Silvertone SIK1 Shredder

Features include 3 pups one of which is humbucker. one volume 2 tone knobs. 5 way switch...blah blah blah. bought this guitar in 2005.

Sounds pretty good for a "cheap" guitar. I play this through a 20 watt crate and an old ampeg tube amp. sounds great through both. also use a zoom g2 for effects. i play mostly metal and it does well. the only problem i have is the selector switch cuts in and out when switching pups. i could probably fix it with a new switch but im too lazy.

pretty decent out of box. I tune a little lower than standard so i did have to adjust the intonation. pretty good quality no flaws.

i have to say i'm impressed with the durability. i've banged it up and it doesnt show much wear. i would gig with it but not without a back-up. i could have a $10,000 guitar and still would not be without a back-up

i bought this from rondomusic. kurt is a cool cat.

i'm a 22 year veteran Hack. i own an epi les paul and a few acoustics. if lost or stolen i would get something else only because you cant hardly find these anymore. i would definately buy from rondomusic. they carry some quality stuff.

Colbalt blue, superstrat copy with all the features mentioned in previous reviews.

Sound is decent. Hi and low tone adjustments with 5 way selector switch offer enough variation to mess with the tone you want. I play a lot simple rock and blues numbers. They had a practice 10w amp on sale with it, and I was pleasantly surprised by the sound of this little amp. Wish the overdrive on the amp gave the distortion a bit more edge, but for the price, I can't complain.

Action is pretty good. Low-medium out of the box. Neck is straight, tuners work fine. Pickups seem to be in order too. Everything seems to be okay with this guitar. Tunes easily.

Not sure if I would use this exclusively for live playing. It is definitely a back-up or practice guitar, but still great for the money. Well built guitar IMHO.

Limited lifetime warranty, which means that I probably won't worry about it if it craps out. I paid very little for it, so I won't be heartbroken if something out of the ordinary happens.

I've been playing for about 10 years, and have a Yamaha Pacifica 102S, a Yamaha FG402, and a Yamaha CG-150. The guitar is similar to the Pacifica in quality. Given the price I paid, that's great. I think that it would be a great starter guitar or practice guitar for a more experienced player. I'd buy it again if it were lost or stolen, provided I could get a deal on it. I bought this simply because it was a deal and no other reason. I'll probably pass it along to my son when he is old enough to play. I love the fact that it's a decent guitar for very little money. I would like it more if the fretboard was of better quality. That stated, it's a decent guitar. I paid $35.00, because it was on closeout. Throw in another $15.00 for the practice amp. Where was this deal when I was in high school? I paid $200 for a strat copy and an amp back then and it was nowhere near the quality of this guitar. I am happy I purchased this.

Early-mid '00s? Indonesian made super strat-style. [Inbanez RG-style, actually.] Called the Silvertone Shredder SIK1 per their website: http://www.silvertoneguitar.com/electric.php?boot=st_v_shredder_-_sik1

Silvertones are made by Samick [same corp./importing address on each website: City of Industry, CA], so it looks like a Samick Greg Bennett Interceptor II, except that guitar has dual humbuckers, Grover tuners, and a 3 on a side headstock. This Silvertone has a 6 inline with no-name Gotoh style tuners, and a H-S-S pickup configuration. Plus, this Silvertone is plywood. The Greg Bennett may easily be better, since they're aiming decidedly more upscale than Silvertone. [Get this SIK1 if you're gonna get a cheap [plywood] strat or strat copy, this is SO much better looking than all those Fender style strats with pickguards.]

5 way selector, volume and two tone pots. Passive, of course. Cobalt blue, vintage tremolo, Fender-scale, 24 frets, offset dot markers on the rosewood fretboard; maple neck with angled headstock.

Give it a 6 for features... it's a [super] strat. Big deal. Weak tremolo, knockoff tuners, offset markers are cool looking, headstock bevel is nice and different, PVC nut is cheap, as noted by first reviewer the angled neck heel is nice.

It suits my style fine. [80's - 90's alt. rock; surf instrumental; punk; 60's rock; etc.] Bought this for my girlfriend... she's used to folk music from her classes while playing her beautiful Ovation Celebrity roundback electric acoustic.

Only have plugged it into my little Crate practice amp, it sounded okay without effects. Nothing like my Ibanez JS6000 mahogany hardtail with Dimarzio's, of course, but comparable to my other 'cheap' guitars. Not terribly rich/full sounding. Perhaps with my newly acquired pedal board full of effect it'd shine. Great deal for the price paid.

