Samick FA-1 Formula Greg Bennett

Tele-like features. Two single coils -- Duncan Designed. The bridge has 6 adjustments so, in theory, the guitar should intonate unlike many very expensive Tele's with three bridge pieces. The bridge also has the option of putting the strings through the back of the bridge instead of through the body. Not sure why you'd want that. 22 frets. Really bad tuners. Nut is the cheapest sort of plastic.
The neck is chunky. Tele's traditionally used to have smaller necks. This one doesn't.
Looks like 500k pots.

I like the pickups. Single coils so they are noisy. The bridge lacks a little of the Tele twang but in a good way. Its not harsh like many Tele bridge pickups. Keep the pickups when the rest of the guitar falls apart.
Surprising good sustain. Not sure why. It looks like cheap wood all around but for some reason it works! I was told the body was alder but it didn't look like it in the neck pocket. Looked like at least two pieces.
Lots of squeals out of the bridge pickup. I can pluck the bridge pickup like it were a string and start it squealing. Quite funny. Needs surgical rubber instead of the springs and probably an extra screw or two to hold the bridge. Haven't had the motivation to do that yet.

Action,and fit. Poor. The low-E doesn't like to stay in its slot in the bridge due to the strange angle it comes up from the body. The fret work is HORRIBLE. The first fret was lower than the rest of the frets. Looks like the nut must have buzzed so some genius filed the first fret down! Action was way off the fretboard. I could stick my finger between the strings and the fretboard. The neck and body joint was tight but the neck angle was wrong. Found a shim in the neck pocket. Classic sign of a low-quality product. The hardware doesn't fit the control routes. They had to put some gunk so the back screw on the control plate would have something to bite on.

The guitar in unusable in its unmodified form therefore it cannot be used for live play nor can it be depended on.
After all the mods I did, it could probably be played out. I haven't fixed the squeal yet. That is the current show-stopper.

I bought the guitar with the knowledge I was going to violate the warranty and rework it. Its what I do. ;-) Therefore I have no opinion on support.

I have been playing for 40 years and working on my own guitar, effects and amps just about as long. Its my hobby.
I can't recommend this guitar unless you are confident in your abilities to fix it up or know of someone who is. You can often come out ahead on cheap guitars even paying to have someone fix it up. This one requires a lot of work.
I tried two of these in the store. The other had the frets coming up off the fretboard.

Tele style with 2 singlecoil. Rosewood fretboard.
Mine was factory bundled equipped Grover tuners.
So i chose that one despite it was slightly warped on the clear coat.

Perfect telecaster sound: bridge pickup is excellent but a bit noisy. The neck pickup has a very low output not so height responsive. Amazing Sustain.

Tuning the truss rod for a correct neck bow i've found no major buzz despite quite low action (1.5 mm - 12 th).

Solid hardware, long lasting hard frets. Well built.

I Do not know.

Totally satisfied! high quality/price ratio.

Black tele style with 2 pickups. rudimentary tuners. Rosewood fretboard.

Almost perfect tele tone. Bridge pickup is the best pickup of the two.
The neck pickup is not as loud, but that might be due to the distance
to the strings. The bridge pup is not as "chicken scratching intense treble" as a good Fender tele, but has much of the characteristics of an
authentic Fender tele, whether a U.S. made, Mexican, or
Asian Fender. Sustain and warmth of tone is superb. No tinniness, to
speak up, which is the problem with cheap teles.

set up is as expected for a cheap guitar. Tuners suck - barely keep
the axe in tune - constantly have to adjust them. Action is a wee bit
too high for E string at nut, but overall fine. Strings buzz a little
over 15th fret, but not that bad - just a little annoying. Frets could
be filed down in a few places, but overall, not bad for a cheap guitar.
The neck feels very nice, though, as far as shape goes - big neck.
Finish looks average. If a little more time was spent, I bet they
could boost the setup on this guitar to make it outstanding, since the
materials, except for the tuners, are first rate.

tuners are iffy, rest of hardware solid. 4 bolts in neck and everything
else is built to last forever.

I love the vibe, tone, and neck of the Samick. I hate the tuners.
This guitar smoked all the cheap name brand teles and tele copies
for the price. Replacing the tuners, getting the frets and action
adjusted by a good repairman would make this almost as good as
a guitar costing several times the modest price of this one.
Own a few other axes, such as a Les Paul copy and Taylor Baby.

Ebony finish, Tele style, generic tuners, Fender Tele scale neck with nice big frets, rosewood fingerboard. Unknown year as there is no visible serial number. Labelled FA-1 Manufactured in Indonesia. Standard Samick Tele style pickups; lipstick in he neck and a tele style single-coil in the bridge position. Rated 8 as Tele's aren't exactly feature-laden, but they have what they need to get 'r done.

Sounds bright and shiny just like a Tele should with the neck pickup. The neck PU, as others have pointed out, is low output and fairly dark. Not a bad sound, but you lose noticible volume when flipping from B to N. To elevate the neck pickup you need to remove the pickguard and reach the screws at the bottom of the cavity. The switch middle position was out-of-phase when I got it, but I flipped the wires (which I was pleased to see were shielded) at the switch for the neck pickup. Personal preference, I like the in-phase sound a lot better with this guitar. Standard Tele sounds here. Give it a 9 here, it sounds more like a Tele than my Fender Tele!

