, but I got it for a third of the price of a Gibson.

I love the fat humbucker tone and the way it looks. I compared this to Gibson Faded SG's, a couple other higher priced models and an Epiphone G-400 (junk). This was the runaway winner in terms of overall quality.

I don't hate anything...but do get some hand fatigue if I play it all night.

Model TR1.Made in Indonesia. Its basically a less expensive SG. Same controls ... 2 volume 2 tone with a 3 way selecter. 2 duncan designed humbckers.. nice fretboard.. tune-o-matic styled bridge. Medium sized neck

I was very happy with this guitar. It goes nicely with the Ac/Dc styled rock n roll. Perfect for what I play. Ill admit i was a little skeptcal with teh humbuckers at first and i almost bought an epiphone g-310 but the guys at Falcetti Music told me the ropes. Good warm sound but u can get the scream by selecting treble and putting the tone up .

everything was perfect when i bought this guitar. I havent noticed an flaws after careful inspection. But the ack of the fretboard is a bit sticky but its very fast. It plays really well.. Greg Bennett helped Samick out a lot.

I havent had this guitar for very long so i dont know how well i tholds up.. althogh it looks tough

havent dealt with them yet but i have a 1 year warranty

I love everything about this guitar besides the fact that its neck heavy. But if you have an itch on yoru back u can let go of the neck then pull it back up and so on lol. "plays like a dream" compared to my old strat.

Model TR3, 2003, Korean made, 22 frets, three peice glued slim alder body, set in Mohogany neck with rosewood fingerboard dot albalone inlays. Binding on neck and top of body. Bridge and neck Duncan design humbuckers, one volume and tone. Book matched Quilt maple laminated top, urethane finish. SG body style, a little fatter at the base of the body than an SG, so finding a case for it is tricky. Tune o matic style bridge (works fine but seems cheap), nice Grover tuners, 24.75 scale slim taper thin neck (very nice feel for thin style neck). Vintage sunburst, sweet looking axe!

Pretty broad range of tones, but to get them you must experiment with what you've got. It produces some very nice sound for a low priced guitar. Perfect for gigs, so you can leave the gems safe at home. No strange noises, does what is supposed to quietly. This guitar has a faster decay rate than most other guitars, but does not pose a problem if you use effects for sustain. Brige pick up is a little bright, but neck and middle position is beautiful sounding.

Korean makers seem to have got the edge on the world for quality low priced guitars. Inspect every guitar you purchase though, as I compared this one side by side with duplicate models and found diferences in construction and craftsmanship. Craftsmanship on this one was near perfect. Only a quick fret dress and some nutt detail would make it almost flawless.

Solid guitar for gigs, but don't be over hard on it. Treat it well and it will do its job.

N/A

Playing for 25 years, it needed a good set up before it really began to sine. I'd by two if I needed them. For 375 dollars it hard to complain about it, its nicer than some sold at 6 to 8. Set it up right and play with the settings and it really performs very well. The neck has a beautiful feel!

This was a brand new Torino. Many of the features have already been stated. I bought this guitar on ebay never have seen this guitar, let alone have played one. A friend of mine bought a Samick Greg Bennett semi-hallow body, and I liked the way it sounded and played (great workmanship!) This guitar was such a great supprise playes like a dream a the stock pickups sound suprisingly great. Before getting the guitar I thinking of dropping in a couple of Gibson pickups, but I don't need to after playing it. The best features of this guitar are the fitted neck, duncan pickups, grover tuners, not to mention its great looks!

The duncan pickups sound suprisingly great, most likely will NOT replace them with others.

The neck is a complete dream, action is perfect. The guitar is perfect! I can't believe I bought it new w/hardshellcase for $339!

Great workmanship!

N/A

I been playing for 9 years, my style is constantly changing. I have owned many guitars (les paul, telecasters, iceman) Fender amps a mainstay... I would buy this guitar if stolen

I'm talking about the torino 2 with a red quilt top. It looks real nice, and sounds good to. It came with Duncan Designed pickups. I was very worried about it when i seen the price, but was low on cash and wanted an SG. I was shocked when i pluged it into an amp. It has two volume and two tone just like the gibson or epiphone, and has nice grover tuners. I got mine for $250.

