loss of brilliance

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by Axel Weiss

Hello everybody,
after listening John Patitucci's first CD and Al Jarreau's "Hearts Horizon" in 1988 I was totally convinced and overwhelmed by the Smith tone. Immediately I bought a BT6 (3 knobber, mahagony core, Koa top), the only available in Germany at that time and I'm still playing that instrument.
In particular I love that brilliant "click" in the higher frequency range while striking the strings of Smith basses.
However, I've got a notion that brilliance of the bass has decreased advanced in years ?! Any idea what could be the cause ? Meanwhile the polepieces are rusted a little, have been adjusted for several times and are not in factory setting anymore. Apart from that the bass is in good condition.

If that bass came in for repair, we would clean it up, re-adjust everything to the way we ship them out new and put our Smith TCRM strings on it. Usually that does the trick. We just got an old BT6 in with the same problem. A few hours later, it sounded like new BUT, the aged wood does mellow out the sound and smoothness over time. The brilliance is still there but matured. That's all we can do or say from reading your post. Only with the bass in my hands can I really do anything about it.

Hearing JP on a 1985 Smith on a recording is not the same as playing the same bass in your house.