Your first time (when you feel in love)

[Mark Tucker]

It also helps if you're Melvin Lee

Originally Posted by Tim Bishop

Very nice version of this tune! Great story behind this tune when the Temptations did it. I loved this arrangement.

As far as the bass sound with the KSD-5? Obviously a very nice sound for a bass in this price range! I was more impressed with the sound of this bass during the verse and chorus. Great bottom end tightness! Of course, tasteful playing does contribute a bit.

[Tim Bishop]

Originally Posted by Mark Tucker

It also helps if you're Melvin Lee

Well, maybe. There are many players out there without "the noteriety" that can flat bring it! Never discount that fact!

[Darren Lipper]

For me, it was a constant tone I was hearing...

I remember hearing TLC's "Waterfalls", and some Chaka stuff with Melvin Lee Davis...

and just thinking how smooth, fat, and sexy the bass sounded...

After I found out it was a Smith, I went to a bass shop in Louisville (I was living in southern Indiana at the time) and tried out Fodera, Spector, Alembec, Fender, etc.. the Smith just killed in terms of playability compared to the other basses...

and the one thing I have noticed is how consistant the playabitity is in every Smith I pick up... always butter.

I really feel that Smith basses bring a distinct vibe to whatever musical context they are put in. It's hard to put into words... like this classy instrument vibe, with a smooth funky phat sound, that also sounds killing in the upper register...

[Steve_M]

My first experience was at the Bass Centre when they were still based in Wapping.

They had an ebony faced BT6 for sale and it was pretty much love at first site - an instrument that lived up to all my expectations in every way (which is a rare thing). It was the only bass I'd ever wanted as much as my then current instrument, a Jaydee (which I still own and is still a killer bass but the Smith is warmer and fuller.)

I knew at that point that a Smith bass was going to be the ultimate modern bass, for me.

[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.