Samick RL-3 Royale

I own the rl3 and it has great features. See the Sammick website for all the features. They don't lie about what goes into this guitar.

I play some jazz, blues, rock and country and this thing fits them all. I use a Traynor all tube 15 watt amp and a 60 watt Hughes & Kettner edition blues with this. The sound is rich, full, and brilliant.
The only troubles with this guitar, as far as the tone, are the tone pots. The dialing down into mellower tones is somehow kind of shallow. I love the tone of each pickup but when you want to make it a bit more mellow it will do that but just in a shallow way. Don't get me wrong, thing sounds amazing already, I just happen to like the freedom to dial down a bit more. It's just me.

The action on this thing is better then my Epiphone Les Paul. and the finish is like an expensive piece of furniture. The pup and the setup were dead on when I got it out of the case the first time. Our music store ordered it and the day it came in I saw and bought it. There were no flaws in the finish anywhere. I hooked it up and started playing and immediately fell in love with this thing.

This rl3 and the av3 that I have will be the only guitars that I will ever have to buy, at least, that is how they feel. The finish seems to be the kind of furniture like thing that you could actually hand down to your children or grandchildren.

I would use either one of these guitars at a gig without backup and I have.

I have not had to deal with this company, but from friends who have it is a good company to have to deal with.

I have been playing for 44 years. I have an Alvarez acoustic guitar that I play a lot. I have the AV3 and a no name banjo. I have two Roland amps: the cube 30 and the Microcube. I have a Traynor all tube 15 watt amp and a Hughes & Kettner 60 watt amp. I also play the DI through a Kustom PA that I carry with me.

I did compare this to the Fender, Epiphone, and Gretch. For the money, this was the buy.

2005 Royale RL-3, amber color. The top is laminated with a curly maple veneer, not quite bookmatched but very nice looking. Back is sapele (beautiful grain), neck is mahogany, fingerboard rosewood, cream binding. Grover non-locking tuners, wired ABR-1 clone bridge (not nashville) with large (.25") import sized posts, etc. Same features as listed elsewhere, it's all stock. I gave it a 9 because it has every feature that a guitar like this should have, but nothing extra or special. Nothing on this guitar "needs" to be upgraded, the hardware all works well, electronics sound and work fine, etc.

I reach for this guitar when I need a lightly overdriven, open singing tone with a lot of depth. Think Robben Ford. Standing next to a very loud overdriven amp, I can channel Ted Nugent Double Live Gonzo. Same fiesty, hollow woody 3-D tone with controllable, singing harmonic feedback. I love it!
I first tested this guitar unplugged. The first thing that struck me was the balance of all of the strings in a given chord, and that the sum of those notes played together was greater than their parts, if that makes sense. The same chord played on any other guitar that I own (this is #10) does not have that same mojo, that extra something that the guitar adds to it. Acoustically, it's a very hi-fi tone. I like a guitar with personality, with it's own tone. This guitar has that. Plugged in, it has obvious similarities to a Les Paul tone, but a bit thinner and more open. Les Pauls can easily get too fat and muddy, this doesn't. My feeling is that these pups have a lower output and less magnet strength than typical humbuckers. There are a lot of famous players that use semi-hollow guitars, and all of those tones are potentially in this guitar- Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, Ted Nugent, Pat Metheney, etc etc.
The best thing I can tell you is this. Ive been gassing hard for a Gibson CS-356 custom shop guitar. List price around $6k, fully hand made, etc. My local shop has one at a discount price due to some damage- I've almost pulled the trigger on it many times and have played it more than 6 times. This RL-3 has every tone that the custom shop guitar has, every bit of nuance, sustain etc. I saved myself thousands and cured the gas.
I give it an 8 because it could obviously sound better with better pups, but it's very usable as is. Most players that care about their tone will swap the pups for ones they like anyway, regardless of what came stock. The base platform of the guitar is excellent, an excellent base to mod with the pups of your choice.

