Samick DS-410

Basic features for a guitar under 200 bucks.

I use this guitar at every show we play (about 60 a year). I use Sonic Youth style tuning, and this baby holds the tuning with no problemos. It has a very nice warm clean sound.

Needs some adjusting out of the box, but again is that a real shocker for a cheaper guitar.

This guitar has been thrown at drummers, dropped into amps and effects and only seems to sound better. It was my first guitar, and has stood the test of time.....it has been flown all around the world without ever crapping out. I have two of these guitars as I am paranoid and have a backup for every main guitar.
This baby has out lasted other Fender and Gibson which have gone through the same rigorous treatment.

No problems.

I've been playing for 15 years. My setup chain is: Boss Me-50, to a Boss dd-5, Boss TO, Ibanez flanger, Boss EQ, Big Muff into two fender twins. Sounds great, and will continue to use it while I sub out other big price sticker guitars.

Korean made for sure. Came with a strap, case, and cable and I bought a poopy little 15 watt Crate practice amp to go with it. I got this guitar when I was about 14 (my first guitar). It's a fat strat copy: maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, not too sure about the body, two single coils and a humbucker that was too small (all passive electronics), black finish, string thru Fender strat style tremolo bridge, chrome hardware (looks like chrome anyway) and cheap, no-name tuning machines, and a noisy 5-way selector switch. Now did I leave anything out????

Being my first guitar I thought it was great at the time. But eventually I came to realize that the neck coil was the only decent pickup, the middle coil had no character and the only positive thing to say about the humbucker was "loud(er than the singles)". As is it can be called a "punk" guitar (beginner's guitar sounds less insulting, sounds like you have an excuse to play only 3 chords per song).

The finish was good and the action is as high as I like it. But the wiring job was cheap, and there was SAWDUST in the trem/grounding back cavity. Oh, and the control cavity looks like a mini neanderthall dwelling minus the primitive paintings.

This guitar body (it has been gutted and replaced with respectable gear as of a year ago) has survived countless garage jam sessions, a few guitar recitles, and even a live show over the course of about 5 years. Not to mention the usual dings and scratches a first guitar gets when one learns proper guitar care the hard way. A very soild guitar body. The hardware has also proved it's worth in our 5 year relationship.

why bother with any guitar under 200 dollars??

I've been playing for about 5 years. This guitar was a good thing to start out with and then upgrade when I needed something better. I've spent easily over three times this guitar's value over the years on upgrades. As of now it has all duncan pickups (hot rails (neck), White Snark (middle), and Distortion (bridge hum)), a new 5-way selector switch, filed down bridge saddles (which I plan to replace with graphtech ones later), three bumper stickers, and various scrapes and dings (ahhh, memories) that have been somewhat painted over by a luthier who felt guilty after dinging it up even more it his shop recently. Now it can hold it's own against any Fender fat strat. If you're just starting out, buy a solid guitar with cheaper electronics so you can appriciate the better things later in your guitarist carrier (such as PAF's, Duncan's, locking tuners, decent tremolos, set necks, archtops, etc.)

P.S. Wouldn't gig w/o a backup (although I do love this guitar for all we've been through), recently got a BC Rich EM-1. I'll write up on that one in a few weeks!

I'm guessing this guitar was made in the Early 90s in Korea. What a crappy job they did. It only has 21 frets, so trying to solo on it is ridiculously out of the question. 3-way pickup selector with one pseudo-Humbucker and two very static-oriented single coils. I have no idea what the body is made of but it's incredibly heavy. The neck APPEARS to be Rosewood but the strings tend to get caught in it. Like any stratocaster knock-off, the wiring is in the front meaning big problems if you ever want to play with the wiring. There's a tremolo non-locking bridge with a whammy bar that detunes easily.

Forget sound. Only the humbucker actually makes a guitar-sounding sound. And this time it's not the fault of the broken Peavey Rage 158 I'm playing with. The guitar really can't make any decent sounds unless you have an excellent amp or effects pedal.

THE ACTION IS HORRIBLE TERRIBLE DESPICABLE AND FRUSTRATING. You can drop a 3mm Dunlop Stubby pick straight through it. That, and it's not uniform throughout the neck. It's a good 2mm at the headstock and then 5mm closer to the bridge. It's almost impossible to play, and the neck is terrible on the hands.. (it's too damn fat).

This guitar has broken so many times... I have already spent more money repairing it than the guitar is worth. The frets also wear out quite easily. This guitar is NOT dependable and if you're playing a gig, unless you're in a talentless punk band, you will sound like shit. (And if you are in a talentless punk band, the guitar will detune to your liking and you can sound like a strangling cat).

I'm an intermediate guitar player, and this guitar doesn't even suit my needs. I just can't wait until my new Jackson Warrior arrives on my doorstep. Granted, it was a great guitar to learn on for the first few months, but it's just such a source of pain and frustration... For a first guitar, you'd be better off with a low-end Ibanez or ESP (LTD) guitar.

Korean made Strat clone, S/S/H, 5-way selector, 1 volume and 2 tone. It's your basic Fat Strat copy. Don't know what it's made of, but maple wouldn't be suprising for the neck. This was given to me so I don't know much about it's origin. I would guess early 90s. It as all the options you would expect from a Fat Strat.

I play a lot of styles, from classic rock to grunge and blues. The humbucker is great for that watery Nirvana sound and punk-rock music. The neck/middle pickup combo is suprisingly smooth for a guitar of this vintage. Great bluesy Clapton like sound to get from that. The tone knobs are not particulary usefull. Not bad really for no name pickups. I did have to play a lot with them before getting something decent from them.

This guitar was in horrible condition when I got it. The bridge pickup was the only thing that sounded like a guitar, the 5th and 6th strings buzzed like hell and the action was terrible. I ajusted pretty much any part you can think of. The result? A quite playable guitar that sounds ok. The neck is actually quite pleasing to play and compares well to MIM Fender Strat. I don't know what the finish is, but the it will/as last long enough. It doesn't keep in tune very well and I can't make the intonation quite right.

I'm keeping this guitar because it complements my Les Paul while I wait to get a "real" Strat or Tele. It would also make for a good demolition guitar if the occasion ever arise! Like I said, this is a very playable instrument. Howerver, upon opening this thing to play with the pickups, I noticed that there was a lot of sawdust in there. Worse, the cavity for the bridge pickup is made in such a way that the pickup never fits in it quite correctly! The srews holding the pickup in place is too small. You can't lower the pickup more then a 1/4 turn or the screw will be off. The other 2 PUs were ok. The jack gets loose very easily.

Don't know and I don't want to know.

My rating is base on the assumption that this is a ~150$ guitar. It plays fairly well but the overall construction/assembly is poor. Great learnig instrument with it's fairly low action and versatility. Stock PUs not too bad. Would recommand looking at other instrument thought. The best thing about it is the neck. It compares well to MIM Strats and beats a lot of more expensive instruments. Like many other, I like to make fun of Samick. But every now and then they come up with a good instrument that is afordable. If this guitar is 200$ or more, change my rating to a 3 or 4.