Favorite Top woods and why?

[Keir Riggs]

Definitely looking forward to it !!!! Thank you for the info Sir !!!

[Carlis Hsu]

I have one with Shedua top and it looks, no, it is art, fantastic.

Now I am fascinated by the idea of tiger maple top+core because I love the dense figure so much. and I presume that a maple core+top will make the lightest Ken Smith bass?

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Carlis Hsu

I have one with Shedua top and it looks, no, it is art, fantastic.

Now I am fascinated by the idea of tiger maple top+core because I love the dense figure so much. and I presume that a maple core+top will make the lightest Ken Smith bass?

Lightest in color maybe but not lightest in weight.

For weights of our woods, please take a little time and study the charts that I personally made from weighing several individual samples of woods in MY stock here in the building, dried and ready to use.

The information published in books are not accurate for our use because of the moisture level used and the possible variety of the sample, figured or not. Also, all other wood info I have seen published buy builders is either copied from a book or imagined but from what I have seen, not scientifically studied and weighed.

http://www.kensmithbasses.com/woodpa...econtents.html

[Bob Faulkner]

All the Koa hate!

I'm quite pleased with my BSR4EG with Koa as the core wood!.. The color of the wood mixed with the flame figure in the Koa really makes the edges of the bass pop to me, and I can't find anything about the tone of my bass to complain about!

I specifically requested Koa be the core wood in my bass!

My favorite top would be quilted maple, though the highly figured walnut tops Ken has come up with have almost converted me..

[Franck Callebert]

I vote for flame mapple and figured Shedua top !

[Carlis Hsu]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Lightest in color maybe but not lightest in weight.

For weights of our woods, please take a little time and study the charts that I personally made from weighing several individual samples of woods in MY stock here in the building, dried and ready to use.

Do you remember any Ken Smith bass that was particularly light in weight?

I wonder how important the weight as a factor would be for a good tone, and if a light weight would compromise that tone.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Carlis Hsu

Do you remember any Ken Smith bass that was particularly light in weight?

I wonder how important the weight as a factor would be for a good tone, and if a light weight would compromise that tone.

Light in weight? Given that the Necks and everything else would all be the same, only the body wings would be different. I think from medium woods, you can go up a pound for the heavier woods and down a pound for the lightest possible woods.

If we use a 3-pc neck, it will be lighter than the 5pc. The laminated heel with just maple, is also lighter. Morado fingerboard is again lighter.

The lightest core wood we ever used was Palownia. It looks like swamp ash but feels half the weight. But, it's soft and doesn't sand easily against the other woods so we only tried it once that I can recall. Plain un-figured walnut is about the lightest top wood we have used.

If the body is too light and the neck is normal, the bass could be neck heavy. Balance is the key, not light on one end of the instrument.

[Scott Pope]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

Balance is the key, not light on one end of the instrument.

Absolutely! Over the past 36 years of playing electric bass, I've always had more fatigue with instruments that were either body or neck heavy instead of balanced, even if the balanced instrument weighed a pound or two more overall.

[Jason Mendelson]

What first turned me on to Smiths in the 90's was seeing the beautiful Flamed and Quilted Maple tops.

I still say a 5A Quilted Maple / Flamed Maple top would take the cake...