Your first time (when you feel in love)

[Mike Jenkins]

I'm a minister and I come from a pretty musical family. After messing around with various instruments in my youth (I’m still pretty young) I never really learned how to play anything well enough to be called a musician. A few years back the musical jeans lying dormant in me sprang to life and I started to get serious about the bass. In church I've heard many musicians play bass but I never paid attention to what brand of instrument they were playing.

I was a guest speaker at a church one day and I could hear the bass player so distinctly. I watched him carefully the whole day. He was playing through this crappy little amp but he sounded so good and the instrument he held looked more like a finely sculpted piece of art than a bass. After the service I went over and talked with him complementing him on his sound and I mentioned that I was an "advanced beginner" on the instrument. He told me he was playing a Ken Smith. I was somewhat familiar with the name because I’d been told that a lot of gospel bassist played Smiths. He then asked if I wanted to try his Smith. I strapped that big sixer on, later I found out it was a Black Tiger Elite, and played away on it. It felt very natural, it was easy and comfortable to play and it was my first time playing a 6. I figured that if he could sound that good through that crappy little amp with that bass then what could he do with a real rig. I went home and looked up Ken Smith on the net and declared that some day I'd get one.