So, How Many Smith's do YOU own?

[Tim Bishop]

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to share this Ken. Very interesting.

[Bill Bernhard]

I have just one Smith right now. I have a '97 BSR5M, and I love this bass. Prior to this one I had a '85 BT4 set neck, passive. Played the heck out of that one, it was my only freeted bass from '86 to 2004, when I switched to 5 string. Hindsight being what it is, I wish I could have kept that bass and added the BSR5M, but I REALLY wanted a 5 or 6 string with active electronics. One thing about the '85 BT, that I think is a telling tale of the Smith Basses. I went to buy a new bass, I knew very little about Smith basses back then. I spent hours trying out everything they had, Alembic, Steinberger, Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, etc. I ended up picking the best sounding and playing bass they had, even though at the time it had little name recognition (to me). That ended up being the best purchase I've made.

Bill

[Bob Faulkner]

I have just 1 Smith. Mainly because they cost a lot and my days of plentiful cash have gone by.

I have a total of 3 basses; a Lotus I bought used in '92 that I learned on, and will be buried with, an Ibanez I bought in '94 because while I love the Lotus for sentimental reasons, it plays like 3 month old crap, and my Smith. Obviously the other basses are garbage compared to the Smith, in both build quality and play quality. I replaced the P pickups in the Ibanez with some Duncan quarter pounders so it actually has some decent tone to it though.

I'm going to buy a beater 5 string fretless in the next few months to have a fretless instrument to practice on without having to worry about the finish. Once I'm proficient on 5 strings I'll buy a Smith 5 fretless for serious playing. I love playing 4 string, and will pretty much stick to that most of the time, but on some songs I'll need to go lower than E and I hate detuning to get there.

No bass I've ever played comes close to feeling as good as a Smith.