Samick Greg Bennett Guitars

[Jazzchief1]

Just was wondering if anyone had any experience with the Greg Bennett JZ4 jazz guitar. Any info would be usefull.

[RoyaleT]

I never had a JZ4, but have owned 3 acoustic GB"s, one A/E and their RL3 semi hollow. All very nice players, good Seymore Duncan designed pups in the RL, excellent Fishman electronics in the Rio Grande A/E. Solid top acoustics very nice. All are still in the family somewhere.

[Gramps]

I owned a JZ4 but sold it because it was too big and really heavy for an archtop. Your milage may differ.

[John Link]

I had one for a while also. It was too big for me so I too sold mine. It was a darn good guitar for the money, and had a really nice sound. I'm kind of sorry I sold it now. I paid around $500.00 when I bought it new.

[mongrel]

Not the full hollow body, but a JZ 123 which is the predecessor of the Royale RL5, I believe. A sturdy semi with trapeze tailpiece and rosewood floater. I pulled the factory buckers and put a set of Vintage Vibe HCC's in there. I really like the guitar and it gets the most play of my collection. I left the factory pots and switch and they have performed with nary a scratch unlike other Korean electrics I have owned. Only flaw is a low fret up at 19 but I don't go there much so haven't bothered to fix it. Bought it cheap off Ebay.

[FatJeff]

I own the JZ4 and have used it as my main jazz box for the last three years. It is a great-playing guitar, and has a very good sound plugged into my Roland Cube 80X Its sound is passable for bedroom practicing when unplugged (it's a laminate after all). I think the neck is very comfortable. I did have the frets professionally re-leveled and dressed after about a year...not because I sensed anything particularly wrong, but my luthier recommended it. In any case it's definitely a great guitar for the price and has served me well throughout my student years.

As mentioned earlier, it's not light. It can be prone to feedback (I have a pair of Doug's Plugs stuffed into the f-holes on a semi-permanent basis). I'm less fond of the gold hardware than when I bought it, and have considered replacing the bling-y tailpiece with a wooden one.

I previously owned a Royale RL5 and loved that guitar as well. The Koreans seem to have a way of making a very good-sounding and nice-feeling guitar.

[mambosun]

I bought a JZ4 2 years ago and it still remains my main jazzbox.

I too own a Telecaster and a Semi hollow Ibanez AS120, but the Greg benett is the only one I really enjoy playing jazz:

Perfect intonation, little need to re-tune it.
I love the neck feel, and playability, eventough I struggle from time to time with exotic chords, but its not the guitar.
Nothing to complain about cosmetics, woodwork, fit and finishing: excellent (for the asking price of course).
Regarding acoustic sound, I like it a lot, and enjoy it while practising,when I'm too lazy to amp it.
About amplified sound, I change the original floater PU for a Bartolini; while being a very good PU (pricey too), I'm not 100% sure about the improvement I got over the stock PU, (the law of diminushing return). Looking for a more lush sound I may decide on day to convert it to a set-in HB. Matter of taste here I guess.
Beside the Bartolini, The little 'upgrades' I did was a custom simpler black pickguard and a rosewood bridge.
To sum it up, excellent choice for the price, definitively to put in your short list and to give it a try...
Hope this help...

[Jazzchief1]

I appreciate all the feedback. I decided to go for it. It's a nice blond guitar at a price less than my pickups on my other guitars. Found it brand new at an estate sale. All I've done so far is new strings and a heavy duty capacitor, but pretty amazing tone.

[mambosun]

You're welcome!

Interested by what you've done regarding caps upgrade.
Could you explain in more details please?

[Jazzchief1]

I'm not really good at explaining how capacitors work other than they are a frequency regulator found on guitars and amps. I found a good explinatiion at ; electricguitar-info.com/guitar capacitors . I put Orange Drop capacitors on all my guitars. I used a big one Orange drop number 4381-000 from allparts. It is a .47. I had to wire the capacitor so it went down the F hole becaues it raised the pickguard and looked kind of funny. It made a great difference in tone. The capacitor is only around $12.00. My local guitar tech only charged me 20 to put it in.I hope that helps. Also where did you find a pre-made pickguard for the JZ4 or did you make your own?

[mambosun]

Thanks for your reply

I bought my JZ4 at a Luthier shop I know very well and asked him to make one for me.
It's a simple black pîckguard that replace the lame tortoise looking thing that came stock and which I disliked. I rembered having payed something like 20 €.
He offered me two custom knobs that look really nice.

