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Jens does it again!

#21
Holy Smokes, too much eye candy for this early in the morning! They are stunning visually but I have a standing agreement with my brain never to touch a Ritter or a Fodera for fear of being totally overcome by SEEEEEEEERIOUS GAS. I like the first 2 with the White Graffitti model slightly edging out the, I don't know what to call it, second one.
 
#26
AJ Brown said:
Has anyone here played a Ritter that might attest to the feel and tone of these basses? I know John Turner is doing a review, but anyone here with day-to-day practical experience?
Click to expand...

My Ritter (see avatar) is my main bass, that I've been taking to band practice, and gigs (once I have some, it's a new band). I've had it since late November and I've never been happier with a bass. I just did some recording with it over the weekend, but it's still being mixed...the engineer (who's also a bassist) was very impressed with the tone. The tone possibilities from the three band preamp are great, but I actually usually run it flat, and use the coil switching (single/dual for each pickup) and pickup blend...that gives you a ton of possibilities. It's so incredibly responsive to player style - if I'm sloppy it lets me know it. I'm never getting rid of it...it's a perfect fit for me. What else do you want to know?

Marshall
 
#27
Whenever the upper horn snaps off, a secret compartment of black forest Gummi Bears pops up, much to the delight of the player!!! Jens is thinking about making this functionality standard on any of his bass designs that might be suspected of construction weakness. Keep in mind, these are not the normal crap, soft American Gummi Bears---like most of Jens' hardware, he only uses the best----chewy, solid black forest Gummi Bears, best known for their brief cameo appearance in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". :)

Seriously, Jens basses are PURE GENIUS. Take a look at some of the comments on TB (and all over the Internet) regarding his gear. Most of the people that have offered a competent opinion on the subject have actual playing experience and/or ownership of his gear. Without question, he has established himself as a leader in the custom instruments marketplace as both a cutting-edge innovator and a consumer-savvy businessman.

I'll buy a Ritter bass when he starts implementing lined microtonal fretless fingerboards. :)

southpaw1 said:
Yep, some of those look really cool. Wonder how strong those upper horns are though - I could see it snapping off pretty easily :hmm:
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#28
AJ Brown said:
Has anyone here played a Ritter that might attest to the feel and tone of these basses? I know John Turner is doing a review, but anyone here with day-to-day practical experience?

I really like the avant garde approach he's taking to style, but to me, Ritter basses look more like works of art than functional axes (I know they are fully functional, and probably wonderful to play of course)... sort of reminds me of auto shows where they display one-off concept cars that never materialize. I'd be very afraid to take one to a gig.
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I own the Okon shown on the "models" page of the Ritter site:
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[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

The bass feels great to play. Average weight and well balanced. As already mentioned, the neck feels flat and wide - a little wider than say a 5 string Sadowsky, Fodera, or Benavente (if those references help). Two things that made the neck seem wider to me is that the board has a very large radius (near flat), and there is a slight bit of extra space between the edge of the fretboard and the outside edges of the low B and high G strings (very slight mind you, but it is noticeable compared to other basses - you can see this in the pic above). This was an adjustment for me at first but now I kind of appreciate having a little more room to work with my left hand.

The tone is deep and punchy and kind of reminds me of a bolt-on Spector only with tons more flexibility. The preamp is powerful and reminds me of a U-Retro Deluxe (w/ passive tone). The triple coil pickups are AWESOME!!! I may be weird (:D) but when I look at Lakland 55-94 I always wish I could reverse the pickups and get that fat humbucker more towards the neck for huge punch and then have a nice single coil jazz pickup at the bridge to blend in for a little zing on top, and the Ritter setup allow for this and sounds KILLER. With both pickups in single coil mode the bass can cop a decent jazz tone, and with both pickups in humbucker mode you can achieve near-Wal levels of power and rudeness.

I agree that this isn't probably the first bass you will reach for when heading to a local bar gig - I am very careful with mine. However, I think it would be kind of cool to show up to blues jam with one. :p
 
#32
hippiesandwich said:
I may be weird (:D) but when I look at Lakland 55-94 I always wish I could reverse the pickups and get that fat humbucker more towards the neck for huge punch and then have a nice single coil jazz pickup at the bridge to blend in for a little zing on top, and the Ritter setup allow for this and sounds KILLER. With both pickups in single coil mode the bass can cop a decent jazz tone, and with both pickups in humbucker mode you can achieve near-Wal levels of power and rudeness.
Click to expand...

Agreed with all the comments on playability and tone. I really like the neck and fretboard profile and string spacing.

I might be weird too, but I often use the humbucker neck, single-coil bridge setting. :cool: And sometimes, the Lakland setting...and often the jazz setting. For the band I'm with, the dual humbucker setting is usually too much, but I of course love it. All the settings sound great, but my favorite is the h neck, sc bridge one.

attachment.jpg


Marshall
 
#34
I think Jens could build something that looked like a Wish Bass and smear it with a combination of peanut butter and dill pickels and I'm quite sure the end result would be something I desired greatly.

The Magic Marker art is kinda funky and I think it works on the Ritter in white. The others (white paint swirls over quilt and that SWEET melted metal over satin black) are simply astonishing ans Mr. Ritter continues to set my expecations of him higher and in turn exceeds them.
 
#39
hippiesandwich said:
I own the Okon shown on the "models" page of the Ritter site:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

The bass feels great to play. Average weight and well balanced. As already mentioned, the neck feels flat and wide - a little wider than say a 5 string Sadowsky, Fodera, or Benavente (if those references help). Two things that made the neck seem wider to me is that the board has a very large radius (near flat), and there is a slight bit of extra space between the edge of the fretboard and the outside edges of the low B and high G strings (very slight mind you, but it is noticeable compared to other basses - you can see this in the pic above). This was an adjustment for me at first but now I kind of appreciate having a little more room to work with my left hand.

The tone is deep and punchy and kind of reminds me of a bolt-on Spector only with tons more flexibility. The preamp is powerful and reminds me of a U-Retro Deluxe (w/ passive tone). The triple coil pickups are AWESOME!!! I may be weird (:D) but when I look at Lakland 55-94 I always wish I could reverse the pickups and get that fat humbucker more towards the neck for huge punch and then have a nice single coil jazz pickup at the bridge to blend in for a little zing on top, and the Ritter setup allow for this and sounds KILLER. With both pickups in single coil mode the bass can cop a decent jazz tone, and with both pickups in humbucker mode you can achieve near-Wal levels of power and rudeness.

I agree that this isn't probably the first bass you will reach for when heading to a local bar gig - I am very careful with mine. However, I think it would be kind of cool to show up to blues jam with one. :p
Click to expand...


Sounds like a really comfortable neck to play after getting adjusted to it. Is your bass finished on both sides?.
 

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