1998 Samick San 450 guitar "Chuck Berry"




The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be celebrating Chuck Berry's birthday and his legacy with two special exhibits this week. We were sent these details:
The exhibits will open to the public on Thursday, October 18 to coincide with Berry's 86th birthday and kick-off the 17th annual American Music Masters series, Roll Over Beethoven: The Life and Music of Chuck Berry, beginning Monday, October 22 through Saturday, October 27.
See Chuck Berry's stage clothes, a guitar and more at the museum at 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd. Highlights include: • Vest worn at the Toronto Rock and Roll Festival in 1969 • An original photograph of three-year-old Chuck Berry in his St. Louis neighborhood called "The Ville" (c. 1929) • Chuck Berry/Chess Records recording contract (1958) • Handbill from a performance in Jamaica in 1961
See additional photographs, handbills and handwritten lyrics of Berry's at the Library and Archives located at 2809 Woodland Avenue (five minutes from the museum). Highlights include:• 1964 United Kingdom Tour program • Handbill for Chuck Berry with the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore West 1968 • Letter from Chuck Berry to Jann Wenner at Rolling Stone (1972)
The spotlight exhibits at the museum and the Library and Archives tell the story of the first artist to ever be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 by Rolling Stone icon Keith Richards. Berry has had a lifetime of brilliant musicianship and has inspired nearly every rock artist to date. The spotlight exhibits reveal nearly 40 exclusive artifacts from Berry's life such as sheet music to his 1955 hit song "Maybellene" that helped ignite the rock and roll revolution and his 1998 Samick San 450 guitar that features his trademark double-string, semi-hollow electric acoustic style.
The spotlight exhibit at the museum will be open indefinitely and the exhibit at the Library and Archives will be open through the end of 2012.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's Library and Archives is located just five minutes from the museum on the campus of Cuyahoga Community College in the LiPuma Center for Creative Arts, 2809 Woodland Avenue. Hours of operation are: Tuesday – Friday 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday and Monday: closed. Admission is FREE.

The guitar was manufactured in 1992, the SAN450 model was discontinued in 2001 when the Greg Bennett series was introduced. The specs for the SAN450 are as follows:

335 style body
Maple arched top, back, and sides
Mahogany neck
Rosewood fretboard
22 frets
24 3/4” scale
Dual humbucker pickups (stock Samick pickups, more than likely ceramic and designed similar to late 50’s style humbucker)
2 volume, 2 tone
3-way pick up selector
Chrome hardware
Die-cast tuners
Tune-o-matic style bridge with stop tailpiece. 


Made 1997 335 copy in dark red color. Gold hardware with creame knobs. Purchased this second hand, it nice condition and price about 1/10 of Gibson. I think features can be figured out from other reviews. I give it a 9 because fetures so close to Gibson.
Action, Fit, & Finish:
I dont know about the factory setting because mine was used but action is fine and intonation good. Seems to be easy to do some small adjustments. I have done a lot of guitar rebuilding and this seems to be quite good made. I give it a 8 because its not new.
Sound Quality:
I bought this guitar to complete my strat/tele sounds. I have a Ibanez GB10 also mut its a little bit too jazzy for some purposes so I wanted something closer to 60 R&R. My idea was to buy a used low-budget priced guitar not too young. I have done that before with an Epiphone from middle 80s and changed everything that was not good. I found out that there was not so much to change, only the strings to new and some cleaning. This is equipped with Wilkinson PAF ( I dont know if been changed) with brand name on top. The sound is very typical PAF, very close to my LPs, and just what I wanted. I mostly play with following chain: effect pedalboard with some single effects , Vox Tonelab SE , Marshall 40+40 W poweramp , Vox 2x12 tonecab. I give it a 9 because it is not a Gibson but close enought for me.
Reliability/Durability:
This guitar is already 13 years old and in very good condition. I do not know anything about the history of this one but it seems to be very reliabily.
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