Ken Smith Basses Move Production Back To Pennsylvania
Four years after announcing a subcontracting deal with Brubaker Guitars, Ken Smith Basses has announced that they will be resuming the production of their own USA-made basses. The news was shared on the Ken Smith Facebook page.
“In order to achieve our highest quality of manufacturing, we are proud to announce that we will continue to manufacture our handmade instruments in Pennsylvania,” they write. “We’re also proud to announce we have reached a milestone in producing 7,000 Instruments since 1979! We appreciate all of our fans and support over the years and will continue to satisfy our customers with our highest quality products.”
Brubaker’s shop just outside of Baltimore, Maryland had been producing Smith basses in since 2019. In a press release at the time, Smith sill handled the “initial wood selection as well as all final assembly, inspection, and setup.”
Ken Smith Basses shared with us that they will be starting off by producing their CR4 and BSR 4 bolt-on models, eventually adding neckthrough four-strings and five-strings with six-string models available again in 2024.
Ken Smith is a pioneer of the bass-building world. He built the first modern six-string bass for Anthony Jackson and helped develop many features found today like the graphite inlaid neck, detented balance and EQ controls, and taper core strings.
