akabane

I've heard some interviews with him, and he always seemed a down to earth kind of guy. I think it's more probable he's just used to do things differently, you know, old dog, new tricks and all that. I still think that 50k is quite a bit. But especially if he records in expensive places, which is very likely (I'm guessing NYC), that's not too much money. He probably saw some indie get crowfunded and thought 'hey, I'm actually a known bass player (in the bassworld niche) so I could get that much?' At the end of the day, it's a crowfunding campaign. The only weird thing to me is that nobody in his circles offered to produce it and push it to some platform for revenue. He's not going to reach the goal, and will do the record differently. He gave it a go As far as I'm concerned, he should get Mike Stern on guitar! (By the way, 'Rocco Prestia Solo CD' sounds way, way too old for a 2019 crowdfunding campaign. It's not like appealing to the vintage vibe. He named it that way seriously. Someone should definitely help with settings these things up )

Don't care about Ricks, but the guy should've definitely asked £4001. ... ... Ok, ok, I'll show myself the door

While I personally find this new line dull, boring and rehashed, I'm DEFINITELY not 'classic' Fender's target customer, so, I'll just assume I'm a Jazz/Precision uber fan and were about to buy one to add to my 5 Jazzes and 7 Precisions. So, that put aside, the only thing that really annoys me is the fact they had to make a 'new line' out of them. So, effectively, just a reason to bump the price, again. It's the same instruments, built the same way in the same places, with now pauferro boards and a few colors. If I were in the market for a Fender I'd be just shaking my head whispering a disappointed "Why...?" To me they should just name the same line year after year and that's it. "Hey, new basses! Here's a Fender Jazz Bass 2019, here's a Precision 2019 '60 Reissue in Gold, here's a Mustang 2019 Vintage '70" and so forth: just add variation to the existing line, why the hell branch out. People will still ONLY be looking online for Fender Jazz or Fender Precision basses. Oh, right. New sticker, price spike! ...oh well. At least they're not 'COMING FOR YOU, boutique builders who use Fender or Fender-inspired designs' (still shaking my head and laughing, Gibson) and they didn't introduce a neck through, 4-woods sandwich with a 5 parts neck 6 stringer. Still good old Fender. By the way, THAT would have been the funniest discussion to read among you people EDIT: By the way, Fender, if you ever read this, please do offer me a job in your marketing dept. I've got this idea and know how to realise it (as it's just...how can I put it, a change in procedures mostly), which I still haven't understood why it hasn't taken place in the instruments world, that will make you heaps of cash, without having to resort to these things every year. Or I'll just start making my own instruments and apply it there, be the first to market and BE A PIONEER! MWAHAHAH *evil laugh, will conquer world later*

Congratulations! It's beautiful! You're right, it looks like a BSR shape but with a shorter upper horn and thinner body?

Well, yes, in relative terms, you're right, considering that sound and craftmanship are really up there with the top ones, and been around for longer than most (longer than Fodera for sure ) However, I had to buy my beautiful Black Tiger second hand, and spent a cool £3100 which I had saved up for quite a while If I came across £5/6k+ I'd directly contact Ken to have a custom one built! That is true! Incredibly thin and resonant bodies - I'm actually curious to try a BT on (always tried and now own BSR shape) to see how the weight distribution changes.

Yes, the nut is one of those great touches that makes you appreciate a KS more And yes! MTD (Michael Tobias Design) IS also very expensive, AND great sound and feel to match As far as the 'OG handmade bassmakers' go, back then it was Alembic, Michael Tobias, Ken Smith, Vinny Fodera, Carl Thompson, Stuart Spector. Any one of these are incredible instruments. To this day, Tobias (now MTD) builds everything in an incredibly small workshop in the middle of nature with his son (who's now started playing with headless designs!), a bit like Ken Smith when he was in Perkasie with his small crew of builders...and Fodera, originally a couple of blocks away from the Smith shop! So yes, any of these cats will charge quite a lot for their instruments. They're all worth the money

@Al Krow Well, goodmorning to you sir! Ahah they all look beautiful! (Even though I'm not a fan of the Hadrien Feraud model, so I'm talking more about that White and Black tigers ) Which one are you bringing home with you??

Really liking the sound, clear and still bass-y That gave me slight Manring vibes, good stuff!

Beautiful - W&T have one of the few interesting single cuts I've seen in the past few years, and they sound really good. Plus, that fretboard looks lush. And they're made in italy, so I'm a proud expat If you manage to get some sound samples I'd love to hear them!! Congratulations!

