Magazines & Advertising

[Dennis Michaels]

now that is funny

[Greg Clinkingbeard]

If Fender basses (and their ilk) were good enough for Jamerson, Jaco and countless others, they are good enough for me.

I don't expect to own an 1814 DB anytime soon. Funny story.

[David Powell]

I have a admission to make. I have never purchased a guitar or bass magazine. I have seen several, but they were always passed along from friends. The main driver for the music / bass equipment I purchased was what I heard people playing on stage. This was for many years. I will admit also that during the past 30 years almost all the magazines I read were photography related. I can see photography in a magazine, but music? That you have to hear. So when I went to see performers I got to hear the gear. That's how I knew what different amps and basses sounded like and which ones I thought I could use. I remember seeing loads of bassists I admired using Fenders and Rickenbackers. So I bought a Fender because I wanted to sound like Roger Waters and Geezer Butler and I couldn't afford to sound like Chris Squire and Geddy Lee. I bought a Peavey amp because I saw Robin Trower's bassist using the same model and I could afford that but I really wanted a V6B like the one George Biondi of Steppenwolf was using. You could hear it so well anywhere in a large venue. My brother and I shopped for stuff we saw other people using on stage. Same with my Marshall and Gibson SG. It was the combination Donald Roeser and Tony Iomi were using so I knew what the sound of it was. If I saw something in a magazine, I'd probably be skeptical until I saw someone using it. The first time I knew what an Alembic sounded like it was from seeing a fellow playing one at the Dothan Civic Center;- in the Cate Brothers band. They weren't famous, but the sound was something you couldn't help but notice. That bass sounded amazing. Then Joe Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult started using one and I was a huge fan of that band, so for a while I thought those were the ultimate;- until Joe went back to using his P. Still though, Stanley Clarke used one when I saw him and several other players began to use them. I thought the sound was phenomenal, like a grand piano. It was the first thing I heard that blew the Fenders and Rics off the map.

The first time I saw a Ken Smith was in a guitar player magazine ad. Later I saw someone playing one, but I can't remember who it was now. I remember thinking that this was a good thing, first Alembic and now Ken Smith. I thought they were something like Alembic in concept. It looked like Ken was taking the instrument well beyond the point Fender and Rickenbacker were and that these were going to be the thing to get. Also a bit more practical than Alembic and not as heavy. Sleeker. That was probably in the late 70's. During most of the eighties and nineties I bought only really odd hand made musical instruments. No basses at all. Of course for years I didn't buy much other than cameras and photo gear. I was a professional photographer so my Fender was enough for me all those years and I used the Peavey head for a couple of decades also. When I got tired of carrying the huge cab, I just trusted what the fellow at Clark music recommended, no magazines involved. I traded the huge Peavey system for a Fender RAD. Call it downsizing!

The recent gear I have purchased was mostly found on the internet, but not the basses, just the accessories. In fact I will be buying an SD systems condenser mic that I found on the web looking for that type of mic and then found two very strong endorsements for it on talkbass.

When I started playing in bands again in the late nineties, I was used to researching anything and everything on the web, and I turned to the web to locate musical instruments and accessories. It just made sense by then. The first thing I wanted was a double bass. I found Bob Gollihur's site ironically after I had already heard about the instruments he was importing through another player in Savannah. When I upgraded my bass guitar finally, I just went into the Atlanta Bass Gallery and bought the best 5 string fretless they had that day. No internet, no magazine. For better or worse, they did not have a Ken Smith 5 string fretless. I feel almost certain that if they had that I would have bought that one because I knew Ken from talkbass and had known about his instruments for years. Even though I had been reading and posting on talkbass, I never read the EBG side. Not once even;- until after I had already tried and bought two new basses. It was irrelevant. I could go into the Atlanta Bass Gallery and try a bunch of cream of the crop instruments. I must have tried half a dozen that I had never heard of. The only ones that I had any forethought about were Modulus and Ken Smith. Why? Because Phil Lesh was using both. My main electric gig is a Grateful Dead tribute band and I needed something that could get the kind of tone he is known for. And I really needed it then, not in six months. Here again, what are the people I want to sound like playing? For some odd reason I also was dead set on a fretless. Well, ABG had neither one. No Modulus 5 string fretless, No KSB 5 string fretless. So I played everything they had with 5 strings and no frets and wound up with a Ritter, which is a very good bass. I'd never heard of him until that day. It just sounded good. Very good in fact and I thought of what was there in 5 string fretless, it was the best. The best fretted bass I played that day (and the only fretted bass I even checked out) was a KSB Black Tiger. It was great;- but I wasn't there for a fretted bass. I know. It sounds strange but you couldn't have sold me Bridgett Fonda with frets that day.

