I've not owned a Samick uke, but I'm familiar with the company and have owned Samick guitars.
Samick is basically a Korean company that at least as far back as the seventies made many of the inexpensive brands for "American" guitars (Fender Squier, Gibson Epiphone, etc.) right in Korea. I believe they also manufactured many of the acoustic guitars for Yamaha and Takamine, though I might be mistaken. I don't think they started selling under their own name (at least, not over here) until the late 80's or early 90's. In the "old days" when production was in Korea it was actually pretty decent. They made a real push to up the quality even further when they initially started marketing over here under their own name. They partnered with an American designer for some of their line (the "Gregg Bennet" guitars) and the early ones were actually good deals. Electronics tended to be pretty cheap, and hardware as well, but the basic fit, finish, and fretwork was often the equal of the American and Mexican made "name brand" (i.e. Fender, Gibson, etc.) instruments. (Sadly, this is almost more the result of the QA at those manufacturers going into the toilet than it is a reflection of how great the Korean made instruments were.)
I've got one of those Gregg Bennett SG knockoffs set up for slide and it's got very nice tone and is quite attractive.
Like everything, it seems, greed raised it's ugly head and the bottom line began driving the company pretty much to the exclusion of everything else, I'm guessing around the late 90s or maybe the early 2k's. They moved most of their production to China and Indonesia and the instruments (guitars, at least) are nowhere near what they once were.
I know from friends that Samick pianos were also once considered quite decent instruments, but I've no idea if they've tanked or that still holds true.
John
Ta muchly for the good advice.