Hmm..how is that excluding what I said though? I mean, seriously? I'm inspired to play by {whatever artist}, so I need to play it on a 2 string plonker made of Tesco bags? What about: anyone is inspired by {whatever reason/artist} and they are also inspired to play THEIR instrument, which is {whatever instrument, including the aforementioned plonker OR a 20k Fodera) ? No? I come in and take away your favourite instrument (which likely you drooled over for a bit, maybe saved for it but definitely bought) and you're just like 'Pfft whatever, got my second and third favourite bass here, I'll put on some Carol Kaye to make up for missing my first favourite'? You really don't separate your sources of inspiration? My reply was because josie said they felt pretentious bringing what could look like a 'high quality' instrument in front of an audience, which I don't agree with - they bought that instrument because they love it and love playing it. Whenever they are playing they should feel at their best, and if they have a favourite instrument to do so why should they feel shy or conscious about it when playing in front of others?

I completely disagree here - you should never feel like justifying your gear with your audience. Why feeling that way? If you're in front of an audience it means that you're good enough to play an audience, they're here to hear you play, not check out what kind of bass you have and judge you If it takes a 5 strings and a half, 54000£ sandwich of 34 layered rarewoods to inspire you to play at your best, why the heck not (assuming you can afford it )

Thanks for this!!

Names! Names! Names!

I see. If I were to order a custom instrument and had a sound in mind (especially if I have a bass already that kind of matches that sound) I would make sure to provide enough sound samples and make sure the 'estabilished design' is the same estabilished design I am talking about and feels good to ME (eg an instrument I own I'm taking inspiration from). I don't know, never understood someone who goes on the phone with someone like ACG or Shuker and goes 'you know, I want a super duper jazz, you know what I mean right? Throw maybe a cool figured top, how much is it? 3k? Allrighty then, coming your way tomorrow!' and then be surprised to be disappointed by the result EDIT: Also considering that, at the end of the day, MOST of what would be changed would be pickups and/or electronics to match better with the original spec, so it wouldn't even be such a disastrous result for anyone and wouldn't take more months to fix...

Something I've never understood about customers for custom bass builds. You give the luthier a spec. He and you agree on such spec.You pay a considerable amount of money, then after a few months the instrument appears on your door. You take it out of the case, super excited, just to see it's the farthest thing from the spec you've agreed on, for which you've payed top money. How is it possible you haven't returned it to have the actual instrument you paid for delivered to you? To me that makes no sense. Especially for builders that actually have some kind of reputation (and I'm assuming Maruszczyk being one of them, as apparently they're pretty highly regarded in here). If I had to suffer an economic loss from that, instead of selling said instrument at said loss straight away, being bitter about that build for the rest of your playing life and having wasted months waiting for it where you could have had what you actually wanted built, I'd rather spend that money on a plane to go knock at said builder's door and return the bass personally. I see this happening ALL THE TIME, how is it people give no care about their money but moreso their time? The builder took your money and gave you a red apple instead of a green apple after growing that specific apple just for you. It's their fault, period. Unless, of course, they kept you completely up to date with vids/pics of building process throughout those months and you didn't even care to check what they were building against your own spec sheet to fix things in time?

Hey Ahah yeah, I know! It's not often something found stated in this forum After accepting at an early age that changing instruments doesn't change the way I play, all I'm left GASsing for is aesthethic pleasure. That, combined with the fact that in my eyes 'beautiful basses' are like Ken Smiths, Foderas and Marleauxs, also means that fortunately my wallet pretty much NEVER allows me to satisfy my GAS. Which then turns into frustration. So I reckon that this 'ability' for me to GAS every few years is my mind's defensive response to the brash reality of the fact I can't afford the gear I'd like Considering that ALL the basses that EVER SERIOUSLY gave me GAS in my whole life were (and except for the Contra which is a recent - as in few years ago - all the other desires date like 15 years back haha): -Yamaha TRB JP2 (owned for lots of years, then sold for the...) -Ken Smith BlackTiger 6 (the subject of this adulation topic) -Fodera Emperor 6 Elite (Figured Koa or Walnut) -Marleaux Contra 6 (Old Violin finish) Considering that a new Contra 6 is 7-8k (second hand they're pretty impossible to find) and the Fodera (second hand if I find the one I like) will likely be around 6-8k, I'll never own neither, considering that by the time I'll be able to afford either, inflation will have taken care of my actual possibility of doing so, considering I'm not going to sell this Smith for either of these So then on one hand, I very marginally care about the 'tone' of an instrument unless it's really complete crap, I've realised years ago I sound like me everywhere (which is not...good...ahahah), in the past 10 years pretty much any bass above 500£ will deliver a solid tone and durable construction, so after that it's really sugar on top. Bit faster neck, better builds or woods etc...so in my case, effectively I only look at whether it feels good in my hand and pleases my eye. For what pleasing my ears is concerned, unfortunately my rig only helps so far...my fingers are to blame! That's really a great demo of the 'Smith sound'. Well done whoever it is!