Now that I have a matched pair of Ritter 5-ers (Yep, the next week I decided that on the safe side I needed frets just in case and wanted something as functionally like the fretless as possible) and I have the luxury of time, I can get the Ken Smiths custom, just like I want them, and wait for them. So I guess when I order them, they will be the first basses I have bought that I first saw in a magazine;- way back in the late 1970's (You see Ken, that full page ad was worth it!) But I would be buying them because of the players I've heard playing them and the sound.

The only magazine I still have a subscription to is Rangefinder. It is a commercial photography magazine. I learn about basses on this forum and the other one, but I still listen to what people are playing mostly or what I can try out at Atlanta Bass Gallery. Jim Rubio has everything that I would be interested in and he is a sole proprietor running his own shop. I don't think I would ever buy a bass guitar anywhere else now. Double basses, if I'm in the market again, will be very careful try before buy deals.

[Ken Smith]

Years and years ago I was reading thru some promo material of one of the magazines. Included in the promo pack was a 'reader survey'. One of the questions was, if they buy instruments that are related to famous names using the? I would have thought this to be a biggie response wise but no, it wasn't. The biggie was that they but what they like after feeling and testing it out themselves.

This was back in the early '80s when I had time to read these 'bull crap' surveys. A persons ego filling out a form wont let him say he need to see a star playing it because his own judgment was superior to that of a rock star he would lick the feet of if given the chance. This was a Guitar Magazine focused mostly on Rock and as you know back in the '80s and even today, if some guy with fast licks, tight pants and a pin cushion face makes the cover of a magazine, those kids at home reading the magazine will jump up yelling "mommy, mommy, I want that!".. lol

Sad, but true!

Now, in my business when the magazines would approach me about that type of player ad or even a top player asking for an endorsement my answer was "Anthony Jackson doesn't care what Stanley Clarke plays!"

As at that time, they were both Smith customers and neither gave a rats behind what tools the other used. My Basses were mainly over 2k then and even though people bought them because they were seen, it wasn't because of 'who' was playing one but more like 'what' was that guy playing!

Around 1983 or so I was in my booth at the Chicago Namm show when a Japanese guy came up to me and said "your Bass is the most Famous in Japan". I was thinking how? I never sold any there. BUT, a few guys who had them like Anthony, Stanley and maybe one or two more had traveled to Japan using them. No names were mentioned about who played my Basses, just that the Bass itself was Famous.

It was around that time if not earlier that I took on the belief that making famous players models was not in my best interest. The Basses we made for Anthony would not at all be something I would market. Also, my BT model made then was a better playing Bass than what Anthony had requested so he could have his own one-of-a-kind Bass. Hey, let the Chef Cook the way he knows how to!

So, going with your gut feelings is sometimes the best voice you have to listen to! 'Go with what you know' as they say...

[Dennis Michaels]

All I know is you build the perfect basses "for me". I play them and don't really care who else does. Thank god many do tho or you may not be here today.

[David Powell]

I think when I was younger it made more difference to me who was playing which guitar through what, but that was greatly connected to the signature sound of the gear as well. Like Ritchie Blackmore just wouldn't have sounded the same on a Gibson, nor would Donald Roeser sound the same on a strat. For instance when I saw Geddy Lee, he used a Rickenbacker for almost all of the set, and switched to a Fender for Working Man only. He was still Geddy Lee, but the sound that stuck in my head was the sound of the Rickenbacker. When he switched to the Fender, he sounded different. It probably wouldn't have mattered who was playing those two basses, I could hear a certain sound there. And I never would have liked Rickenbacker based on a photo of Geddy Lee holding one. I'd have to hear him playing it. Same with the other gear. Hearing it in a live situation in a big hall was how my preferences developed.

If I remember right, the first Smith bass I saw live I didn't know what it was and it wasn't a particularly famous player then, but he might be by now. I made certain that I could remember the headstock, because the sound was really clear and full. The note definition was quite remarkable. Of course the fellow had great technique, but there is a great deal of the live sound that has to do with the instrument. The guy was playing with Maynard Ferguson's band in a pretty large school auditorium and I was pretty far in the back. So it is good to have that distinctive headstock because it really was a kind of "What is he playing" kind of thing. And after I checked out what had that headstock, I could spot a Ken Smith visually as well as by sound. During the eighties, those headstocks began to pop up with great regularity among the better pro players I saw.

