Samick Piano Serial Numbers Lookup Serial
Samick Piano Serial Numbers Lookup

Also see Headstock Styles and Logo Styles for help determining when your guitar was made (particularly helpful if there is no serial number). Note: Any guitar with a serial number with the prefix 'SI' is Indonesian-made. Note #2: Guitars with no serial number were produced at many different times. Samick branded models did not start using serials until around 1987. Also, the Indonesian factory. Samick pianos have been awarded numerous Gold and Silver Medals by countries all around the world for excellence in tone, touch, quality, stability, durability, and overall superiority of materials used in manufacturing. Serial Numbers effective on January 1, of the year shown. 1885-3100 1903-56000. Gibson Guitars Guitars acquired the Hamilton name in 2001, when they purchased the Baldwin Piano Co. See Acrosonic or Baldwin for additional numbers. Serial numbers are for the first piano made in year shown.

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SAMICK

See separate listings for Wm. Knabe, Pramberger, and Seiler.

Samick Music Corp. (SMC)
1329 Gateway Drive
Gallatin, Tennessee 37066
615-206-0077
[email protected]
www.smcmusic.com

Pianos made by: Samick Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. Ltd., Inchon, South Korea; and Bogor, West Java, Indonesia

In 1958, in South Korea, Hyo Ick Lee founded Samick as a Baldwin distributor. Facing an immense challenge in an impoverished and war-torn country, in the early 1960s, using largely imported parts, Lee began to build and sell a very limited quantity of vertical pianos. As South Korea’s economy improved, Lee expanded his operation, and in 1964 began exporting to other parts of the world, eventually becoming one of the world’s largest piano manufacturers, now making most parts in-house. Over the next several decades, Samick expanded into manufacturing guitars and other instruments and opened factories in China and Indonesia, where it shifted much of its production as Korean wages rose. The Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s forced Samick into bankruptcy, from which the company emerged in 2002; it is now on a sound financial footing.

The company says that “Samick” means “three benefits” in Korean, symbolizing the management’s wish that the activities of the company benefit not only the company itself, but also its customers and the Korean economy.

Samick Music Corporation (SMC), the North American sales and marketing arm of the Korean company, distributes Samick, Pramberger, Wm. Knabe, and Seiler pianos in North America (see separate listings for Wm. Knabe, Pramberger, and Seiler). Samick no longer distributes pianos under the names Bernhard Steiner, Conover Cable, Hazelton Bros., Remington, or Sohmer & Co. The Kohler & Campbell line has been discontinued in North America but is still sold elsewhere. (For historical information about the original Kohler & Campbell piano company, see The Piano Book.) Most Samick-made pianos destined for the U.S. market are made in Indonesia. Some of the company’s upper-level Wm. Knabe and J.P. Pramberger instruments are still made in South Korea. SMC has a warehouse and office facility in Tennessee, at which it uncrates, inspects, tunes, regulates, and voices its upper-level pianos before shipping them to dealers.

In the 1980s Klaus Fenner, a German piano designer, was hired to revise the Samick scale designs to make the pianos sound more “European.” Most Samick pianos now being made are based on these designs. Most Samicks also have veneer-laminated soundboards, which the company calls a “surface tension” soundboard — essentially, a solid spruce soundboard sandwiched by two very thin veneers. With Klaus Fenner’s technical advice, Samick pioneered the use of this soundboard in early 1980, and it is now used by others as well. Tonally, it behaves much like a solid spruce soundboard, but won’t crack or lose its crown.

Samick Piano Serial Numbers Lookup Serial

Quality control in Samick’s South Korean and Indonesian factories has steadily improved over the years, and the Indonesian product is said to be almost as good as the Korean. The company says that new CNC machinery installed in 2007 has revolutionized the consistency and accuracy of its manufacturing. Climate control in the tropically situated Indonesian factory, and issues of action geometry, are also among the areas that have seen improvement. Many of Samick’s Indonesian pianos are priced similarly to low-cost pianos from China. The musical design and performance of Samick’s upper-level pianos — J.P. Pramberger, Wm. Knabe, and Seiler — have met with very positive response.

[Note: Samick-made pianos are identified using an odd system of serial numbers and letters that appears to vary from factory to factory. Please contact SMC for information on the date of manufacture of a Samick-made piano.]

Warranty: 10 years, parts and labor, transferable to future owners within the warranty period.

Acoustic Piano: Model & Pricing Guide

* See the Introduction for an explanation of pricing.

Samick Piano Serial Numbers Lookup

Model	Feet	Inches	Description	MSRP*	SMP*
Samick Verticals
JS-43	43	Continental Satin Ebony	8,549	6,158
JS-43	43	Continental Polished Ebony	7,719	5,638
JS-143F	43	French Provincial Satin Cherry	8,549	6,158
JS-143T	43	Satin Mahogany	8,549	6,158
JS-115	45	Satin Ebony	9,269	6,358
JS-115	45	Polished Ebony	8,549	6,158
JS-115	45	Polished Mahogany/Walnut	9,059	6,458
JS-247	46.5	Institutional Satin Ebony	11,019	7,598
JS-247	46.5	Institutional Polished Ebony	10,299	7,178
JS-247	46.5	Institutional Satin Walnut	11,019	7,598
JS-118H	46.5	Satin Ebony	9,989	6,978
JS-118H	46.5	Polished Ebony	9,269	6,558
JS-121M	48	Satin Ebony	11,019	7,598
JS-121M	48	Polished Ebony	10,299	7,178
JS-132	52	Satin Ebony	13,389	8,938
JS-132	52	Polished Ebony	12,359	8,418
Samick Grands
SIG-49	4	9	Satin Ebony	18,179	11,918
SIG-49	4	9	Polished Ebony	16,809	11,098
SIG-54	5	4	Satin Ebony	21,629	13,978
SIG-54	5	4	Polished Ebony	19,569	12,638
SIG-54	5	4	Polished Fire-Engine Red	26,469	16,858
SIG-54	5	4	Polished Ebony w/Bubinga or Pommele Accents	24,509	15,738
SIG-57	5	7	Satin Ebony	25,029	16,038
SIG-57	5	7	Polished Ebony	23,479	15,118
SIG-57L	5	7	Empire Satin Ebony	27,809	17,698
SIG-57L	5	7	Empire Polished Ebony	26,469	16,858
SIG-61	6	1	Satin Ebony	27,089	17,278
SIG-61	6	1	Polished Ebony	25,439	16,258
SIG-61L	6	1	Empire Satin Ebony	29,659	18,818
SIG-61L	6	1	Empire Polished Ebony	28,119	17,898