It sounded real nice. I played it threw a small combo amp, and it sounded great. I play mostly rock, and it sounds wonderfull

The guitar was set up wonderfully, with a bound neck. The i really liked the finish on it. It has two strap knobs, which at first i thought was stupid, but thats the only problem I had

It is really realiable. I would definitly take it to gigs and whatever. It is really sweet.

I never needed customer support. It is a pretty solid guitar, and came with a 5 year warranty.

I think this is a wonderful guitar with a wallet-friendly price. I would recomend it to anyone looking for i nice SG copy.

It's a '03 axe, made in Indonesia. Mine's got the photo-quilt with a sort of goldish-brown look going to the darker wood stain on the edges with creme-colored pickup rings/pickguard and goldish bell knobs, has 22 frets with trapezoid inlays, standard 3-way toggle, 2 passive hum's, mahogany body and neck w/ rosewood fretboard, is authentic SG STYLE(!), tune-O-matic bridge and GROVER tuners! No case. Although it doesn't say Gibson on the stock, the stock looks pretty cool with its unique shape. I'll give it an 8 for standard features -- no built in gimmicks which I don't like anyway.

Ahhh... a good playing SG with good accoustic tone. Admittedly, I feel the pickups are pretty cheezy and yet different than most stocks I've had; The bridge has more output than I anticipated and was a lot less noisy than my friend's stock dimarzios in his vintage Dean V I used to have and just played through my amp the other day. But for my purposes, the bridge pup is still a little weak and tinny sounding when playing with heavy distortion. The neck might be the exact same pickup and, with heavy distortion, sounds like a bad early 80's video game or something-- very muddy and no definition at all, but that's with my rig -- wah, TS10 tubescreamer (unmodded -- great for blues or driving my amps dirt to hardcore reality!), OLD Ibanez chorus peddle into a modded (Torres, maybe?) Carvin X100 head (loud as a war and getting it's own review at some point!) hooked to a Carvin 4x12 loaded with 70-watt Celestians. I've played enough SG's to know this one's gonna' rock with good pickups without a doubt! Gotta' give this thing a 3 since I can't use either pup, but will split with a 10 for great unplugged tone and potential!

I was originally going to shell out $950 for a floor model black SG standard at a Guitar Center, but after driving hours to get there only to find out it had a bad belt buckle rash (and they WOULD NOT lower the price~?!?)and their SG Faded Special looked and played identical to a lower model Epiphone but w/ just a Gibson logo, I bailed and decided to try some epiphones -- a goth and a G-400 vintage, but to me they just didn't feel quite right. I saw this, but it didn't seem to play good at first, so I ignored it but then got desparate to get an SG and so decided to ask if I could try detuning the strings to lower the bridge. By the time I got the strings back in tune I was hooked! This thing was really well put together, but I couldn't believe it when I discovered that a pickup screw was missing~! I hadn't taken the thing apart yet (waiting on getting worthy pups), but everything else looks immaculately done! The inlays are cool and done well, the neck plays awesomely and is a LOT more thin and fast-feeling after lowering the strings, the fretwire looks great, and I don't see a single problem with the binding on the neck or with the wide fret wire. The nut is also well done with the strings at an optimum height starting at the first fret. The Grover tuners are a welcome addition to such a relatively cheap axe! The pickups seemed to be set properly with the neck low and the bridge somewhat close to the strings. I'll go with a 9 since the screw was missing but all else appears beyond expectations.

It's basically a standard SG -- with the slim tapered neck prone to problems if slamming/battering the headstock or around the neck joint of the body, but I'd never had any problems with any SG before -- not even a plywood POS I got back from a repair shop strung up wrong with a bigsby-ish trem (strings OVER the mid part!) with ZERO sustain and no time to change them right before a guitar contest years ago, leaving me hacked and purposefully roughing up that thing while pounding out Symptom of the Universe and arpeggios, but that's another story. This axe does have the 2 strap buttons on the body-end which seemed strange at first but cool now, and they seem fine along with the neck one. I'd have no problem relying on this wood, but, when you have more than one axe, might as well bring a backup.