As others have said, the fit and finish on this guitar for it's price, for ANY price is phenomenal. Anyone that tells you that "made in Korea" or made in Asia in general automatically means lower quality is a fool or a liar. Sure, there's a bunch of bargain priced cr*p produced in Asia, as there is in the USA. This guitar is not that. You will not, for example, find a better built, better finished guitar produced at the USA Gibson factory. In fact, this guitar is better than most USA Gibbies that I've played and seen. It has a glossy poly finish that feels good. I've played Epis with the same type of finish that feel cheap and plastic, this doesn't. I usually have to play the heck out of a guitar for at least 6 months to get comfortable with it, the RL-3 was immediately comfortable.
The top is not bookmatched, but looks good anyway. The neck is straight as an arrow, relief and action are spot-on, truss rod works well, no obvious fret buzz, no dead notes. It came with very heavy (to me) strings, 12s maybe. I swapped for 10s and re-set the truss rod, it plays perfectly. The binding is beautiful, well applied, properly finished, smooth and no flaws can be seen.
One flaw I can see, is that the sapele back, right at the neck heel joint had two chips (2 mm each) on those corners that were patched with other pieces of wood before it was finished at the factory. It's hard to see, but it's there.
Also, the interior of the hardshell case that it comes in is pretty cheap. Not even close to what Gibson offers. The padding is thin and the guitar fits loosely and can move around inside. Fine for around the house or carefully carrying it to the studio or a gig, but not for regular use where it needs to protect the guitar. It gets an 8 for that reason.

One test that I do on a new guitar to check the neck's and neck/ body joint's stability and strength, is to pluck the open low E string so it rings, then fret and bend up the high E string at the 12th fret at least a full step, silently. I listen to see if the pitch of the low E string goes down, indicating that the neck is bending from the force of the bent note. Despite the nice thin neck on this guitar, it holds that pitch rock solid. No neck flex, the neck body joint is solid. Try that with a $2000+ USA Les Paul or import Epiphone. Good luck.
If I were going to gig with this guitar (I use it in the studio), I would replace the pickup selector switch and volume and tone pots with Switchcraft and CTS or similar. Probably the output jack as well. If any part of this guitar feels slightly lacking it's these parts.
Bridge, tuners, straplocks, nut, etc all feel very solid.
8 for the electronics that should be replaced. With proper name brand parts it would get a 10.

I have no experience with customer service, other than the Greg Bennett web site. I am very impressed with the video that Greg Bennett did talking about this guitar. Very thorough and complete, it should serve as the template for every on-line guitar review. That's a form of customer support, so they get a 10.

As I said earlier, this is the guitar that I bought instead of a $3000+ Gibson Custom shop guitar, without reservation. Sure, a Korean made guitar does not carry the panache or bragging rights of a custom shop guitar, but you can't play those things, and besides, I own a 2009 Custom Shop Historic Les Paul R0 so that scratch has been itched.
Most players will upgrade or customize hardware and electronics on their new guitar. The important things are the wood, the finish and the construction- the end user can't really change these things so they have to be right from the factory. With this guitar, they are.
Myself, I will swap out the electronics, maybe the pickups and will install a set of Grover vintage open back Sta-Tite tuners for that old-tymey mojo.
I paid $350 for this guitar barely used. Even with a few hundo invested in parts that suit me, no other semi-hollow guitar on the market will touch it, at any price.
I looked for one used for over 6 months, this one came up and I snatched it immediately. If lost/ stolen/ broken, Id start that search all over again and get another, absolutely.

What a lovely budget axe. It's a matched maple top with a transparent wine red color.

I found this guitar on ebay for $400 with shipping.I suggest looking below for more info on features. One of the ideas I gained from previous reviews was to replace the pick ups. The originals were a little muddy when overdriven.

