REVIEW - Samick SG110, SG310, & SG450 Digital Grand Pianos with NEW Fatar Pro Key Actions - Surprisingly Good for the Lower Prices & Very Attractive!

Samick pro acoustic grand

UPDATED REVIEW - April 2, 2013 - Samick SG450, SG310, & SG110 Digital Baby Grands - Recommended - The Samick Piano Company is a well known South Korean piano & musical instrument manufacturer which has been making acoustic grand and upright pianos for over 50 years. Their line of acoustic piano products include the Samick brand as well as Kohler & Campbell, Seiler, Pramberger, Knabe, and others. Samick is also one of the largest guitar building companies in the world and has made thousands of guitars for famous companies including Fender, Gibson, Yamaha, and others and also builds the Greg Bennett and Silvertone line of acoustic & electric guitars. I have personally played on and owned Samick acoustic pianos in the past as well as Samick made Greg Bennett guitars, so I am very familiar with their instruments and they are overall impressive for the price.

The Samick company (US headquarters Nashville, TN - left pic) has also built many digital pianos over the years, however these instruments were just average or below average (I have played many of them) and not competitive with other top piano companies like Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, or Casio, and I would not have recommended them in the past. But the Samick company has recently come out with some very attractive, well built, and nice playing polished ebony (and polished white) small digital baby grand pianos for 2012 in a lower price range all under $4500 store discount prices. I recently had an opportunity to play these new Samick digital Baby Grands and liked by what I felt and heard. I was impressed by the realistic hammer weighted key action which moved and responded to velocity and dynamics much better than other digital baby grands I have played under $4000. Beyond that, the piano tone was more realistic, although it wasn't up to the level of a Roland, Yamaha, or Kawai digital baby grand, but those brands are a lot more money in comparison (sometimes many thousands more). So for the money, the new Samick digital grand pianos are sufficient in producing a satisfying piano playing experience for many people (but not all people) and they look great too.

Two main reasons why I believe these pianos are much better than they used to be is because Samick has entered into a business relationship for 2012 and beyond with the Fatar key action company and the Orla digital sound electronics company, both of which are located in Italy. These two well known Italian companies have been designing quality digital piano components for many years and are respected in Europe and around the world. Samick is now using these two company's pro quality (I have played them and they are really good) graduated hammer piano key actions (with nice dynamic response) along with convincing stereo digital piano & instrument sounds and had them built into these new models. I believe the resulting outcome is that Samick has the best digital pianos they have ever offered and these instruments are at reasonable prices (in my opinion) for many people looking for a beautiful and well built furniture cabinet along with good piano action, sound, and digital features.

The lowest priced and smallest of these three new pianos with a premium European Fatar key action is called the SG110 mini grand piano (left pic) which will generally be discount priced at Samick piano stores for about $3495 (the SG110 is just available now while the other models have been out a bit longer). The polished ebony SG110 with 385 high quality instrument sounds and 3 full functioning brass pedals measures about 3 feet in depth from front to back so it can fit in many small spaces. The built-in stereo speaker system has 4 speakers going through 60 watts of audio power. This piano feels and sounds quite nice for its size and really looks attractive and is much better than the "off brands" I have played such as the ones from Costco and various music stores. The legs of the SG110 sit directly on the ground and have no casters like it's bigger brother the SG310, and the inside of the piano is all black to match the piano exterior.

The next model is called the SG310 (left pic) which is normally discount priced at stores for $3995. It is identical to the SG110 except that it has upgraded hardware & appointments including a 2-piece hinged lid (like a real acoustic grand), tapered legs, and measures 4'1" in depth, so it's a bit larger which is great for a slightly bigger space. The built-in stereo speaker system is larger and more powerful with 6 speakers going through 120 watts of audio power so it has a much fuller tone. This model is my favorite of the two because of its larger size, its looks, and sound, so as far as I'm concerned, it is easily worth the difference in price although that difference could put some people out of their budget. But you should also look at this as a long-term purchase as well. The key cover and legs have extra upgraded hardware on them and the music rack shape has a slightly different design than the SG110.