I'd never dealt with 'em, but I've been modding my guitars via trial and error since I started playing, so I'm not worried at all about it. I will get a good look inside the cavity soon when I change the pups, but from what I can tell, I'll have no need to call anybody but a sound insulation company soon!

I've been playing since like '87 and also have a really nice Squier Pro-Tone guitar with a see-thru sweet blue finish and gold hardware along with a Duncan Hot Rail, Rio Grande Tall neck, and Quarter Pounder (Duncan?) middle, and have an old Gibson S-1 a friend gave me that was trashed out; I got rid of the paul look and gave it 2 horns and a white pearl paint job with cool ghost flames and a plastic-mirror pickguard with 1 Jackson J90C hum which I use for barritone stuff. Just got rid of a crappy (but cool-looking!) BC Rich NJ Virgin (I hate Floyds and fakish dead-sounding wood~ what WAS I on that day I bought it?!) and a nice Ibanez Artist (only because of some tendonitus and needed a thinnner neck -- not wanting to shave that one). I really like the SG and feel it'll be a great fit with my Squier strat and rig! The only thing more I could ask for out of this wood would be good pickups, but that'll occur soon! Heh~ If I had enough buckages (U can tell I'm not loaded, eh?), I'd buy another one and fill it full o' active EMG's and refinish it in gloss black with red around the horns, but I'll keep this one more versatile -- also because I hate trying to figure active pup batteries are low or just the way I'm hearing things that day~ I doubt anyone would steal this axe (no "Gibson" on headstock) unless they hear it after I install good pups, but I'd probably only get the unlucky sod in a neck-wringing chokehold long enough to see if I could find enough cash on 'em to go towards yet another SG or some pickups (or at least some Aquafina~); it's just a material object than can be replaced -- and I definitely would replace it. I easily recommend this axe for many styles, and I dig stuff from Hendrix, to Sabbath, to Christian rock/metal, to Hum, to 80's hardcore, to Slayer and Zakk-ish and shredder stuff and will use this axe to play it all -- with the variety of pickups available anymore (and coil-splitting ability), this thing is solid and should have no problem keeping up with changing musical tastes!

TR 1 model. Made in Indonesia
22 frets
2 volume , 2 tone
H/H
Duncan Designed pickups
Made of Nato (sounds like mahogany but is softer in hardness)
Wine Red in color
Black pickguard
Stop tailpiece.
non locking tuners

I give this a 9 because it's easy to use and I like the set up .

The sound of this guitar is great clean very warm .
I do not like the pickups with distortion...Actually I hate these pickups for lead. They sound terrible with distortion. They Hum like crazy. I do like the neck pickup with the volume and tone rolled back for some nice blues tones. I play alot of buckethead songs and zebrahead and other stuff. The bridge pickup sucks plain and simple. I'm thinking of throwing in a dimarzio super distortion.

Gets a 7 for the neck pickup

When I bought this thing the action was way high and it was out of tune. I dont think they set it up at the store.

The neck has a nice feel up till around the 14 fret then from there it seems to be getting smaller. The neck on my Ibanez rg550 feels good all the way up to the 24 so I'm probably just used to that. I did find that frets 2 and 3 had some poor work done on the high E side , they have a bump feel to them from some kind of filler or something

I give an 8.5 really

I think it would do good live , only if it had a good set of pickups and had the electronics ripped out and replaced with american made stuff.
The finish is really nice. thats what caught my eye first. the strap buttons are very solid. I would use without a back up if the pickups were replaced. It holds its tune very nicely .

havent had to deal with samick

I've been playing for 3 years and this is my 5th guitar, but my first buying from a music store all others have been older/used from ebay.

If it were lost of stolen I would cry for a lil bit then probably save up and buy an epiphone les paul or a fernandes ravelle or monterey.