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Ritter inspired - total makeover

Morten_B

Morten_B

Jun 25, 2011
440
355
Aarhus, Denmark, Europe
#1
IMG_6132.jpg IMG_6325.jpg IMG_6330.jpg IMG_6444.jpg IMG_6456.jpg IMG_6518.jpg IMG_6709.jpg IMG_6736.jpg

Hi all - thought I would share this one...

About a year ago I bought this Ritter ''inspired'' bass build by Tokai (the lawsuit company), it's a one-off they made for NAMM a few years ago. I got it cheap and thought it was funny, so I bought it. The bass was made for a show, and that showed... It was basically unplayable: The neck pocket was all wrong, the fretboard was made of a terribly bad quality rosewood, the fretting was terrible... String spacing was weird: Very narrow at the saddle - very wide at the bridge... And the list goes on, and on and on.

I decided to see, if I could bring it back to life because there was something cool about this bass; very nice balance, low weight, very nice neck, and I think it looks cool.

First I worked on the neck: It was a PAIN to get the old fretboard off, but off it went. I wanted a thicker neck, so I glued some layers of veneer between the neck and the new fretboard, and I used a thicker fretboard (pau ferro).

The first picture shows the bass as it was when I got it. The headstock had the Ritter bass shape, but it was not rounded like a Ritter. I glued layers of veneer on the headstock and rounded it like on a Ritter. This way these veneer layers expands from the neck to the headstock. I also made a new truss rod cover of some pau ferro left from the fretboard blank. The final picture shows the finished neck. I have used stainless steel frets, rolled the edges and the picture also shows the veneer layers - they blend in well. The neck is now thicker and really nice to play. It has J-bass dimensions, so I made the string spacing as on a J bass.
 
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#2
IMG_6540.jpg IMG_6691.jpg IMG_6695.jpg IMG_6705.jpg IMG_6819.jpg IMG_6820.jpg IMG_6821.jpg Next I worked on the body...

First was the neck pocket. Next was to work on the string spacing. The bass had these individual bridges for each string, so I could re-use the bridge. I plugged the old holes and drilled new ones with the right spacing, to adjust for the thicker neck I made a 2mm thick aluminum plate to lift up the bridge slightly - and to provide an easy grounding option for the bridge if I will need this in the future.

The original pick ups were ok, but nothing special, and I had some EMG 35's (P4 at the neck and CSX at bridge). I needed to do a bit of routing to make them fit. I was really worried if the clear coat would crack, but it worked out fine. There were 5 holes for controls, so I installed an EMG BQS system preamp. There is very little spacing between the knobs, so it was really a tight and difficult fit. There was also a switch, and I have kept it and now use it for a kill-switch (mute). The preamp was wired up for 9V, but I wanted an 18V system, so I re-routed the battery cavity, and I made templates and new covers for both the batteries and the preamp. The existing ones was just installed on the back without being recessed, they are now and I installed the new covers with magnets. Pushing the cover at the right spot will lift the cover.

For the preamp I use a small trick I have taken with me from 30 years work with high end audio circuits... A virtual battery supply. A battery supply is -of course- free from mains induced hum/noise, but it's still not an ideal power source. It's impedance change with the charge, meaning that the reference for the preamp will change. This is nothing major, but when there is an easy way to deal with this - then why not do it? I install a small resistor (anything from 2.2 ohm to 10 ohm will do) in series with the positive wire from the batteries. After the resistor I install a high quality electrolytic capacitor across the positive and negative (across the red and black wire). The preamp is then connected to the cap. This way the preamp is ''isolated'' from the batteries, what the preamp ''see'' is the high quality cap that has the same impedance no matter the charge of the batteries. So a better reference for the preamp and the pick up's. Also since the preamp and pick up's no longer ''see'' the batteries you can use rechargeable batteries with no penalty in performance. The parts cost only a few bucks... Let me know if you need more info on this, I can make a small schematic if anyone is interested.
 
