When Samick Music Corp™ Guitars hired Greg Bennett to redesign and market their line of guitars; it marked a new era for a company that had been building guitars for almost 40 years. Although the factories of SMC™ has been commissioned to build guitars for many popular name brand guitar companies over the years, their own line of guitars were often thought of as budget guitars lacking in quality. Finding this reputation to be unsatisfactory, they embarked on a campaign to create a line of guitars that were of high quality, while at the same time keeping prices affordable to all guitar players. When the dust finally settled in Greg’s Nashville design studio, SMC™ introduced an extensive new line of stringed instruments known as the Greg Bennett™ series. We at Guitar Gear Heads™ were fortunate enough to acquire three of these new model guitars which we will be reviewing over the next two months. For this review we will be looking at the Ultramatic™ electric guitar.

The Ultramatic™ UM4



Knowing that people are partial to guitar designs with familiar look and feel, Greg did not try to reinvent the guitar, but instead chose to base his designs on many popular styles. Where Greg’s genius manifested itself was in combining these familiar styles with well thought out appointments and subtle improvements at an unbelievable price point. A perfect example of this design philosophy is the Ultramatic™ , which was inspired by the body style made popular by PRS™. Fortunately for us, Greg was not enamored with the price tag!

Out of the box, the Ultramatic™ is a beautiful guitar. It features an alder body with a maple top. The model I received had a deep emerald green transparent finish over high tech quilt maple. It has a double cut away arch top body that is extremely light making it a great gigging guitar. The set neck is bound mahogany with a rosewood fingerboard. The hardware features Grover™ tuners, and HH Duncan Design™ pickups. The UM4 that I received also has a Wilkinson™ Tremolo system. If a tremolo is not your style, check out the other Utramatic models with the stop tailpiece and tune-o-matic bridge.



I have played many guitars during gigs where you feel as if you need use part of your arm strength to hold the neck up. This causes unnecessary fatigue over the course of the night. This is not the case with the Ultramatic™. The compact headstock and the extended top cutaway make this a very balanced guitar. It is designed to distribute the weight evenly allowing you to concentrate on your playing and not on constantly adjusting the guitar on your shoulder. Combine this with the light arch top body and you have a guitar you can comfortably play for hours.

The design of the body allows the neck a deeper pocket on the bass side, which gives the neck more strength and stability. The additional benefit of this is a great improvement in sustain. The low-profile heel and lower cutaway give you easy access to the upper register without feeling like you need to be a left hand contortionist. Now you can have fun exploring those high notes, instead of dreading the attempt.

Out of the box, the setup of the Ultramatic™ is exceptional. The intonation was perfect and the action was buttery. It took very little effort to hold barre chords down along the entire length of the neck, and scale runs were effortless at every position. I was able to bend strings in all locations without a hint of fret buzz. Speaking of frets, the fret job on this guitar is superior to any fret job I have experience on a guitar in this price range. Because this guitar required less work to play, I felt like I was able to maintain a lighter touch, allowing me to play a bit faster and with more finesse.

The electronics are very good. The control cavity plate on the back of the guitar gives you easy access to the wiring and controls. The solder points on the wiring were very solid. I experienced no crackling or shorting out problems. The volume and tone controls were smooth throughout their entire range. The Duncan Designed pickups have a warm, full sound that works great for blues, jazz, classic rock, and country. The frequency spectrum is very balanced, eliminating those chirpy highs fighting with the boomy lows. The three way switch and tone control used together allow you to dial in great tone for a wide variety of styles.

I would have no second thoughts about carrying this guitar on stage. It looks good, sounds good, and plays excellent. It plays so well in fact, that I have already burned through the first set of strings just playing it to get the feel for this review. It is a hard guitar to put down and I would put this guitar up against guitars costing hundreds more. If you play different styles of music, this guitar would be a great addition to your collection.

If you have not played a Samick guitar for a few years, you owe it to yourself to give them another try. Greg Bennett has put quality guitars within reach of virtually every player. If the Ultramatic™ is a sign of things to come, I can’t wait to see what Greg still has up his sleeve. If you are looking for a new electric, acoustic, or bass guitar, go check out the Greg Bennett designs at www.samickguitar.com . They are sure to have a model or two that will suit your needs.

The Greg Bennett designed Ultramatic UM4 receives the Guitar Gear Heads approval award for 2004.


Gary Allen


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