Factory setup was rather good. Action and intonation are fine. Slightly misaligned tone pot is noticable, but not a big deal for the price paid. Build/finish quality is rather nice for an Indonesian built guitar. It might pass for Korean made.

I've only started playing live this past year, but I think it'd hold up just fine, physically... 'cept maybe for the electronics [pots, jack, switch.] Although, I wouldn't think it'd hold up sound-wise. If you're up to playing live gigs, you're already gonna be getting serious about your sound.

Upgrade the electronics and pickups and run through an effects pedal or two, and you'd sound just fine with a good amp.

If it was my only guitar, I'd use it at a gig w/o a backup. But, only for a while.

Emailed the Samick part of the office at the same City of Industry location, and they got back to me very promptly.

No other required interaction.

Been a no-talent hack for about 15 years, finally took lessons about 5 yrs. ago. for about a year. Got more serious this past year when I finally joined a band... as a bass player. No one else could play bass... so that became my thing. At least I get to play lead guitar on a couple songs when we have a 4th person step in on bass, once in a while.

Gear: [pre-Samick/pre-Gibson] Valley Arts Standard Pro [hand built strat!]; Ibanez JS6000, JS700, 540 Radius LTD, 540 Radius [red burst!], early 80's Japanese Les Paul clone; Korean made Aria dreadnaught; US made Peavey Reactor [tele]; import Peavey Raptor Plus; import Kramer Striker 422S bass; Sebring/V.M.I. p-bass copy; Fender GC12 acoustic; synsonics acoustic electric [15 bucks!]; Carlo Robelli acoustic [$5.50 on e***!! Gotta love free local pickup!] I need to sell four or five, badly... it's getting crowded!

Bunches of mini Danelectro pedals; mics; stands; Nady 150watt PA head; Pyramid floor monitors; 15" Peavey KB100 amp for my bass; 15" Seymour Duncan bass cab; 10" Randall guitar amp; a couple Crate practice amps; etc.

I'd get another one at that price for my girlfriend, sure, unless she'd rather stick with acoustics.

Love how it looks like a nice RG-style, super strat. Rich, cobalt blue color and NO bigass pickguard to detract from the shape and color. Unique headstock and bevel is pretty, actually. Hate that it is plywood, but if you're gonna get a cheap plywood guitar, this is the best looking I've ever seen.

This guitar was made in 2005. Made in Korea, It has 24 frets, a solid top, a volume with two tone controls and two humbuckers of unknown origin. The electronics are passive. the body is made of agathis or basswood, definately not plywood. The neck is a 24 fret bolt on satin finished maple neck with a rosewood fretboard. Nicely finished jumbo frets. The body has a midnight blue poly finish with an assymetrical strat type body. The bridge is a strat type hardtail. Strings load through the back of the bridge rather than through the body. The tuners are a Schaller type generic and are non locking. The headstock has a 3x3 configuration (Samick - Bennet style). Came with an inexpensive gig bag.

This guitar can handle hard rock and blues very well. I have several configurations of amps and effects, but for the sake of this review i am using a Marshall 30 watt Master Lead series solid state combo with 1-12" Celestion speaker. The guitar is extremely quiet in any position of the three way switch. The bridge pickup is full and airy. Neck pickup is slightly muddy for my taste but not to bad that I would complain about it. No squealing pickups with excellent response!
The body and headstock configuration is unusual. I have never seen a 3x3 headstock on a strat style guitar! Nothing notable to dislike for a $40 dollar guitar (brand new, may I add!).

I set up all my guitars by myself regardless of whether it came with a factory setup or not. Pickups were adjusted to suit the above. I have no issues in regards to flaws, except the high E string buzzed on the first fret, remedied by a neck adjustment.

This guitar would withstand live playing as a reliable backup in a pinch. Nice hardware, nice finish. Solid strap buttons. I would depend on it if I had to. I don't do gigs without a backup.

I purchased this guitar from Rondo Music. I never had any problems dealing with them.

I'd give this guitar a 9 easily.

Made in Indonesia.

The best way to think of this guitar is, the most elegantly designed strat type yet.

Mind you, this appears to be a cheap rendition of a Bennett Samick design.

Last I looked, Rondo Music was selling this for $99. This guitar looks like nothing much on their webpage. I bought mine at the local Sam Goody's for $65 (closeout). They say it's "built to rock hard". Who knows what they are trying to say. This is a good rock guitar for sure. But it doesn't do it justice in any way to suggest that it's a shredder or hard rock guitar. This thing plays well and sounds good at average+ levels, though it certainly can drive a distortion box well. If you can play, you'll be competitive with anybody.

