Hi all!
I was playing in a public venue last weekend when the power went off so that I couldn't use my stage piano. There was a Samick upright which looks to be around the 110 cm tall category of uprights.
I started to play and I couldn't believe how utterly horrible-sounding it was. I was like rattling a box of ukuleles. Dull and stringy tone, almost like the silent practice pedal was down, only much louder! It seemed like a new piano - is this typical of Samicks?
Samick uprights
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Gill the Piano
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Samick and Reid-Sohn are identical AFAIK.
They are generally well-built, but some do indeed have a strident sound. My main bugbear with them is the ridiculously tight wrestpins rendering them untuneable in one visit if they've been allowed to slip, so unless they're regularly tuned, they can sound horrible. A few have clicky pins too (although the prize for total untuneableness due to clicky pins must go the the apalling Chinese "Schaefer") but for the money they're really not bad.
The 110cm models are a bit dated now, although I think Samick still offer an 85 note option which is handy for reasons of space alone. This enabled Reid's to offer the "Reid Restore" (see what they did there?) piano which was basically the option of having your Great Grannie's knackered but cherished old upright's casework removed and clad around a new Indonesian 85-note frame, action and keyboard, thus giving it a new lease of life in some form or another. This was an expensive process and results in a semi-convincing end product that at least works, but will inevitably be impossible to resell if ever you decide to. Resale is not really the point of the exercise though.
Some of the big 121 and larger Samicks are real U1 challengers though. Don't underestimate them, although these days a good Chinese piano like a Perzina 129 or Brodmann 121 (if you can still get one) are a better sounding option. A used Samick 121 for cheap money is a real goer though.
They are generally well-built, but some do indeed have a strident sound. My main bugbear with them is the ridiculously tight wrestpins rendering them untuneable in one visit if they've been allowed to slip, so unless they're regularly tuned, they can sound horrible. A few have clicky pins too (although the prize for total untuneableness due to clicky pins must go the the apalling Chinese "Schaefer") but for the money they're really not bad.
The 110cm models are a bit dated now, although I think Samick still offer an 85 note option which is handy for reasons of space alone. This enabled Reid's to offer the "Reid Restore" (see what they did there?) piano which was basically the option of having your Great Grannie's knackered but cherished old upright's casework removed and clad around a new Indonesian 85-note frame, action and keyboard, thus giving it a new lease of life in some form or another. This was an expensive process and results in a semi-convincing end product that at least works, but will inevitably be impossible to resell if ever you decide to. Resale is not really the point of the exercise though.
Some of the big 121 and larger Samicks are real U1 challengers though. Don't underestimate them, although these days a good Chinese piano like a Perzina 129 or Brodmann 121 (if you can still get one) are a better sounding option. A used Samick 121 for cheap money is a real goer though.