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I was just watching a local station which shows tours of PA businesses and manufacturers. I had previously seen the Martin guitar factory one, and today I saw one on Ken SMith Basses. Man, they make some sweet basses in that shop. I was always skeptical of manufacturers of "custom-made" guitars and assumed many of them were made in big old factories like the rest, but this shop is SMALL. THey showed guys doing the neck to pocket fitting by hand, gluing the plies for the neck thrus and everything. Anyone own one of these? If so, do they play as nice as they look?
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Ken Smith Basses
I was just watching a local station which shows tours of PA businesses and manufacturers. I had previously seen the Martin guitar factory one, and today I saw one on Ken SMith Basses. Man, they make some sweet basses in that shop. I was always skeptical of manufacturers of "custom-made" guitars and assumed many of them were made in big old factories like the rest, but this shop is SMALL. THey showed guys doing the neck to pocket fitting by hand, gluing the plies for the neck thrus and everything. Anyone own one of these? If so, do they play as nice as they look? -
Re: Ken Smith Basses
Ken Smith's are some of the worlds best basses, for the reason you saw, everything is custom hand made with attention to the smallest detail, and nothing is rushed. They have introduced some lower priced models recently which are being made in Japan. I havent seen any of these, but everytime I see a US made one, its impecable, and of course, very pricey............Comment
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Re: Ken Smith Basses
Ken Smith's are some of the worlds best basses, for the reason you saw, everything is custom hand made with attention to the smallest detail, and nothing is rushed. They have introduced some lower priced models recently which are being made in Japan. I havent seen any of these, but everytime I see a US made one, its impecable, and of course, very pricey............Comment
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Re: Ken Smith Basses
I had a Burner custom ....awesome!! [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]"Bill, Smoke a Bowl and Crank Van Halen I, Life is better when I do that"
Donnie Swanstrom 01/25/06..miss ya!
"Well, your friend would have Bell's Palsy, which is a facial paralysis, not "Balls Pelsy" like we're joking about here." Toejam's attempt at sensitivity.Comment
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Re: Ken Smith Basses
I had a Burner custom ....awesome!! [img]graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]"Bill, Smoke a Bowl and Crank Van Halen I, Life is better when I do that"
Donnie Swanstrom 01/25/06..miss ya!
"Well, your friend would have Bell's Palsy, which is a facial paralysis, not "Balls Pelsy" like we're joking about here." Toejam's attempt at sensitivity.Comment
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Re: Ken Smith Basses
My brother gets Bass Player magazine, when I'm at home I usually check them out....a few issues back they had a factory tour of Ken Smith basses. The part that I thought was the coolest was that Ken Smith buys up a lot of wood straight from lumberyards and stuff, and he then stockpiles it in the furnace room to dry out for years and years...Comment
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Re: Ken Smith Basses
My brother gets Bass Player magazine, when I'm at home I usually check them out....a few issues back they had a factory tour of Ken Smith basses. The part that I thought was the coolest was that Ken Smith buys up a lot of wood straight from lumberyards and stuff, and he then stockpiles it in the furnace room to dry out for years and years...Comment
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Re: Ken Smith Basses
I noticed his guitars are primarily maple and walnut, both pretty easy to come by. i was most impressed by the fact that there are no spray guns used in the finish. They are just oiled about 5 million times and hand varnished. That is insane. I saw the price list, and alot of the stuff was selling for between 1800 and 3000, which really isn't bad considering how much you would pay for anything from Gibson. Hell, even Fender charges that much for their custom shop stuff and I'm sure it is nowhere near as "handmade" as these basses. I'm not even a bass player, but it is really cool to actually see how much work goes into one guitar.Comment
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Re: Ken Smith Basses
I noticed his guitars are primarily maple and walnut, both pretty easy to come by. i was most impressed by the fact that there are no spray guns used in the finish. They are just oiled about 5 million times and hand varnished. That is insane. I saw the price list, and alot of the stuff was selling for between 1800 and 3000, which really isn't bad considering how much you would pay for anything from Gibson. Hell, even Fender charges that much for their custom shop stuff and I'm sure it is nowhere near as "handmade" as these basses. I'm not even a bass player, but it is really cool to actually see how much work goes into one guitar.Comment
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