First time showing off your bass in public

[Dennis Michaels]

When I bought my 5M in Indy the strings were dead. I bought it at around 5 o'clock in the evening. I bought strings and changed them. A few minor tweaks of the bridge to correct the action after string change and the tiger maple 5 made it's debut that night in the pit of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". I didn't tell the F.O.H. sound man of the change before the show. I set up my Eden preamp gain to be at the same level so I figured it really wouldn't matter to him anyway because he was seeing the same feed. He found me at intermission and said "What the F*** did you change down there. The focus and tightness of the change is astounding". I figured I would have to play with it for a week or so before it saw duty. You know, the tweaking and getting comfortable with a new bass and all that. Fresh strings and boogie baby. It was an old friend immediately. I can not imagine my career without Ken Smith basses.