I found a Manlius Guitar Pickups Fullrange PUP on ebay. I contacted them and requested a slightly less hot PAF PUP for the neck. We decided on a 5% overwind on the Hot Rod 59 PAF.

I get every sound I would expect and then some. The Fullrange PUP alone in the bridge setting gives a slightly compressed tone when clean and is very nice for all the styles I play. The middle selector is great for rhythm and lead. At the end, I have a 335/les paul style that sounds like a professional guitar. All told $750 after the mods. It's not that the original hardware sucked. Far from it. see below for more.

I play progressive punk verging on new metal with a dash of California hardcore and agressive classic rock.


This guitar sounds exceptinally smooth,warm and sweet but is also great for huge-fat tones when I hit it with tons of gain. Or sweet leads when I use the neck PUP and turn the gain down. The cleans are dark but lively. The Manlius pups are absolutly silent even when driven hard. The original PUPs were quite good. I'd give this section 8 stock. I use a MIM Strat with duncans to catch the bright end of the spectrum.

For amps I own a '65 bandmaster 40 watt head, a '74 twin reverb and a 2003 THD bivalve 30 watt head. I use the THD for distortion and either the twin or the bandmaster for cleans depending on my headroom needs.

I would suggest that stock this guitar is mainly a blues/rock axe. With the manlius PUPs it can do open g/drop d tunings with gobs of blistering distortion ala THD bivalve.

This guitar was factory fresh though lightly used. I changed to 10-46 strings and adjusted the action. I found the truss rod somewhat frozen and had to apply an uncomfortable amount of effort. Otherwize the guitar is setup and finished very well. Although the "matched" maple top is pretty it lacks somewhat compared to more higher price points.

I've used the guitar for many projects: live, studio and practice. It keeps the setup very nicely. The stock hardware is good. I plan to replace all of it though. Only because I've not finished my sub $1000 pro guitar yet. Every thing has held up well. It's close to a $2500 guitar now. All archtops are somewhat fragile. I don't treat this guitar rougly. I feel like this is the archtop for me.

The site that desined the Royale series does not have an email contact listed which makes me think they may be out of it. Or?

I didn't want to spend $2000 plus for a semi-hollow electic. I did want the quality in tone and setup. I'd be wrong to say this guitar would stand up to a Gibson in everyway but tone. I spent $750.

The tone is lush and lovely. It can growl like Nugent or sing like BB. With light strings I can do bends that soar like Carlos or like Trey. I'd do this all over if I had to. The price/value is super.

Jazz/Blues semi hollow body guitar. Very nice looking guitar...I have the amber version and it is gorgeous. Standard Tune-O-Matic bridge, two Duncan designed humbuckers, 3-way switching, great body construction. Very nice feeling neck. Laminated top, which is fine for a Semi-Hollow guitar.

Body construction is very good! No flaws, binding is great looking, just a fantastic looking guitar!

I play a Taylor acoustic guitar, and I wanted a neck that was a similar size and feel...this hits it right on. Mine is about 3-years old

Stock version; very good! The neck gives a nice mellow sound and a great lead rock and blues tone. The bridge pickup is very rocking sounding, but no ice pick here. The middle position is a very nice sounding combination of the pickups. There was nothing I did not like about this guitar. I have owned american Strats, Teles, Jacksons, and a host of other electrics. I got rid of all of them and this is all I use.

Upgraded version; Over the past three years I have slowly made the guitar my own...I'll put this against any guitar now for quality and variety of sound. Upgrades I made are as follows:

1. Replaced the volume pots with CTS volume pots.
2. Replaced the tone pots with ToneStyler by Stellertone pots. You owe it to yourself to check these out. They give you incredible tone control and never muddy!
3. Replaced the bridge and stop tail piece with Gotoh model #168 tail piece and #1511 bridge from StewMac. Highly recommended change. These are much heavier and solid. Much better sustain with the new parts. Drops right in.
4. Replaced the tuners with Grover locking tuners. The guitar had standard grovers...this is a nice upgrade. Does not make it sound better, but the tuning ratio is 18:1, so it makes tuning more accurate.
5. Replaced the pickups with Lollar Imperial Humbuckers...WOW!!! This is a clear, airy, never muddy pickup. I cannot say enough about how good these pickups are. Both the neck and bridge have sound that are a pleasure to listen to. Sure, they were $300, but it is a whole new guitar.
6. Replaced the jacks and switch with switch craft products.

