A systematic investigation of Symanzic improvement in the gauge field action is performed for the static quark potential in quenched QCD. We consider Symanzik improved gauge field configurations on a 16^3 X 32 lattice with a relatively coarse lattice spacing of 0.165(2)fm. A matched set of standard Wilson gauge configurations is prepared at beta = 5.74 with the same physical volume and lattice spacing and is studied for comparison. We find that, despite the coarse lattice spacing, the unimproved and less-expensive Wilson action does as well as the Symanzik action in allowing us to extract the static quark potential at large qqbar separations. We have considered novel methods for stepping off-axis in the static quark potential which provides new insights into the extent to which the ground state potential dominates the Wilson loop correlation function.