Wood selection

[Desmund Nichols]

I was sitting home practicing my 5TN, and I started wondering. What made you want to use Tiger Maple and Walnut woods? But not only those woods, all the woods that you use. Come to find out, most bass builders use Ash and Alder, but I have yet to see a Ken Smith bass with those woods on it. What made you decide that you were not gonna use Ash and Alder, but use the woods that you use?

[Ken Smith]

I was sitting home practicing my 5TN, and I started wondering. What made you want to use Tiger Maple and Walnut woods? But not only those woods, all the woods that you use. Come to find out, most bass builders use Ash and Alder, but I have yet to see a Ken Smith bass with those woods on it. What made you decide that you were not gonna use Ash and Alder, but use the woods that you use?

The first basses we produced were mostly maple. A few years later I used walnut mixed with maple. After trying both woods as cores and tops, it became the favorite. If it wasn't good, we wouldn't be selling them. Good clean walnut is not easy to get in any quantity as far as the averages go with that species. I just happen to specialize in walnut and mix it with maple. It works for us.