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June 28, 2004:
Chapter 2: First shapes
About
four weeks after my first visit at
Ritter Basses,
I had again the opportunity to visit the workshop of Jens Ritter. It was
great timing - was that an omen? -, because Jens' craftsman and
friend Daniel Böhm - called Dr. Daniel - was exactly at that time occupied
with milling the notch for the truss rod in MY neck. This couldn't happen
by accident.
At
this, he mills a long notch along the neck, in which he will lay an iron
bar with a screw thread where later on. The purpose is to prevent the neck
from bending up under the string tension. The thicker the strings, the
more tension will the truss rod have to balance. With a nut which you can
screw on the thread, you can adjust the bending of the neck. Here you can
see the milling on an already finished-worked neck:
While
the neck still has to get in shape, the body is already sculptured very
far! Jens Ritter has made some pictures meanwhile, directly after shaping
the body out of the wood. As you can see, the edges are not finally
grinded yet.
When I
came by, I could admire the almost finished shape of the body - and I even
could pick it up! I have to say: it really feels very good already!
As I
already mentioned here several times, I am fascinated by Jens' love to
every bolt, nut and screw. Another example is the cover for the
electronics. Most bass manufacturers simply take plastic covers. But Jens
builds covers from aluminum and gets them anodized in the right color.
This is for sure much more stable and from much higher quality. The
squarish recess will accommodate the two 9V batteries which will feed the
electronics. Lots of power!
Here
you can see Dr.
Daniel and Jens Ritter presenting my body - I mean the body of my new
bass, of course. Furthermore, Jens has made a bargain buy at his local DAY
store, which he shows here also.
But
let's stop disturbing Dr. Daniel at his work, so we can write another
chapter pretty soon! ;-)
See
you later!
Martin Motnik
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