[Gaetano Paul]

Hey guys. One of my students brought his churches Ken SMith bass with him to his lessons this week. The tone was amazing, it was so nice. $3000 bass, he plays for the "gospel" church, and really knows how to hold a groove. The funny thing is, yes it had a $3000 tone, but as far as playability wise and overall feel, I like his Fender Jazz 5 hands down. It baffled me how such a nice bass just did not have the playability. The neck is so wide and big, action fairly high etc.

Anyone else ever encounter a Smith, or maybe some other high end basses?

[Micahb]

Basses (well, instruments in general) are so much about the person.
I have four basses, one of them is a custom made '62 p-bass copy that sounds and feels good no matter who you give it to. The others are kind of iffy.
By 'iffy' I mean they are weird and quirky, and I love them to death and people compliment my tone lots, but when they pick them up they just hate it.

I haven't played a Ken Smith yet, but I have played a lot of very expensive basses and sometimes it just doesn't click. For example, Fodera. I played about four of them in a shop once and could not get a single good sound. None of them even 'felt right' to me.
But I have heard them sing and until I played one I thought it was my dream bass. Just not for me.
Then I saw this interesting looking bass on the wall. I picked it up and the shop owner told me to not be surprised it I hated it, most people picked it up because it looked cool but just didn't dig it at all.
I plugged it in, messed around for a bit with the EQ on the amp, and about five min. later I was in love. I played for about twenty minutes - just couldn't put it down. I came out and the guy looked shocked and told me he had never heard it sound like that.
The guy could have just been trying to make a sale, but when I walked in I told him that I was flat broke and not looking to buy anything at all in the near future, I had just never seen these basses in person before and wanted to try, so I have a feeling he wasn't lying.

So, the moral of the story is don't write off a bass because it is too cheap/too expensive/doesn't have the name you want on it... just pick it up and play the thing and see what you think.

[martinedwards]

I have a pal with a Kubriki factor bass.

made in the fender custom shop while Kubriki was out of action.

PLAYS really nice but I don't like the tone. too trebbley for me. I like a bass to sound like a BASS.....

[caeman]

Never handled a Smith, but feel is indeed a personal thing. I love the feel of my Johnson 5-string Jazz, a $300 bass. I've played a few other brands, even had a Modulus in my hands for a whole week, but wasn't very impressed with it. It didn't feel like a $1500 bass. I've played a MusicMan 5-string fretless than did feel like $3000, though.