Both SG110 & 310 models have a realistic European made graded piano weighted hammer action with 3 functioning brass pedals with half-pedaling, 64 notes of polyphony which is OK for the price and fine for most people (128 notes would have been better), 385 very nice instrument sounds, 20 panel memories for saving your favorite setups, a 16-track general MIDI multi-track player/recorder using a USB flash drive to save and load songs which is very cool, and it plays educational General MIDI files too which is great for practicing your lessons and listening to the songs that are in the lesson books while you play:). Each of the 16 instrument tracks, including the melody line, can be individually muted (switched off) so that you can isolate certain parts for better understanding of how that part plays and sounds, which is great for learning and playalong. That is a very useful feature not found in many digital pianos. Go here for more info on how General MIDI lesson & song accompaniments can help you play better and have more fun: General MIDI songs & lessons

SG310 full size pic

Both pianos also have 3 standard piano pedals, keytouch sensitivity control to change the touch response, headphone jacks for private practice, a user friendly backlit LCD display screen, dedicated front control panel buttons, and stereo audio outputs and computer connections. There are also a number of other features on these two models that in my opinion make these new Samick pianos worth owning for many people. With good looks including sliding key covers, the ability to have the piano lid open up with your choice of two levels of height (full or 1/2 open), a matching bench, and nice sound and graduated hammer piano key action with some cool digital features, I believe these new small digital baby grand pianos are hard to beat (in this small grand cabinet style) for the money. Samick's US headquarters is in the Greater Nashville, TN area so they are local and offer a 3 yr parts & 1 year labor warranty good anywhere in the US. Based on everything I have seen and heard from these two pianos, I would recommend them, although for more advanced players there are better options.

SG450

Finally, Samick makes a top of the line model called a SG450 (left and lower left pics) which is the identical piano to the SG310 in most ways (incl size, speaker & audio system, General MIDI play/record features, etc) except with some very notable upgrades. Those upgrades include a bigger user LCD display screen and better control panel for easier to read information and more intuitive functions, 476 very impressive instrument sounds some of which are specialized dynamic sounds, a built-in Rhythm Orchestra with 520 musically correct automatic left hand chord accompaniment styles and drum patterns for all styles of music, a right hand harmony note system when you play one-finger style on the right hand (in other words you can be a novice beginner player and sound like you've been playing many years)...fun stuff:) You name the type of music style and the SG450 seems to be able to do it incl Classical, Jazz, Latin, Rock, Country, Big Band, Swing, Broadway, Ragtime, New Age, Christmas, Disney, and everything in-between. This kind of system is great for people who just want to have fun whether they are playing traditional piano (bass & treble clef) or they just want to explore new ways of playing music with chords (which I personally enjoy), or playing by ear. Other features include "continuous play music" from a USB flash drive for your own personal "player piano library" (all three models can do this) which is great fun for just listening to great music through your piano even if you are not playing it yourself, real time volume controls over various functions in the piano, a variable brilliance control for a variety of different acoustic pianos sounds, twin piano which electronically divides the 88 keys in half for two identical 44-key piano keyboards (with the same octaves and tuning) which is great for two people playing at the same time...very cool. Piano store selling price for this piano is usually about $4500. Both the SG310 & SG450 (pics below left) also come in an attractive polished white finish too.

Considering how heavy a regular small acoustic baby grand weighs, which is approx 600-700lbs, the lighter weight of these small digital baby grands makes them much easier to move and assemble than traditional pianos. The SG110 3' deep baby grand weighs in at 165lbs and the 4'1" deep SG310 & SG450 weigh in at 260lbs each. Not bad considering their size. But whichever Samick digital baby grand piano you may choose, I believe you'll likely have a good time playing it (depending on your skill level) and be especially pleased with how they look. There certainly are better digital baby grands for piano tone, dynamics, decay & resonance, key action, and other features, from Yamaha, Roland, and Kawai, but they would be more substantially money for those upgrades. Also there are digital baby grands for less money, but I have not found any of them to be acceptable even at minimum standards. You just don't normally get something for nothing out there. Samick piano company seems to be the one of the those manufacturers that has been able to fill a niche of offering higher quality digital grand pianos at very reasonable prices. However, if you are at a higher level of playing skill or you just want more acoustic piano realism in your digital piano, then you might want to consider just getting a regular vertical style digital piano in the same price range. Digital grand cabinets are a lot more money to produce so in some cases you'll get a better playing experience if you spend the same money on a vertical piano in another brand like Kawai, Yamaha, Casio, or Roland. There are many things to think about when investing in a digital piano and I can help you figure it all out if you contact me.

If you want more piano info and LOWER PRICES than internet discounts or sale prices, please email me at tim@azpianowholesale.com or call direct at 602-571-1864.

* Also, below are 2 piano video demos. One is of the SG450 (in white) from the US Samick headquarters. The other is of the SG310 (SG110 would sound the same) and also the console upright version called the SDP31 which is the same piano as the 310 except the 310 has a much better sound system & key action and it's in a grand piano case. The guy playing the SG310 in the video is a pretty amazing player:)