Samick DLR-20DS/GS

This guitar was made around 1995 at the Samick factory in Korea. This was pre-Greg Bennett. This guitar is a thin-body arched top with a double cut away. It looks a whole lot like a Gibson Les Paul DC. About the same weight and body thickness. The bodywood used is Nato. (In the mahogony family) No plywood construction here. It has a bolt on neck that is also Nato/Rosewood Finger board. It has a deep Tobbacco burst finish on the top cap and a black finish on the back. The neck is a 22 fret neck with medium frets. Heastock is 3x3 with Gotoh-designed machine heads.

It has two Duncan-Designed Humbuckers with creme bezels and the traditional Les Paul 2 volume/2 tone/3 way switch configuration. It has a tune-o-matic type bridge and stop bar tail piece. It came with a hard-shell case.

I play a lot of varied styles. For most of the things I play (R&B, Jazz, Rock etc.), I'm using single coil stuff-Strats, Teles but nasty bluesy timbres-that just beginning to break up sound, nothing does it better than a Les. The Duncan-Design pickups really drive the amps I play through. It's a nice warm, organic sound that I like. I can also eq it out enough to get a nice light rhythm sound for EWF, KC and the Sunshine Band kinds of stuff too. I'll give this thing a 9 on sound only because I can't get that Alnico Magnet feel that I love. Definitely a Ceramic magnet type of thing.

Now to be honest, i don't know how this guitar was set-up from the factory. I'm a band director by day and bought this guitar from a shop that caters to education-type people so it already had a great set-up done in house by a very reputable technician. It was perfect for me. Pickups were adjusted just right in my oppinion.

Visually the guitar was beautiful. My only criticism at the time was that the Les Paul type single ply pickguard looked kind of cheap and the jack plate was plastic too. The pick guard was discarded (helped the look tremendously) and the jack plate replace with a steel plate from GC. The Controls worked well although they always felt a little "cheap" and had a very "linear" taper. Those have been replaced with 4 CTS units and a real Gibson 3 switch. (The metal blade vintage type) The rating i give here reflects my oppinion before the mods.

It is a very solid guitar. I've had no problems with it at all. This guitar is good enough for Gibson to include knock-offs of it in their Epiphone line so it's good enough for me. Hardware is solid now and I haven't actually even had a desire to change the pickups (as I have on most of my other guitars) I would and have gigged this guitar without a back up-not a problem at all.

I haven't dealt with Samick personally. (I never really had to and I own 4 other Samick Guitars/Basses. My area retailer does a great job at addressing any conscerns I might have though.

I've been playing guitar for 25 years and I own a lot of guitars. (Great to have an understanding wife and 2 kids who are also young musicians.) This plays and feels as good as my 77 Black/Creme Les Paul Standard. (Peter Frampton was one of my heroes) I've been really satisfied with this guitar and really bought primarily because of the look. It's a great back-up for my 77 which I don't like to take out on the road anymore. It just fits me like a comfortable pair of shoes.

If someone stole it, I get with some of my "lesser-world" colleagues and have them get it back for me. (They have ways-don't all musicians have a few friends like that?) I have found very little about this guitar on the net or e-bay and this really is only the 2nd one of these I've seen anywhere personally. I is definitely functional and solid. A "working man's" guitar with a very good sound so I have no complaints. It's not a McInturff, Baker, Hamer, PRS or Gibson but it's a great player none the less. To tell you the truth, i'd be afraid to play a McInTurff (I have a Glory), Baker, Hamer or PRS too much as they simply are way over priced to begin with. : )