Session musician Ken Smith formed the bass building firm located in Perkasie, PA that carries his name in 1978. It has gone on to establish an enviable reputation for producing high-end instruments, and is especially noted for the quality of it’s woods.

Smith’s range of basses includes this BT Custom 6, which is a neck-through-body design. It’s center section is a five-layer “sandwich” of aged hardrock maple and bubinga, while it’s body “wings” are made with shedua, a very dense brown wood, grown in west and central Africa, which is reckoned to be some 130% harder than some species of oak. The BT also boasts a QSR (Quick String Release) bass bridge, 24-fret neck, and twin Smith “soapbar” pickups.