Watch PCN Tours - Ken Smith Bass Guitars

During his days as a stand-up bassist, Ken Smith gigged with the likes of Frank Sinatra Jr. and Perry Como. He also laid down bass lines for Broadway shows and commercial jingles. These days, instead of finding Smith in an orchestra pit or a recording studio, you're more likely to find him clinging to the side of a mountain of lumber choosing wood for his hand-made electric bass guitars. "The World's Greatest Hand-Made Basses" emanate from the small town of Perkasie, Pennsylvania. After Smith selects the best wood for his instruments, he traces a template on it that shows the silouhette of the body of one of his basses. Then the outline is cut out with a bandsaw. After sanding, assembly, finishing, and electronics installation, the finished bass will come full circle to Smith's bench for final adjustments and inspection. When Smith is choosing lumber, he says the results often fall within three categories. "If it's not good enough for one of my basses, it might be good enough for a piece of furniture. Anything worse than that goes into the furnace to heat my building." Learn more in this PCN Tour offering

PCN Tours - Ken Smith Bass Guitars is a 2009 documentary with a runtime of 1 hour.