So what do we have? With my total investment of the guitar and all the add ons, were around $1100...but I challenge anyone to find another semi-hollow guitar with TOP name components and incredible sound like this has.

The stock was great sounding for what I paid...the rating is based on the stock set up that I bought for $550.

I got the guitar from Jeff Hale music in Wisconsin. His guitars are set up by Denny Rauen (Rauen Guitars)in Milwaukee, so the set up was very good. It came with 13's on it...I switched to 11's with a non-wound G-string and took it back to Rauen's to have it set up again. Top notch work! There were no flaws on the guitar.

For $600, you get what you pay for. Mid-grade electronics, Mid-grade bridge, Mid-Grade pickups. Nothing wrong with them, just don't expect you are getting the best. It would have not had any problems, I'm a tone freak, so I upgraded.

I don't use a backup...Play live often with no issues. Great guitar as it came stock.

No dealings with the company directly. The rating is for dealing with Jeff Hale (J Hale Music). He is a top notch guy to work with and only deals with quality products. I highly recommend getting product from him to anybody!

I have been playing guitar for over 30-years...not real seriously until the past 10-years. I have a Taylor Acoustic, Lakland Bass and this guitar. Thats all I need. I play into a Valvetrain 205 and some analog effects when needed.

There is nothing I did not like about the stock guitar. I love EVERYTHING about my modified version. As stated earlier, I have owned many guitars and only have this one now. It's that good!

I am lusting for one of the new Taylor solid bodies, but that will have to remain a lust, I must remain unfaithful to my Samick! I like it so much, thats my main email addy...

Finish- Amber Quilt
Laminated top

H/H

Single Cutaway

Grover Tuners

Great Guitar For the $$!! I've been playing Guitar for about a good
20 years on and have had ( still have) Strats, Gibson 335 / Ibanez.
Right now I have a couple of Fender Basses & 3 Ibanez RG's( One with
a Roland synth Pickup that is my main Gigging instrument, Durable Axe!)
And some Acoustic/electrics...I picked up the Samick in Dayton Ohio at a
Pawnshop & Bought it on the spot for $300 with the case just on the Neck feel alone....the setup was perfect, and the guitar looked brand new!
Took it to Sam Ash & Played it thru a Roland Cube 30x at the store and at home thru my 10 yr old Line6 AX212 and was completely satisfied
with the tones....Especially playing thru the Cube30! I'm an R&B/Funk
Neo-soul/Southern Soul/ Acid Jazz Kind of player, so I like that
Bright Heavy Chord rhythm sound ( examples of this can be found on countless James Brown, Zapp, Isley Brothers, Bootsy, Prince, B.B. King, Toni-Tone'-Tony & EWF records) Nice George Benson style sounds
as well when you back off the tone a little bit @ the Neck Pickup.

No Flaws whatsoever...I thought about putting some Real Seymour Duncans
in the guitar but decided against this as I'm inspired to use it as is...the neck is fast...very comfortable to play...I'm thru w/buying
1000.00 guitars to play $150.00 a man shows...Top notch construction.

So far so good...I've only played this on studio gigs & @ church as well
as a Backup on Funk shows...I feel like I could depend on it.

No issues....

This thing plays like a Vintage 335 circa '65-70 era....nice rhythm sound!! Especially thru that Roland...Brite, Jangly rhythm!!!