Can't trash Samick for setup. I bought this used at a local music store that was having a "blow-out" sale getting rid of all their used stuff. The tag said $75 bucks so I bought it as a rehab project because I felt sorry for any guitar that had been treated in this fashion. It's former owner had wound the strings on backwards on the posts, so the strings were leading to the outside of the machine head poles instead of inside. Lucky it didn't bust the nut for the extra tension... And the bridge looked like a row of old fenceposts...some higher, some lower. 1/2 hour of tweaking, new strings, and it's a nice player. A tweak on the truss and the action is real low with no buzzing. The neck is real fast and slinky. Used SIT 9's on it; it's actually a little too slinky and I'll probably throw some 10's on it next time. I give 'em a 7 here, the adjustment wasn't Samick's fault and the finish and fretwork is very adequate.

Will it withstand live playing? Sure, you couldn't hurt it if you tried. I would trail it along as a backup to my tele. 2 criticisms: 1, the tuners aren't world class, I do have to tune a string after some heavy bending. That might improve with better/heavier strings but probably not because you can feel some mechanical lash in the machine head adjustment. And 2, the bridge adjustments are kind of funky the way that they angled the length adjustment screws down instead of up. They don't naturally lie flat in the tray when you adjust them. But for 75 bucks, hey....let's not get too critical.

No experience here. There website isn't really very helpful with tech support articles like Gib or Fen... Just pretty pics...

Been playin since Led Zeppelin was a bunch of young guys. Own Gibsons, Fenders, Epiphone guitars; Peavey, Fender & Carvin amps. I am a gear junkie and like to get cheap stuff and try to optimize it. I liked this because it was so useable while being rock-bottom in price. If it were stolen? Who would care? Heck, I might give it away to the next kid I see who's half interested in learning to play.

this is the tele style. not many features on this kind of archaic design. i'm not sure of the year, but probably 2004, made in indonesia. two single coils of unknown design, vol and tone controls. the neck is a more modern fast playing neck which i prefer. rosewood fingerboard and nice red metallic finish. the tuning machines are rock bottom though. i'll have to replace those.
i'm giving it a three for features, because thats the nature of the beast. teles just don't have features. they're just flat planks of wood with two single coils.

i'm playing country lead through a traynor custom valve 40, and it really gives that clucky, biting lead sound through the bridge pickup. the neck pickup is surprisingly dark, but really good for jazz tones if i was going to use the guitar for that. for $200, i'll take it over a fender any day.

typical for a guitar in this price range, it needed some basic setup when i got it home. intonation, strings, action. unfortunately when i dropped the high e and b string down there was a considerable buzz, which i have yet to pinpoint. probably some uneven fretwork, but no worse thatn i've seen in guitars costing 3 times as much.
the metallic red finish is really well done. the neck joint is pretty tight. i've definately seen worse. there was a long gouge on the neck at the joint, but appears to be cosmetic rather than structural. since i can't fell it when i play, it doesn't bother me.
one other thing---when i got it home the tone control didn't work. i check the controls and wiggled the capacitor, and that seemed to fix it. kind of weird.

with the rather glaring exception of the tuning machines,which are total garbage, i'm sure this guitar will be durable, and i plan on using it live.

never dealt with samick before

i've been playing for 17 years, i used to teach and also worked in a guitar store as a tech. i've been interested in playing country for the last few years, and finally wanted a guitar to pull off that kind of sound. i don't really like to pay for a name, so i didn't want to fork out the cash for a fender. particlarly since i don't have that kind of money right now. for $200, this thing plays well and gives me the sound i was looking for. i may swap out pickups in the future for some bill lawrence replacements, but we'll see. my only real issue with the guitar are the completely crappy tuning machines, which are plastic, by the way.

This is a Telecaster style guitarThe date this particular guitar was made was 2003. It has 22 frets, 1 volume control and 1 tone control knob, a 3 way pick-up selector switch, one lipstick style neck pick-up, and a duncan style single coil at the bridge.

The tuners on this guitar are supposed to be Grover, but I don't beleive Grover makes a quality as low as this. The tuners are likely to be the worst I have ever gotten my hands on.

Over all the guitar sounds great. I love the tone and it plays very easy. The neck pick-up gives a very clean sound while the bridge is agressive. It's a good combination.

Everything seems to be in perfect order as far as how well the guitar was built. Upon arrival to my home I had to perform a normal set-up, replace the strings, set the action, adjust the truss rod, and re-intonate, but this is something I do with all my guitars.

This guitar will do fine for live playing. Everything seems to be solid. Everything except the tuning keys. They are junk right out of the box. I am hoping Samick agrees to replace them being I have only had this guitar for a few days.

I'm working with Customer Support right now. I have yet to get a response online yet, but it has been over the weekend. I'll just have to wait and see what the following week has to bring.

I've been playing for more than 15 years. The number of guitars I own changes as I find new ones to play and collect. If this guitar was lost or stolen I'm not sure if I would purchase another or not.
I did compare this guitar to the Fender Telecaster and was impressed with the Samick's playing ability and tone.