That is one BEAUTIFUL Wal. Congratulations on the newcomer! I'm a 6 string player, moved directly from upright and a brief stint on 4 strings electric, so I feel your pain. On one hand, the 'string location' issue will rearrange itself in your muscle memory, just give it some days/weeks of practice. For what the ringing muting is concerned, that might take a bit more time, especially if you're only used to muting with your fretting hand. On a 6 it's even more accentuated than on a 5, so I had to really change my right hand technique to adapt for that - I tend to use a mix between Patitucci's and Anthony Jackson's right hand techniques to mute, when I'm on my lower 2-3 strings I'm using Patitucci's technique, when I'm on high registers/higher strings I switch to Jackson's. The main difference is Patitucci uses the thumb as an anchor on the low B, ring and little fingers muting the E and A, index and middle free for fingering - and you can see his thumb slide across the B string to let him access the strings further away, and it contracts back to play on E or B. In case of Anthony Jackson, I've always seen him mute with a mix of both fingers (similar to Patitucci but without the anchor, but 'a finger per string' effectively) and he also quite likes muting the strings with the palm and the side of his palm. As I said, I ended up mixing and matching these two techniques as required - if you can get a consistent sound (which then becomes another issue, in case of using multiple fingering techniques), feel free to do the same!! But to start with, I'd say pick ONE of these two, and start practicing using ONLY that technique. Only switch or mix if you're not happy with the results after a few days/weeks of practicing that way! I'd have stayed with the Patitucci method if it wasn't for the fact that on the higher strings it doesn't feel as comfortable as Anthony's for my hands. My 2 cents, I'm sure you'll go past this like a champ. As for everything, it's a matter of spending time with the instruments and understanding how you relate and move around it Happy Walling

Ahah I've always found a 6 strings wide neck fascinating, like a beast to tame! Also, all my sixers in the past have been that wide if not more, so I'm used to them by now And to think that it's that broad, yet the string spacing is 'just' 18mm! Go figure how much bigger it would feel with a more '4 string style' 19 or 20mm I always joke that you could land jets on the boards of my basses EDIT: And now I'm curious! Please dig that Shack bass out if you can I saw the video before it changed to this Adam Neely one hahah! To be fair, if I could play any bass like Patitucci, I wouldn't probably feel the GAS that brought me to buy this. And yes, Patitucci was my first proper inspiration for electric bass playing (which is reflected in my instrument choices ) Thank you! It looks stunning indeed, and as you said, it feels probably exactly as you're imagining. Smooooooooth handling. And yes, the plan is for it to be my 6 for life! Ahah! Thanks, and poor Ibbys! They are great instruments, and some of the higher end models also look great in my opinion

Thank you! I think there's enough in the UK and here on BC that you should be able to try one. That being said, I think Bass Direct can order one, but I'd rather contact Ken Smith and enquire with him about taxes and his exporting experience for new builds. Maybe he can put you in touch with some new owners in Europe that can tell you what it's like. After all, every distributor still needs to pay import tax, and you'll pay for it...cut the middle men!

Both very beautiful!

Thanks, I fell in love with the figuring on the walnut on it! It sometimes can feel like playing a piano!

Thank you, it really is! I bought it from a guy in France, who bought it from the first or second owner in the US. It now has 15 years, but aside of a couple of scratches it's in awesome condition!

Oh hello, everybody! New Smith owner here! My new bass so happens to be this beautiful 2004 Black Tiger, BSR6TN! It''s always been a dream of mine to play a Smith like this. I don't need to tell you all KS lovers how good she sounds

@thebassist - that Emperor is pretty much exactly the embodiment of what the perfect Fodera looks like in my mind, beautiful choice! My entry for this topic, newly acquired Ken Smith Black Tiger BSR6TN!