My first Smith ... a long journey.

[Michele Caramazza]

I'm goin' on adding my impressions as I become more and more familiar with this amazing instrument...
Today I've spent some time playing it in passive mode. I know that Ken intend this mode to be used in case the battery fails and consider the active mode as the true voice of the instrument but I have to say that I really enjoyed playing the instrument in passive mode. Not to say that I prefere it over the active mode but it's refreshing to know that I have another tonal nuance at disposal. I hear a certain rawness in the instrument voice when played without engaging the preamp and I can totally see how this could be really nice in certain playing situations.
The lack of a passive tone control doesn't allow you to sculpt this tone but you have the controls on your amp for that.
Very nice!