Hey Zach,
I’m just learning how to play guitar, and
I picked up this Samick acoustic from a
buddy for $60. It has the following information
inked on the label inside: Model
LW-025G, Serial No. 96122756, Made in
Indonesia. I really don’t know much about
guitars, including this one, and I simply
bought it for something to learn on. Can
you tell me a little about the guitar and if it
is worth anything—although I suspect not.
John
Minnetonka, Minnesota
Hey John,
The beauty of the guitar industry today is
that with so many price points available, just
about anyone can afford a guitar. Many players
consider Samick to be a budget brand
because of their low price points, but the
company offers much more than cheap guitars.
I’ll discuss Samick’s history a bit and tell
you more about your acoustic guitar.
Samick was founded in 1958 by Hyo Ick Lee
in Korea as an upright piano manufacturer,
and by 1964, they were the first Korean piano
exporter. In 1965, they began building guitars,
and in the early 1970s they had added grand
pianos and harmonicas to the line. In 1973,
the company incorporated as Samick Musical
Instruments Mfg. Co. Ltd., and in 1978, they
opened a branch office in Los Angeles. In
1992, they built a factory in Indonesia to produce
a majority of their instruments.
What many people may not realize is that
Samick actually builds guitars for many other
trademarks and have been doing so for many
years. It may come as a surprise to many,
but several Epiphones, Fenders, and other
American-trademarked guitars are actually
built by Samick in one of their factories. Many
manufacturers in the US do not actually own
an overseas production facility, so they outsource
the construction to companies such as
Samick. Because of this, Samick is one of the
highest-producing instrument manufacturers
in the world, if not the top. In a sense,
Samick is a current day “house brand.”
The LW-025G is a dreadnought-styled guitar
that was part of Samick’s “Standard Series”
offered in the 1990s. Introduced around
1994, it features a laminated spruce top, nato
back and sides with black binding, a 20-fret
rosewood fretboard, a black pickguard, and
gloss finish. In terms of features, this guitar
is exactly what the series describes it as:
standard. The serial number, starting with
“96” means the guitar was built in 1996. The
LW-025G was produced through the late
1990s until Samick discontinued their entire
line of guitars for a new series.
Samick doesn’t use traditional retail pricing
for their guitars, but instead list a “dealer net”
amount in their price lists, which basically is
the amount a dealer pays for an instrument.
Samick also enforces a strict minimum advertised
price (MAP) policy to guarantee top
margins for their dealers without having an
arbitrary retail price. Not many guitar companies
operate with a pricing structure such as
this, but it has proved to be very successful for
Samick. The dealer net price for this guitar in
1997 was $105 (I don’t have a price list from
1996). Today, the guitar is worth between
$135 and $175 in excellent condition and
between $70 and $90 in average condition.
The owner of this guitar actually brought it
into our office, so I had a chance to physically
inspect it and play it. The guitar has noticeable
wear, but is structurally intact, putting it
in average condition. The action is set evenly,
the guitar played on all strings up and down
the fingerboard, and the intonation is spot-on.
Most collectors will consider this guitar
to be trash, but for entry-level players, it’s a
treasure—especially considering how hard
it can be to find an inexpensive guitar that
plays this easily with correct intonation. Part
of the process when it comes to determining
if a guitar is “trash or treasure” is to see how
well the guitar plays, which is difficult to do
by simply looking at pictures.
After Samick discontinued this line, they
introduced a new line of guitars in their 2000
catalog. Designed by Greg Bennett, these were
called the “Signature Series.” Since 2000, all
Samick guitars are actually branded Greg
Bennett and have a stylized “S” logo with
“Greg Bennett Design” on the headstock.
Samick continues to produce a wide variety of
guitars from entry-level models to higher-end
production models. To offer more high-end
instruments, Samick opened their USA Custom
Shop outside of Nashville, where they are also
now headquartered. Samick also only sells their
instruments to independent music stores to
give them competition against the big-box
stores—a treasure in today’s market for sure!
Zachary R. Fjestad
Zachary is the author of the
Blue Book of Acoustic
Guitars, Blue Book of Electric Guitars, and the
Blue
Book of Guitar Amplifiers.
Questions can be submitted to:
Blue Book Publications
Attn: Guitar Trash or Treasure
8009 34th Ave. S. Ste #175
Minneapolis, MN 55425
bluebookinc.com
guitars@bluebookinc.com
Here’s an example of an Ibanez “lawsuit-era”
guitar. The 1976 Custom Agent Artist 2405 in
a transparent maroon finish is a great example
of Ibanez’s penchant for melding traditional
design with artistic flair. The maple-topped
mahogany body sports a mother-of-pearl inlay
at its lower bout, matched by equally extravagant
MOP fretboard inlays, and a headstock
shape reminiscent of their mando-design. The
pickups were originally Super 80 models, but
were replaced with double-cream DiMarzio
Super Distortions before the current owner purchased
the guitar years ago.