REVIEW - Samick SDP45 Digital Piano - Surprisingly Good & Loaded with Cool Features

Samick Acoustic Grand

The Samick Piano Company is a very well known & respected 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 currently owning Samick made Greg Bennett acoustic guitars, so I am very familiar with their instruments and they are quite good.

Samick SDP45 polished ebony

The Samick company 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 at all competitive with top companies like Yamaha, Kawai, Roland, or Casio, and I would not have owned one in the past. So it comes as a big surprise to me that the Samick company has recently come out with some very attractive, well built, and very nice playing polished ebony or satin dark rosewood furniture cabinet digital pianos for 2012 called the SDP45F in a lower price range under (approx) $2400 store discount prices. I recently had an opportunity to play this new Samick model and was very impressed by what I felt and heard. I was impressed by the realistic graduated hammer weighted key action which moved and responded to velocity and dynamics better than many other new digital pianos I have played under $2400. In fact, the ability to express yourself in an acoustic piano way was very good considering my disappointing experiences with other less expensive instruments from Suzuki, Williams, Adagio, and others. So for the money, the SDP45F is more than sufficient in producing a very satisfying piano playing experience for most people and they look great too.

Two main reasons why I believe these pianos are so good 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 European companies have been designing high quality digital piano components for many years and are very 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 full 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 are now very competitive with the more well known names in digital pianos. And these instruments are at very reasonable prices (in my opinion) for many people looking for a beautiful and well built furniture cabinet along with very satisfying piano performance, sound, and digital features.

Sliding keyboard cover

The SDP45 that I originally played had the new European Fatar key action in it which is identical to the Samick digital grand piano version of the SDP45 called the SG450. The SDP45 is also offered with a lower quality standard key action (without the letter F in the model number name) which is different than the premium European Fatar key action. The difference is noticeable in my opinion with the standard key action being less smooth, less responsive, less dynamic, and noisier when the keys are going up and down as compared to the European key action. The difference in price between the two key actions is about $400-$500 or so (depending on the dealer) but the upgrade is well worth the difference in my opinion (if it's in your budget) because the key action movement is a fundamental part of any piano playing experience and it's the number one thing teachers and students look for when shopping for a piano. 

As far as other aspects of the SDP45 go, it has 3 full functioning brass pedals with half pedaling for graduated sustain length, 64 notes of polyphony memory which is fine for most people (128 notes would have been better but that does increase price), 385 very realistic 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. 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

SDP45 front panel

The SDP45 also includes a good sized user LCD display screen for easier to read information and more intuitive functions, a built-in 40 watt stereo sound system with 4 speakers (although the sound quality & overall volume could be better for the price - sounds way better through a good pair of headphones), a built-in Rhythm Orchestra with 520 exceptionally good automatic left hand chord accompaniment styles & drum patterns for all styles of music along with right hand harmony notes when played 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 SDP45 seems to be able to do it incl 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 and not go through traditional piano lessons or they want to explore new ways of playing music (which I personally enjoy). Other notable features include real time volume slider controls, a brilliance control for many variations of acoustic pianos sounds, and "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.

Fatar key action

To summarize, I would highly recommend the SDP45 especially in the polished ebony cabinet (more money than the standard cabinet finish but definitely worth it) with its beautiful finish and upscale design features, especially if you get the upgraded European Fatar Key action pictured on left (hence the letter F in the model number SDP45) which I highly recommend. With a 3 year parts and one year labor factory warranty, a very smooth European Fatar key action, a good internal speaker system, and lots of cool features, I believe this model will be a strong competitor (at its very reasonable price) in the world of new digital pianos and one definitely worth your consideration.

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