Beautiful quilted maple amber color single cutaway - I'm pretty sure it is a laminated top, most semi-hollow archtops are, and that's ok. Looks to have real good craftmanship. Mahogany back and sides makes for a nice mellow tone.

I play Jazz and Blues and this really fits the bill. This was the first night I played in with my big band and it really performed. Both the keyboard and bass players said the sound was the best of all my guitars. The sustain is awsome. Chords would just ring on, took a while for it to die down. and the tone was so rich and mellow, I was blown away. The ensemble I play with is at a local college and the room is a basic classroom with cinder block walls and lowgrade carpet on the floors - not good for accoustics and this axe really cut through the horns and the tone was golden. Very nice indeed!

My friend owned it first, and he already had it all setup. I can't tell if any flaws exist on this. The finish is beautiful. I really like the look and the smaller body size (compared to a 335 type of semi-hollow body). Electronics are solid, seem like they are quality.

I haven't had it long enough to know if it is durable, I'm sure it will be. Seems sturdy enough.

N/A

Excellent value and great tone, even with the stock electronics. Looks classy and sounds excellent - what more could I ask for? I would definately consider selling some of my other equipment in order to buy another one if this was lost or stolen.

2005 Samick Greg Bennett Royale RL3
22 Frets
Solid quilted maple top(vintage burst)
V,V,T,T 3 Way
Duncan designed HH
Passive electronics
Single cutaway
Tune o matic bridge(Chrome)
Grover Tuners, non locking, chrome

What can I say? What a fantastic sounding instrument! Versatile range of quality tones, well balanced, with good attack/sustain -really nails that range of sounds that I particularly like - Larry Cartlon, Robben Ford, John Scofield, but could be used for just about any style. For me it suits the jazz / blues spectrum fanstastically, and sits as a great addition to my other guitars: Strat with David Gilmour EMGs, 1979 Yamaha Lord Player (sensational LP copy), and my most loved 1981 Ibanez AS200 which sits closest to the Samick in style and sound.
So far I'm very impressed with the Duncan Designed pickups - nicely balanced, warm but clear, just the right ouptput for me, as I lean more to cleaner / mild overdriven tones. Given the comments other have made about the improvement gained by adding quaity pickups and my personal success (after much agonising) with replacing my AS200 Super 58's with a Seymour Duncan Jazz and a JB, I will seriously consider a pickup upgrade, but not yet. I want to sit with the originals for a while yet. They work well with my current setup - Early 80's Boss SD-1 and DS-1, Digitech Bad Monkey, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, with Digitech Delay, Dunlop Volume Pedal and Berhinger Wah runing into a Roland Cube 60 (great amp).

Stunning quality finish. Figured maple top with vintage (not honey)burst looks absolutley glorious. Sapelle back also very good and compliments the instrument nicely. The comparisons other reviewers have made to other more expensive brands bears repeating. This is right up there with the best, and better is many cases.
Action was too stiff and high for me out of the box. It was strung with 13's. Lowering the action at both the nut and bridge, an intonation adjustment, and replacing the strings with initially D'addario 11's and then 10's revealed a fantastic playing neck, now almost perfect for my taste. No rattles or buzzes, no fretting out.
I am a great fan of Grover tuners and have them on all my guitars. Holds tune very well.
Less impressed with cheap ABR style bridge which was immediately replaced with a Goto model, with immediate improvement in tone and sustain. Also put on a spare Goto stop tailpiece I had lying around.
Pickup height adjustment to suit my personal state. I might try a tusk nut at some stage, but the original is fine in it's lowered state.

Certainly seems robust enough. Only time will tell.
I will definitley use this live

No problems. My local music shop owner reports the company are great to deal with.

