|
May 21, 2004:
Chapter 1: The wood arrives
Today
I could photograph the first step of the building process of my Ritter
bass guitar, and it was a truly impressing moment! A short time before
Jens Ritter received the wood and found it worthy to be handled. For a
better imagination, Jens drew the outline of the future form which he
will saw out later. Everyone who was already browsing on
www.ritter-basses.com recognizes that this will become a Roya model,
in fact with 5 strings. But that's enough info for now ;-) !
On
this pictures you can see the wood for the body and the neck. The wood for
the body is very fine and evenly grained mahogany which promises a very
well-balanced and sustain-rich tone. The neck consists of 3-way glued
maple which will receive a ebony fret board. Click on the thumbnails for a
larger image.
Here
is the proof that this is actually "my" wood: ID no. 0419 and my name, as
well as a picture of my with the master himself: Jens Ritter!
Later
in his electronic workshop and in his office, Jens Ritter showed me how he
designs his basses and constantly improves design, electronics,
construction and hardware of his basses to make his perfect basses even
better. His attention to every nut, bolt and screw and his high quality
standard is unique, and it is more than ever a great honor to represent
his instruments - pretty soon anyway ;-) !
Here
you can see Jens designing one of the gimmicks which my bass will receive:
on the 12th fret there will be an inlay with
my name in the fret board. It
is not that I am very vain ;-), but it definitely reduces the risk of
theft...!
See
the specifications of my bass (ID no. 0419):
And
here is the proof that it's not only me waiting for a Ritter bass...
So far
so good! That was the first part! I hope you had some fun and you'll come
back again for the next part. I don't know the title for it yet, because
it is a surprise for me as well which step Jens Ritter will take next. But
be sure, it will be a good one! Meanwhile you can browse a bit on
www.ritter-basses.com!
See
you later!
Martin Motnik
Back to the overview |
