Nice, nice, nice... but YOW!

[BruceWane]

Ritter also did Phil Lesh's "Eye of Horus" Bass. To me, it looks more like "Large Intestine of Horus," but Phil seems to like it. Personally, that's a big "nope" for me.

View attachment 4604955

Phil's done so much LSD that this looks like a 3TS P-Bass to him

 

[Ethereal Thorn]

Ritter also did Phil Lesh's "Eye of Horus" Bass. To me, it looks more like "Large Intestine of Horus," but Phil seems to like it. Personally, that's a big "nope" for me.

View attachment 4604955

All that money in gear and he played thru a digitech bp200 yuck sorry but no thanks lol

 

[Pdaddy1978]

1) For those with a lot of money, $20K isn’t a lot. Ritter isn’t out to capture the Squire level market.

2) If you’ve priced classical musical instruments (a nice cello, perhaps?), $20K is cheap. Google what Yo Yo Ma’s cello is worth - hint: The world’s most famous cellist can’t come close to affording the instrument he performs on.

Are these types of basses the equivalent of Yo yo's cello?
Considering the music that's been created on instruments of far less value, I meant that it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the average player spending that on a bass.
If you want to look it at as "art", then I get it.
I guess....
Yo yo probably takes real good care of his cello,..but I'd have a hard time taking a 20,000 dollar bass to a gig at Joe's bar.
Art gets hung on the wall.

 

[Jeremy Crockett]

Ritter also did Phil Lesh's "Eye of Horus" Bass. To me, it looks more like "Large Intestine of Horus," but Phil seems to like it. Personally, that's a big "nope" for me.

View attachment 4604955

In all fairness, Phil did tons of LSD in his youth.

EDIT: Gah! Beaten like a red-headed stepchild by @BruceWane .

 

[micguy]

Yo yo probably takes real good care of his cello,..but I'd have a hard time taking a 20,000 dollar bass to a gig at Joe's bar.
Art gets hung on the wall.

He does his best, but he almost lost it once - left it in the trunk of a NYC cab. He takes the thing everywhere, including the equivalent (in his world) of "Joes bar" - he plays a lot of different places with a lot of different musicians.

I understand that $20K is a lot to most people, but literally everyday most people get in a car that costs more than that (at least when it was new), and park it in a lot where it's very likely to get dinged, vandalized, or stolen. We may be a bit overprotective with "expensive" instruments - most of us (myself included) don't play anything anywhere near that price, and I think we worry a bit too much. The good thing about bass guitars is you can get a world class instrument (in terms of playability and sound) for very little money (in the grand scheme of things). Whether the bass that works for you is $200 or $2K, it's still cheap in comparison to classical musical instruments (or even a nice acoustic guitar). Above that price, if someone wants something "special", I think it's fine - I have no desire for a Ritter, but for those who like that visual aesthetic, I have no problem with that. I play with guitarists that play on some very boutique instruments, but my opinion of them is based on the way they play, not their axe of choice.

 

[MNAirHead]

I own carbon wrap and various monolithic carbon fiber

Not confident that I'd ever buy carbon wrapped again... full carbon - in a minute

 

[Eilif]

How does someone rationalize spending 20 grand on a bass guitar?
Ok....art, I guess.
I just don't need, nor desire a work of "art" to play bass on.
Not even at half that price.
But its cool, I guess....

Ritter is at/near the top of the heap of electric bass builders. Price out an upright bass or violin or Trumpet from the most highly regarded builders and $20k won't seem so ridiculous. By those comparisons, the $8k that an earlier TB'er was quoted for a non-CarbonFiber custom Ritter is a relative bargain.

No doubt it's a heck of alot of money and the $20k'er will likely be bought as art by some rich collector. However, electric bass and guitar players do often have skewed expectations of instrument cost because our quality-to-price ratio benefits from among the best economies-of-scale in the entire musical instrument industry.