The Ken Smith Bass Guitar

A Ken Smith bass guitar is a special treat for any bass player. These are hand made in the USA to exacting specifications. New prices for a Ken Smith bass run from $2600 to as much as $8000 for the very top of the line. The company gets behind on making basses that have been ordered, so you will probably have to wait on you bass if you choose to order one direct from the company.

You can find a Ken Smith bass guitar in four, five, six, or seven string models. But the real artwork is in the beautiful woods used in these bass guitars. For instance, swamp ash has a light woodgrain that produces a punchy bright sound. Sometimes woods are used together, such as a light tiger-striped African mahogany punctuated with dark walnut. The different woods make bass guitars of different weights and with slightly different sounds, but each is a stunning work of art.

The lower priced Ken Smith line have bolt-on necks, while the more expensive ones have a neck-through design. All are made to high standards, however. Ken Smith has created innovations in bass guitar design that have spread to basses made by other manufacturers. A couple of these features are the graphite inlaid neck and the taper core bass strings.

The Ken Smith factory houses a collection of acclimated, aged musical instrument woods that is probably the largest collection in the world. Smith, himself, chooses the wood to be used for each bass guitar and does the final set-up of each one. The cheapest way to get a Ken Smith bass guitar is probably through a bidding site, like eBay, but even then, you are likely to spend well over $1000 for one of these beauties.

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