Face it, a stratocaster is not a pretty guitar. (Did Leo Fender ever make a pretty design?) Sure, it can be beautifully made. But let's talk about what's ugly on a stratocaster. 1) The pickguard...and it covers maybe more than half the body. Some people remove the pickguard, and what's under it...looks like a sewer. 2) The headstock. It looks better to me since understanding this is based on the shape of a treble clef, but even that's corny, I guess it's ok if small and well made. Also, it's flat to the neck, requiring string trees, and even then it's not as good as if swept back. 3) The output jack housing. That being said, I kind of wish I had one, understanding now (after seeing a Jimi Hendrix video) that your can break up your signal by tapping your plug there (guitarist can't have enought tricks). 4) Overly rounded horns creating a bulbous appearance. 5) Bolted neck.

Back to the guitar in question. This guitar has such a simple vibe that getting into all the critical differences is surprisingly involved.

Maybe its easier to start with what's the same. Bolted maple neck, asymmmetrical cutaways, three pickups, five way blade switch, three knobs (one volume, two tone), headstock with all tuners on the upper side and a vintage six screw trem.

Now for the differences. First and foremost, no pickguard, it's rear routed. There's a humbucker at the bridge with a pickup ring. There is a neck and middle strat style pickup. None of the poles are adjustable. The single coils are (in my book) thankfully without the traditional strat pole stagger (you know, where your pickup looks like it needs to go to the orthodontist). These single poles follow the subtle curvature of the fretboard. No pickup rings for the single poles, their mounting screws are screwed directly into the body and no, the mounting screws are not really adjustable out of the box. Who cares, my guitar came set up pretty much perfect so you don't need to.

The headstock...most importantly, is of the angled back variety, i.e., string trees need not apply. Secondly, forget the g clef motif, the lower side of the headstock is a sweeping scimitar curve. The headstock is finished black, but with a bevel on the lower side that starts large and ends small gradually. That bevel is reminiscent of various prior Korean guitars, like Valley Arts and Hammer, but thankfully it's only on one side and appears intentional and reasonably well executed, unlike prior versions that looked like they were still figuring out how to make a guitar.

It does have a bolt on neck with a plate, but, the body has been sculpted so that the plate sits at an comfortable angle. Considering the cheapness of this guitar, this remains the most unbelievably elegant design touch.

The input jack is on the side of the guitar, not the front. This helps the guitar's appearance, but as previously notes, unnecessarily eliminates a cool guitar stunt.

The bridge, as previously noted, is vintage six screw style, set up to lay flat against the body. This to me is the big drawback to this guitar, as most of my heros use floating two fulcrum brides (often the Floyd Rose (bleh), or preferably things like the Wilkinson, Hipshots, standard strat. The bridge pieces are

My music style? Messy noodling that nobody has expressed much interest in hearing. Irrelevant to this review, we hope.
Amps? Effects? OK, a Pro Jr. and DS1. That's actually a good setup, as those who have tried will hopefully know.
Noisy: see above. It's unfair to use single coils around computers, I suspect.
Rich, full, bright, it's got those sounds, but it doesn't have a bridge single coil sound. That's ok, bridge single pole typically results in "turn it down", although we like it (needs a better player I guess).

Action seemed to be dead on.
Pickup adjustments seemed dead on (and needed to be, given that various aspects of these pickups are non or not easily adjustable).
No top to speak of. Never heard of an improperly routed bridge.
Bottom line is, subaverage to cheesy materials executed to perfection.

It seems solid and most importantly is cheap so you can have as many as you think necessary. Unfortunately, the info I see is that this is a limited production. I don't gig, but I would think if I did, I'd have various guitars just becase I like them, not per se for backup. This would be there, probably as an alleged backup that got played most of the night. At your average jam session, this guitar should do outstanding, and in the unlikely event something breaks, have a beer and provide an audience (if you can stand it).

Who knows.

I need a floating two point trem. I have other guitars that have that, fortunately. This non floating, six screw trem, although of limited trem use, has great tone. So its a great second guitar.
Would I buy it again? Tough one, since I must have a floating trem. Sadly, I'd probably buy a pedal first. Actually, this is my kid's guitar, I bought it for myself, my wife decided it needed to be my kid's. I have tried to explain to the kid how this is much the same, but more aesthetic, than what Jimi played, but it's too complicated.

Ultimately I come back to, this is arguably the best beginner solid body electric ever, especially for the money. Moreover, a no-brainer for the non-trem oriented looking for a plank to spank. One thing this guitar has convinced me: forget a hard tail, go with a six screw trem if that's how you're thinking (unless you're going with a classic Gibson design). And nobody has done a review here for this mass market guitar yet. Attention must be paid, this is a classic.