Samick 4242 Greg Bennett Signature

This is a prototype guitar, of which there are only a few, according to the music store guy. I assume made in Korea, though it doesn't say anywhere. This is a 22-fret, alder body, maple neck/fretboard Strat-style guitar with Duncan Designed SSH configuration pickups, Grover tuners, and Wilkinson bridge. The guitar also includes a coil-tap on the tone knob (1 tone, 1 vol). 5-way pickup selector. This particular guitar has a seafoam green finish and pearloid pickguard, as well as the distinctive Greg Bennett headstock. Three strap buttons total, two on the bridge end of the guitar, I guess so you can go all hair rock low.

I play a lot of indie rock through a marshall jtm trem combo amp in my band, but also do some musical theater and session work. Crybaby wah, Octofuzz. The pickups are pretty hot and will are good for very clean settings as well as crunchy distortion. The bridge pickup is particularly good, but the neck pickup also offers a satisfying smoother, bassier tone. With pickups and knobs, you can go everywhere from bright to dark, twangy to smooth, many different styles and sounds available. The versatility of this guitar is a major selling point, as it gets good rock and blues sounds, and reasonable jazz ones. It probably won't like heavy metal too much, since I think it sounds best in the midrange. It's not a Fender, although the neck and middle pickups will get you pretty close to that sound.

The low E string seems never to quite be in tune properly--I mean the 12 fret harmonic and fretted note won't quite be right no matter how I adjust the bridge. It's not really noticeable, but it's annoying. Otherwise, the neck feels incredibly good, it stays in tune, the trem works great (nb: don't do dive bombs and expect it to stay in tune, but it'll go a full step down and come back fine). Electronics are well-done.

I bought it from a store, so I'm not sure if they tried to do their own setup, but it was poorly setup before I got it. Plays really well now after I did the usual work (intonation, action, truss, etc).

I gig regularly with this guitar and it is solidly reliable. I would gig without a backup for this guitar, but I don't because better safe than sorry. Very dependable.

N/A, don't know

Note about the price: I bought this over Ebay for the $200, but the tag on the guitar when I received it said list $750, store price $550. If you see one of these, who knows what it will cost?

I have been playing for 15 years, also currently playing a dani 56-U2 reissue and a Peavey Fury bass. I would definitely buy another if I could find one, but they do in fact seem rare. The closest equivalent is the malibu M3 or M4, which has most of the same features outside the coil tap, and an extra tone knob. If they are the same quality as this guitar, it would be a no-brainer.