I too initially planned to replace the tailpiece for an ebony one, expensive whim and purely cosmetics. Since my luthier advised me this won't really change the tone, I finally gave up. The stock one is so-so cosmetically speaking, but it's sturdy, doesn't buzz or ring, and I don't have any problem with it.

As already described, I too asked him to swap the SD stock floater for a better one (Bartolini Johnny Smith), but eventhough the upgrade was effective sound wise, that kept me skeptical about the Floater vs Set-in HB choice; The tone is really excellent but it seems it is not the one I was looking for. Exclusivelly my own mistake here ! Let me know your own experiment and findings here.

Anyway, I'll soon talk with my luthier about the conversion to set-in Humbucker option, in terms of budget and tone change I could expect.

That's why I asked you about caps, since the only weakness of the JZ4 for me are the 2 stock pots (vol and tone) which are neither effective nor usefull for tone adjustment, to my ear at least. So swaping the floater would require the pots upgrade and possibly the cap(s) as well.

[FatJeff]

I had not thought to comment on the knobs. I don't have a problem with the volume knob, but the tone knob is very sensitive within a very small range, meaning that there is a very small "sweet spot" and it's difficult to dial in. Turning just a little bit either way from the "sweet spot" ends up either way too trebly or way too un-trebly.

[mambosun]

I agree about the tone limited range, from "almost uneffective" to "mushy" at the very end of the rotation with a hard to pin-point sweet spot.
At least, this did'nt surprise me, since cost-effective guitar usually came with low-cost electronics.
Whereas in the Greg Benett, the volume pot totally puzzled me: In every electric guitar I owned so far, rolling off the volume pot-apart from obviously decreasing volume- usually affect the treble level as well, producing a somehow softer/ smoother sound.
With my JZ4, rolling off the vol pot reduces volume but without touching the treble amount, hence the resulting sound is far too thin.

I can't explain why.

[Jazzchief1]

When I put in the capacitor I upgraded to some nice CTS pots too. Now Im pretty happy with the contol. Thought about changing out the pickups to Kent Armstrong or Seymore Duncan floaters, but there is nowhere to hear them to know if there is a difference.

[mambosun]

About the CTS pots you mentionned for your JZ4, which pot value did you select? 500 or 250 K?
500k is usually for HB, while 250k for single coil PU.
Since the stock floater is a mini-humbucker (with a sound somehow in between SC and HB) I just wondered which would be the most suitable pot value option?

[Jazzchief1]

I put in the 500's but I think you could use either one. I also was told Alpha makes a mini pot that fits good with the pickguard setup but I have no personal experience with them.

[sixtiesreject]

Hello Hello--

Been looking closely at a Bennett RL - 2 guitar and there is no indication of where it was manufactured . Very well constructed instrument...seems to be Korean but online info says Bennett's are Indonesian [??]
Anybody have any facts about this ??
Thanx!

[RoyaleT]

I had an RL3, was a '02 or '03 and it was Korean.

[sixtiesreject]

Was there a "Made In Korea" label anywhere on your guitar?? The one I'm looking at has no label anywhere.

[sixtiesreject]

The serial number is:
I S 01120015

When I try to go to either "Greg Bennett Guitars" or a Samick site my ESET Antivirus blocks it!

[maggles55]

I have both an RL-3 and RL-5. Both are Korean. However, I seem to recall the cheaper ones are Indonesian.

[sixtiesreject]

What are the serial numbers on yours??
Thanx.

[RoyaleT]

The "I" S is for the Indonesian produced Samicks. If I remember correctly, mine had "Korea" beneath the serial # with only an "S"xxxxx serial#. From their new Gregg Bennett design web site, it looks like they discontinued the entire electric line and most of their old acoustic guitars, banjos, & mandolins as well. It's a shame, they produced some very nice instruments at great prices.

[sixtiesreject]

Hhmm.... I was curious about the "I" ! That's why I wanted to cross-reference the serial number with other Samick / Greg Bennett guitars. Anybody have any "I" serial numbers?
Strange that the Bennett site is blocked [as if it has a virus].

[jzucker]

their Royale line is very similarly constructed to the budget comins instruments that are going for about 3x the price. The comins have better pickups and hardware but the Royale line is a very cheap way to get a fantastic instrument.