#3
Finally a few pics of the -almost- finished bass... I still need to work a bit on shaping the saddle and a few other details, but the bass is playable now... It's totally transformed..! Before it had a kind of dead sound, the sustain was not very good and the tone was a bit boring. Now it's very open, punchy and the sustain is really great. I love the sound of the EMG P bass pick up's. They have this great balance of warmth and openness...

It has been A LOT of work, but I really like how it's turning out and I learned a lot through the process. This is my first ''bass makeover''...

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#7
Thanks guys... It's been much more work than I anticipated, so I really appreciate your feedback :)

@Mads: My personal favorite amongst the changes and upgrades is the ''new'' headstock. I think it turned out really well.

@Robert: Here is a schematic for the 'virtual battery', it's very simple. The resistor can be anything between 2.2 ohm to around 10ohm. Don't use a too big value, as there will be a voltage drop over it. For the electrolytic use a cap something like 100uF / 25V-50V or 220uF / 25V-50V. The film cap can be an orange drop or similar polypropylene cap. As mentioned, what this does is, that the preamp and pick up's now ''see'' the caps as the supply source, not the batteries. The resistor is used to isolate the batteries from the caps.

IMG_6841.jpg
 
#10
Morten_B said:
@Robert: Here is a schematic for the 'virtual battery', it's very simple. The resistor can be anything between 2.2 ohm to around 10ohm. Don't use a too big value, as there will be a voltage drop over it. For the electrolytic use a cap something like 100uF / 25V-50V or 220uF / 25V-50V. The film cap can be an orange drop or similar polypropylene cap. As mentioned, what this does is, that the preamp and pick up's now ''see'' the caps as the supply source, not the batteries. The resistor is used to isolate the batteries from the caps.
Click to expand...

Awesome! Thanks for that! Is the white the positive pole of the electrolytic?
 
#15
Ahhh... Should have read your actual question ;) (English is my second language).... No need to change the circuit if you use 9V supply. You can go down to a 16V electrolytic cap, but since the parts are cheap there is no real need. I use 100uF / 50V because that's what I had.

And thanks..! I appreciate your comments on my makeover!
 
#16
I am a huge fan of Ritter basses. I'm not familiar with the "lawsuit company," though. I'm assuming this is a copy of the Ritter Roya style bass. This type of bass design certainly isn't for everyone, but I absolutely love them. Ritter has a way with shapes and curves that is very distinctive. You could definitely classify them as a dream bass for me.

The work you've done looks awesome, and of course resuscitating something like the way you've done it has its own rewards. Nice job! :thumbsup:
 
#18
Thanks..!

@brett... The lawsuit companies are Tokai and other Japanese companies who -back in the 70's I think it was- started making copies of Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker etc instruments. Somehow this was settled in a lawsuit, and after that point these companies were the manufactures of -for instance- the Fender Japan series. I don't know all the details, but this is the general story as I understand it.

And yes, this bass is a Ritter copy, or at least a copy of the Ritter shape / design. The materials are different. Actually, Jens Ritter saw this exact bass at NAMM a few years back, there is a cool video about it on the Ritter website where he acts as a journalist and try to interview the agent at the stand where the bass is displayed. It's obvious from the video, that the agent at the stand gets that something is wrong, but not what's wrong... Check out the video: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
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#19
Great looking "faux Ritter!" I love the headstock and body round-over improvements.
I would love to hear more (or see some pictures if you have any others) of the process of getting that fretboard off. I have a bass sitting in a closet that someone did a horrible fret job on and I don't think I can do anything but replace the fretboard. Did you get it off mainly by heating with that iron? Thanks!
 
#20
Thanks man...

The iron did not really work in this case. I hoped that they had used hide glue, but I think that it was regular wood glue of some sort and it was really, really difficult to get the fingerboard off. In the end I took a thin scraper and a hammer and then slowly hammered the scraper in between the neck and the board. The board cracked and broke off in smaller pieces, and I did get a few ''scars'' on the neck itself, but only minor and none that are visible after the new board was installed. This picture shows the neck after I -finally- got the board off.

It was not delicate work, and had this been on someone else bass I would not do this with the owner around ;)


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