I guess I still pay attention to what I see being played, but if I can get hold of one to play, that makes more difference. And I think my tastes in sound have changed, perhaps refined a bit as I listen to different music types. One instrument that really impressed me when I first saw it was the Clevinger. So I have a question that I'll frame Ken. In that you play fine double basses but build electric basses, have you ever considered building an electric bass that could be bowed double bass style? The name "electric upright" has never sat to well with me, I'd prefer "electric double bass" as a name for a vertical electric bass that has arco capability.

[Ken Smith]

Originally Posted by David Powell

I think when I was younger it made more difference to me who was playing which guitar through what, but that was greatly connected to the signature sound of the gear as well. Like Ritchie Blackmore just wouldn't have sounded the same on a Gibson, nor would Donald Roeser sound the same on a strat. For instance when I saw Geddy Lee, he used a Rickenbacker for almost all of the set, and switched to a Fender for Working Man only. He was still Geddy Lee, but the sound that stuck in my head was the sound of the Rickenbacker. When he switched to the Fender, he sounded different. It probably wouldn't have mattered who was playing those two basses, I could hear a certain sound there. And I never would have liked Rickenbacker based on a photo of Geddy Lee holding one. I'd have to hear him playing it. Same with the other gear. Hearing it in a live situation in a big hall was how my preferences developed.

If I remember right, the first Smith bass I saw live I didn't know what it was and it wasn't a particularly famous player then, but he might be by now. I made certain that I could remember the headstock, because the sound was really clear and full. The note definition was quite remarkable. Of course the fellow had great technique, but there is a great deal of the live sound that has to do with the instrument. The guy was playing with Maynard Ferguson's band in a pretty large school auditorium and I was pretty far in the back. So it is good to have that distinctive headstock because it really was a kind of "What is he playing" kind of thing. And after I checked out what had that headstock, I could spot a Ken Smith visually as well as by sound. During the eighties, those headstocks began to pop up with great regularity among the better pro players I saw.

I guess I still pay attention to what I see being played, but if I can get hold of one to play, that makes more difference. And I think my tastes in sound have changed, perhaps refined a bit as I listen to different music types. One instrument that really impressed me when I first saw it was the Clevinger. So I have a question that I'll frame Ken. In that you play fine double basses but build electric basses, have you ever considered building an electric bass that could be bowed double bass style? The name "electric upright" has never sat to well with me, I'd prefer "electric double bass" as a name for a vertical electric bass that has arco capability.

First, I don't know who the player was with Maynard. At first I though Gordon Johnson but he was with Chuck Mangione.

Second, the Bowable Bass has been made and exhibited in my Booth both at the NY Guitar Show (c.1986?) and NAMM a time or two back then but I was not the maker or brand. We did make some Fingerboards for the maker and sold him some parts as well. The builders name was Danny Augustino and he called it the 'Bass-o-lin'.

[Tim Bishop]

Originally Posted by Dennis Michaels

All I know is you build the perfect basses "for me". I play them and don't really care who else does. Thank god many do tho or you may not be here today.

I'm totally with you Dennis and I've always said that: "Ken makes a bass that is perfect for me and there just happens to be an S on the head-stock". Never have given "a rip" less about what magazines and/or endorsements show (unless of course it's Eden's and Smith's ).

A recent experience I'll attempt to keep short.......

I recently (and reluctantly) sold one of my favorite Smiths (a '97 Tiger Maple 5GN) to an acquaintance and bassist. Wonderful individual and player and I was totally wanting to help him out by fixing him up with THE bass. Understand, he was accustomed to a bolt-on neck feel (there's another thread on this topic, so, don't want to get into that debate here), so, a neck-thru would be a new experience for him.

I set the bass up perfectly for him (as we discussed set-up beforehand) before I shipped. At any rate, when he received the bass and played it, he later decided it was not the bass for him........come again....say what! This was the first time I EVER ran across anyone that wasn't pleased with a Smith. His decision was totally based on feel as I clearly understood and prepared him for that beforehand. So, I asked him "did you change anything"? To my dismay, he responded, "yes, I changed the strings from Taper Core Mediums to Lights" (which changed the set-up as we had initially discussed) .... .... errghhhhh!!! .... I said to myself: Take a deeeeeep breath in, now breeeeathhhh out......repeat.....ok.....