This would definitley be replaced if lost / stolen etc. It is a very versatile guitar, and lives up to the advertisng rhetoric of being a fine semi-acoustic with a bit of sold body feel. I'm more intersted in tone than price, but it's hard to see how this guitar is anything but sentational value in both regards. It is so close to my AS200 in character of tone and quality of build that frankly it's a bit scary.
If you are interested in a quality semi-acoustic, I seriously suggest you have a look at one of these before trying anything else.

see manufacturers website

I am a guitar amateur with lots of guitars and amps, drums, and other music instruments. I play mostly blues, Jazz, and some rock.
Although have been playing for about 22 years I do not play profesionally. The sound on this guitar is perfect: Rich, full, Bright, balanced. Iam surprised that the stock Duncan humbuckers sound this good. There is nothing not to like about the sound. Also very flexible when you tweak positions with switch.

This guitar is the only guitar I have not tweak from factory. Even my deluxe strats, some gibsons I've purchased recently needed proper setup before I could play them. This guitar is perfect in this category. CIntonation, action, finish, craftmanship, quality, all there. I have spend 3 to 4 times the money for other guitars and have never been so impressed. This guitar has changed my mind about korean made guitars. Comes in a beautiful case too. Excellent job!

solid

no opinion. Haven't had need to call.

A bought the RL3 at a local shop in South Florida who special ordered it and paid $499 for this beauty. After I received it and experience the joy of owning and playing this baby I bought a Jazz hollowboby by Samick (not setup as perfect but sounds great) for another $550 including a beautiful case. Both of these two guitars are now selling for almost double its price. I wish some pros out there would try the RL3, there is no reason why it could not be selling at a $1500 price point.

2004 Samick Greg Bennett Royale RL3, made in korea.
22 Frets
Solid quilted maple top(honeyburst)
V,V,T,T 3 Way
Duncan designed HH
Passive electronics
Mahogany neck and body, maple top
Single cutaway
Tune o matic bridge(Chrome)
Grover Tuners, non locking, chrome
Wide thin neck
No accessories included

With a change of pickups, and new pots, it absolutely screams. Best sounding guitar I have ever heard, at any price. The duncan designs were decent, but with a Duncan JB in the bridge and 57 classic at the neck, and the cheap chinese pots and jack switched out for CTS pots and a switchcraft jack, it sings, it cries, it snarls, it's alive! I play it through a '64 Bandmaster, and it's SQUEAKY clean, the purest sweetest tone you ever heard. Set your bridge tone and volume at 10 and roll the neck back to taste, I usually leave it on 7 for volume and 4 for tone, then adjust the snarl factor with your pick attack. Sometimes I practice with a little portable 1 watt battery powered Marshall, unbelievable! The little marshall breaks up nicely due to a gain control. Leave your selector switch in the middle for blues, and flip on the JB for leads and rock. You can't appreciate "Clean Crunch" until you've heard it.

Flawless craftmanship has changed my mind about Korean products. Everything on this guitar is top notch, with the exception of the electronics and plastic nut. I see $700 and up Epiphones in the local music stores that look like crap when compared to the Samick. I played several vintage Gretch's and Es-335's the day I bought the Samick, and the Samick won. The amazing thing?, none of the Gibson's or Gretch's was less than a grand, I got the Samick for $360.

So far so good, time will tell....

Haven't dealt with Samick. Haven't had to.

I've been playing guitar 2 years, drums 20.
I also own a lake placid blue fender strat clone with a warmoth body, moses graphite neck and OLD emg sa prototypes, next to the Samick, it's my favorite guitar.
A black Jackson Dinky with floyd rose
An Agile burst LP clone
An 80's Epiphone 12 string acoustic
A Washburn acoustic
A custom Warmoth 12 string electric with a macassar ebony neck

If it were lost or stolen, I would play several other RL3's to make sure they had the same "magic" this one does. If so, I would buy one again.
I love the tone, the feel and the responsiveness to my attack.
I hated the pots, and was lukewarm towards the pups.
My favorite feature is the neck, it just feels right.
If you can find one, buy it, you won't regret it.

