Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

[djent]

I just won an auction on ebay for a Samick J Bass, needs a bit of work but not much. Has an an Active EMG in the bridge but no neck pup yet. I was wondering does anyone know anything about this bass, I can't find anything about it online, not even any pictures of the same bass. (pictures of mine attached)

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

A classic unfinished project. The bass was manufactured in South Korea. The Samick factory has produced guitars for numerous well-known brands.

The bad news is that you will be buying a bunch of parts for it. The good news is that you will be buying a bunch of parts for it. Hence, you have free choice from any number of brands and model designations.

Photographs of the pickup and control cavities would help. The former to evaluate string to polepiece alignment. The latter to gain some idea of how much room there is for fancy EQ circuitry.

It would be a good idea to measure the two pickup cavities. Traditional JJ pickup pairs are of slightly different lengths. Some derivative bass guitar designs have two pickups of equal length. (Both of the "short/neck" pickup length.)

Needless to say, our hosts would prefer you to purchase SD/Basslines products.

 

[djent]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

I only won the auction about an hour ago so I don't actually have the bass yet so I can't take any pictures of the control cavity, all I have are the ones on the ad. It did have a closer picture of the pickup though.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

Your pickup has the outward appearance of an EMG but I'm not convinced. There ought to be shallow indentation in the right hand corner of the top where the logo would originally have been printed. (Early EMGs have raised plastic lettering.) The pickup could be a Select-By-EMG stacked coil passive pickup.


EDIT - The pickup is very probably stock Korean. The original pad-printed Samick logo has worn off.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

In the post #3 photograph, I see string and/or neck alignment issues. I also suspect that both pickup cavities are of equal length. The upshots are this are:
1) You may need to unscrew, shim and refit the neck to achieve better string alignment with respect to the outer edges of the fingerboard.
2) Blade or bar pickup polepieces are guaranteed to align with the strings. Rod magnet polepieces, in all probability, will be further out of alignment than is desirable.
3) Traditional long/bridge and short/neck pickup pairs will not fit one of the cavities correctly. Either the bridge position pickup will be too long or the neck position pickup will leave an unsightly gap at both ends. The cover of whichever pickup does not fit neatly could jam in the adjustment screw area.

 

[djent]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

I was thinking the same myself but the ad specifically said working Active EMG

 

[djent]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

The seller said he will ship with the neck off anyway so I cam ad a shim easily. I was thinking of getting an active GFS neck pup. GFS seem to get good reviews and they're having a black Friday sale, which is good because I'm low on funds at the moment. I don't really mind if there is a gap, I'm not using live. I'm mainly a guitar player first anyway so this will just be used for playing around. Would the GFS be alright in this?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

I suggest that you refrain from buying anything until you discover what really is in the Samick control cavity.

If you read other threads in this forum room, you will quickly find posts from people who cannot tell the difference between systems using passive pickups into active EQ (e.g. Musicman Stingray) and fully low impedance circuitry (e.g. Blackouts, EMG et cetera).

 

[JOLLY]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

I love those bridges.

 

[Muziekschuur]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

Nice bass... I like that placement. It will give you a modern strong bass tone due to placement.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Anyone know anything about Samick Basses?

you have it?? if so, what cha think? Im sure this is of NO help to you, but MANY years ago I fell in love with a Samick bass at a local store. LONG out of biz.. But it was my first bass and the first and ONLY piece of music gear my wife has ever bought me. (in nearly 30 yrs of wedded blis..ter) Anyhow, it was wicked inexpensive, maybe $130-150. (around 1988-89) but it played like a dream and didnt sound too bad, even tho the pups were stock and Im sure for that price, bottom rung on the ladder. So, basically, you are getting a bump out of this and wanting to know how it is?? haha