Yeah, I know, another lesson learned. Just goes to prove, you cannot please everyone (particularly those that don't understand the importance of set-ups). Had I anticipated this, I would have NEVER sold that bass. I'm hoping, as I've discussed with him, he will give it more time to work out the "feel thing", otherwise, I will be working toward getting that bass back ASAP!

[David Powell]

Originally Posted by Tim Bishop

I'm totally with you Dennis and I've always said that: "Ken makes a bass that is perfect for me and there just happens to be an S on the head-stock". Never have given "a rip" less about what magazines and/or endorsements show (unless of course it's Eden's and Smith's ).

A recent experience I'll attempt to keep short.......

I recently (and reluctantly) sold one of my favorite Smiths (a '97 Tiger Maple 5GN) to an acquaintance and bassist. Wonderful individual and player and I was totally wanting to help him out by fixing him up with THE bass. Understand, he was accustomed to a bolt-on neck feel (there's another thread on this topic, so, don't want to get into that debate here), so, a neck-thru would be a new experience for him.

I set the bass up perfectly for him (as we discussed set-up beforehand) before I shipped. At any rate, when he received the bass and played it, he later decided it was not the bass for him........come again....say what! This was the first time I EVER ran across anyone that wasn't pleased with a Smith. His decision was totally based on feel as I clearly understood and prepared him for that beforehand. So, I asked him "did you change anything"? To my dismay, he responded, "yes, I changed the strings from Taper Core Mediums to Lights" (which changed the set-up as we had initially discussed) .... .... errghhhhh!!! .... I said to myself: Take a deeeeeep breath in, now breeeeathhhh out......repeat.....ok.....

Yeah, I know, another lesson learned. Just goes to prove, you cannot please everyone (particularly those that don't understand the importance of set-ups). Had I anticipated this, I would have NEVER sold that bass. I'm hoping, as I've discussed with him, he will give it more time to work out the "feel thing", otherwise, I will be working toward getting that bass back ASAP!

Well, this is going off topic, but I can certainly feel you here. It falls under that "no good deed goes unpunished" category. Years ago, out of necessity I learned very well the painful process of properly setting up a tremolo strat. It's a MF cause everything you change changes everything else. But there is a systematic way to do it, it just takes time, and lots of it. So I get this neophyte fellow a great deal on a pawn shop strat, go to great pains to get genuine replacement hardware for a few things that were missing, bought some brand new strings and got the thing as near perfect as any set-up I've ever done. First time he changes the strings he changes the gauge to heavy because some idiot kid at GC tells him thus and so. And then he has to file the nut because the heavier gauge is sticking and he's wondering why his "action" is all high now, he can't get it in tune, and comes asking me what is wrong with this guitar I "sold" him;- "All I did was change the strings....", he says. !@#$$%!!!!!

Note, I never sold him anything. I helped him pick it out. And he blames me because I lined him up with it. OK, that's as much as I can bear to re-live. So I leave neophytes that don't take my advice alone now, and I never do anything to a guitar unless someone pays me. Otherwise they think you must be getting some advantage somewhere. They only respect your work if you charge them. So someone wants me to set up a tremolo strat- $100 minimum. The normal response is, "I can buy a guitar for that.." And I'm like "Fine, but can you play it that way..."

One of the things that impressed me the most about the KSB's that I have played was that the set-up was perfect everywhere. And the fret work is the best I've ever seen. There are many other things as well, but those stick out so far above the other makers that these are worth remark. Truly here in Atlanta, we have a treasure in the Atlanta Bass Gallery. But he never has enough fretless basses. I was in there a couple of days ago and he must have had 6 or 7 Smiths and not a single fret-less. I guess if he gets one, it goes pretty fast. But here, that place is great because you can really play and hear all the "best" makers' work. Of the top hand-made basses I think he sells more Smiths than anything else. I would say having Smith basses in these types of bass specialty shops is a great way to get the news across. There are some makers who you must deal with directly, and to me that is just too risky for an instrument that is truly an investment. Even if I were ordering an instrument custom to my specs, the fact that I have seen several in a store and been able to play them against other makers work is very important. Otherwise you don't have much to go on but looks and endorsements in magazines. With KSB, I think I would have no worries about a commissioned instrument;- but that is because of the long history of consistent quality. That reputation has been earned over many years.