The usual Korean fare here which is not a bad thing. I picked this guitar up on a whim. At the time I had a B-Bender Tele and a circa 1950's Harmony "Western Auto" archtop and being the guitar slut that I was, why not? Features, make, model, etc... were not even remotely considered. I had never even heard of a Samick. As it turned out, it was a buy of a lifetime and I didn't even see it coming. The only feature I vaguely considered, might have been the style/shape/construction which looked a little unique: high points for these things. The pots look a little vulnerable as does the selector switch but I'm not a professional, play it mostly acoustically, and really couldn't care less; easy enough to replace if something goes awry. Fit and Finish: good and smooth Scale: Gibsonish Wood: outstanding Neck: wide but thin i.e. perfect Tuners: Korean Grovers and smooth. Overall style: upper bout of a Tele, lower bout of a Les Paul and the rear end of a Gibson 335 (or more specifically a Fender Robben Ford); which seems to cover a lot of stylistic ground but it is smooth, well integrated and has an individual identity all its own. The headstock though is another matter entirely.

As 30+ year guitarist/collector/slut, I still lack any discernible skill or talent but have owned and played many guitars through many amps. I may not be a conniseuer of fine tone but I know crap tone if I hear it. No crap tone here. Distorts very well. Good clean sounds are best achieved in the neck or middle positions and will cover 90%+ of any music I want to butcher er... I mean play. The only effect I use is the Bigsby that I added, and this guitar was MADE for a Bigsby: very cool, should be a factory item! This guitar can cover just about anything in its stock form.

This is where this guitar really shines. Who cares about the factory set up? All of the action and adjustability are there. I think this guitar was one of the first batches so I don't know how represenative of an example it is. I bought it in early 2001 and had never heard of a Samick before. After I got it home I was (and continue to be) well and truly impressed with the craftsmanship. Superb, no flaws whatsoever. the wood quality, grain and bookmatch were absolutely perfect. Every join and transition was crisp and well defined. The finish was as smooth as any finish I have ever seen and did not look Korean plasticky at all. Fret work was also superb: smooth and even, well finished on the ends and well polished with no buzzes. The routing and the inside chambers were all clean. The guitar still continues to impress me 4+ yrs later. I sometimes just pick it up and admire the absolute execution on it. I've owned over 100 high-end guitars in my life and was a luthier's apprentice for 2 years, and I would stack this one up to any guitar regardless of price. The only guitar I might want to look at more would be a PRS McCarty hollow body with a trem or, an old DeAngelico; value aside, it would be close.

I may not be a conniseuer of tone but I am a conniseuer of structure and design. Short of purposely trying to break it, I would be shocked if it didn't survive several lifetimes of normal/professional wear and tear. Very stout. I would wager you could drop it from 4 feet at any angle and only incur cosmetic damage. The only speculative weak spots might be found in the pots and switches (hence the 8), but again, easy enough to replace and probably should be replaced if you play live frequently.

Short of a major assembly line or a design reduction issue emerging on this model, who needs it?

I have been in recovery from my guitar slut-lust and addiction for 4 1/2 ys. and it is due primarily to this guitar. I guess I had been searching for a one-size-fits-all guitar and with a few modifications, seem to have found it. It should come with a Bigsby but that is a fairly simple mod. The guitar responds well to this. Stock frets here are reasonably tall but I like alot of air under my fingers so I scalloped the fretboard and laquered the rosewood. Extreme, but very happy with this mod as well. Unfortunately the HEADSTOCK was a stylistic low point. So I stripped it and re-shaped it to a more PRS-like shape. This seemed to balance-out the guitar better both physically and aesthetically and was a way big improvement with the added benefit of now being able to see the striped mahogany underneath. It transformed a very good looking guitar into an absolutely beautiful one. I still own the Western Auto archtop and have a rosewood Tele but this is the only guitar I play anymore. I keep hearing that it is a good guitar "for the price" but as a 37 year player with a fair amount of experience, it is a good guitar period.