Samick RL4 Royale early 2000's - Red Mahogany

Samick RL guitars are often categorized as “mid range budget” guitars but the Royale is a step up.  True, I like my $1,800 Stratocaster and my $1,700 Telecaster better.  But due to the high quality of this RL3 “Royale” and the pickup upgrades, turns out, this thing sounds like my Strat (but the Strat does have a better “feel” to me).  And this RL3 comes with a hard shell, custom fitting, leather bound case. 

If you aren’t familiar, Samick makes many Epiphone, Washburn and other brands of guitars under contract.  Their best guitars are made in Korea versus those now built in China and Indonesia. Most guitar experts think the best guitars Samick has ever made were the made in Korea (had to click on "United States" because Reverb site doesn't have a droplist with "Korea"), Greg Bennett series.  And top of the line in that series is the RL4 Royale.   

This RL4 Royale differs significantly from the more cheaply made Samick’s.  The Royal frame is actually carved out of a solid block of mahogany with a solid piece of thin mahogany (I.e. not plywood) for the back and top.  The neck is also mahogany with a rosewood fingerboard and beautiful crown style frets.  Mahogany is prized as a guitar material because it produces a warm bottom end, a controlled high end, and a perfect midrange.  For reference, the Les Paul is mahogany (though Gibson uses Honduran mahogany which is better and much more expensive).  Mahogany trees only grow in the wild in places like the Amazon or the tropics of Africa or Madagascar and the wood has become rare and very expensive.  Based on it’s excellent workmanship and mahogany construction, the value of this RL4 Royale is likely going to go up, possibly quite a bit.

The Gotoh tuners are great.  But there is one really serious defect with most Greg Bennett guitars (that has been rectified in this one).  The pickups are awful.  Samick says “Seymour Duncan design” pickups in their advertising and they are a cheap knockoff.  Try one in a shop-the guitars sound tinny when played through an amp.  When I saw that the previous owner had replaced those with GENUINE Duncan humbuckers, I snapped this up.  The pickups are why THIS RL3 Royale sounds as good as my Strat.  Those genuine Duncan pickups cost $250 to $300 plus a bit of soldering labor to install.  

The other thing I don’t like about this Samick is the tuning knobs.  It’s a big plus to have individual tone AND volume knobs for each pickup but the knobs that come standard look and are cheap.  Spend $30 and put on some good ones.  Very easy to do with a small screwdriver.    

I am rating the condition of the guitar as “Very Good almost Excellent” but I know that is subjective so let me tell you why I don’t give it a “Mint” or “Excellent” and you decide.  The guitar hardware is done in gold plating (don’t know if it is real gold or not, my guess is probably not) and the tailpiece part of the bridge assembly has oxidized a bit (my tele has done the same thing).  It doesn’t take away from the “stunning” factor much, at least to me.  There is a very small nick on the neck, so small that I could not get a picture of it and it takes a fair amount of time to even find it, you have to feel around to notice it.  Also, a small and two very small nicks in the leather that covers the case.  I included pictures of all of bridge oxidation and the case imperfections.  The guitar looks flawless as the pictures show.

Now…for shipping.  Because I hate to pay shipping, I’ll pay $50 toward shipping this to you.  I’m in Raleigh so mostly, in the East, that $50 covers all or most of the shipping (for now, shipping costs are increasing weekly).  If you live in the West, think twice because to ship this to California costs $105-so not quite free shipping to you.  

It's hard to read the serial number so I will spell it out: S040710379

Features:

l Single cutaway semi-hollow body

l Bound arched mahonany top

l Bound mahogany set neck

l Nut width 1 5/8”

l Rosewood fingerboard 12” radius

l Crown inlay

l 22 fret 24 1/4” scale

l Gold hardware

l Gotoh tuners

l Stop tailpiece with adjustable bridge

l Genuine Seymour Duncan pickups (not the cheap “Duncan design” pickups that come stock).

l 2 volume 2 tone controls

l 3 way pickup selector switch

l Form fitting leather covered hard shell guitar case