Jens Ritter Instruments is a manufacturer of high-end electric string instruments. It was founded by Jens Ritter in the mid-1990s and was known as Ritter Bass Guitars until 2010 when Jens expanded his line to include

guitars The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

. Jens produces 50 to 60 handmade instruments each year in his shop located in the small wine town of

Deidesheim Deidesheim ( pfl, Daisem) is a town in the Bad Dürkheim district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany with some 3,700 inhabitants. The town lies in the northwest of the Rhine-Neckar urban agglomeration and since 1973 it has been the seat of the ''V ...

, Germany. A number of well-known bassists play Ritter Basses including

Phil Lesh Philip Chapman Lesh (born March 15, 1940) is an American musician and a founding member of the Grateful Dead, with whom he played bass guitar throughout their 30-year career. After the band's disbanding in 1995, Lesh continued the tradition of ...

, Josh Duhamel, and Doug Wimbish. Jens Ritter instruments are best known for their progressive design and construction, artistic appearance and limited availability. They also produce strings and other accessories.

History

Jens Ritter was born on July 11, 1972. When he was seven years old, Ritter constructed a primitive bass guitar out of an old food can, some wire, and a small piece of wood. At the age of sixteen, unsatisfied with the basses he'd been exposed to as a player, he decided to modify a bass to his liking and at age nineteen built a bass of his own design. After completing school at an academy of technical arts, he started his own company. More recently, Jens spent time studying Stradivarius violin-making and has also studied engineering and oscillation principles which he employs in his designs. Jens' atelier was built in the 17th century and was once served as a winery. It is located in

, Rhineland-Palatinate, just minutes from the Rhine river and not far from where he was born.

Ritter Royals

Ritter Royals are one-off instruments made with rare materials and frequently feature uncommon construction designs. For example, the body of ''The Flora Aurum'' is carved from a rare, solid piece of quilted maple. Its bridge, tuners, and knobs are hand-cast solid gold. Two diamonds, totaling 3.3 carats, adorn the volume and tone knobs. Gold leaf covers the back of the neck and headstock. It has tiny green-diamond knob

position marker Inlay on guitars or similar fretted instruments are decorative materials set into the wooden surface of the instrument using standard inlay techniques. Although inlay can be done on any part of a guitar, it is most commonly found on the fretboar ...

s and an ebony fingerboard with a Renaissance-inspired solid-gold flower inlay—each leaf decorated with a platinum-set black diamond. The nut was carved from 10,000-year-old Siberian mammoth-tusk ivory. The value of this instrument is estimated at $100,000.00.Bass Player Magazine February, 2007

The Princess Isabella Baritone Guitar

Released in January 2010 in a quantity of 50, The Princess Isabella is a baritone jazz guitar concept instrument with several uncommon features. Inspired by a conversation with a collector, the solid body instrument is meant to emulate the sound of a hollow body. To achieve this, a bridge incorporating hand-cast brass bows for each string is used. Other unusual features include a body thickness of one inch, a nut made from rendered cow bone, and 24 carat gold finished bridge components.

Ritter Bass Guitars

Models

Ritter Basses come in the following models, each with its own body shape and features: The Classic (discontinued), The Roya, The Okon, The Seal, The Jupiter and The Raptor. In 2010 Jens introduced The Cora model co-designed with bassist Josh Dunham ( Prince). The R8-Singlecut was introduced in 2012 followed by the R8-Singlecut Concept in 2013 and the Okon Concept in 2015.

Pickups and electronics

Ritter pickups are made with

rare-earth magnet Rare-earth magnets are strong permanent magnets made from alloys of rare-earth elements. Developed in the 1970s and 1980s, rare-earth magnets are the strongest type of permanent magnets made, producing significantly stronger magnetic fields than ...

s, with covers typically made from ebony. *Masterbar pickups - Each Masterbar consists of two active and one passive coil and be switched between a classic humbucker sound and a pure "humfree" singlecoil sound. The Bridge Pickup is inserted at an angle of 3° and the Neck Pickup is inserted at an angle of 7° to produce a more even response between strings. *Slimbucker pickups - Ritter Slimbuckers are humbucking single coil pickups. Like Masterbars, the Bridge Pickup is inserted at an angle of 3° and the Neck Pickup is inserted at an angle of 7°. *The Quattro-Bucker pickup - A Four-Coil pickup installed in the Jupiter model. Ritter Master Electronics The controls include a Master Volume (Push-Pull Potentiometer to switch between Active Mode and Passive Mode), Pickup Balance, Tone Blend (only available in the passive mode), a Dual Potentiometer for High Cut and Boost (on Top) and for Mid Cut and Boost (Ring) (only available in active mode), a Dual Potentiometer for Bass Cut and Boost (on Top) and Mid Frequency (Ring)(only available in active mode), Coil Switches for each MASTER BAR Pickup if installed (Up = Humbucker / Down = "Humbucking" Single Coil) and an Output Jack with integrated Power Switch. The Master Electronics are powered by 18 Volts (two 9V batteries).

Ritter multi-screw neck joint

"The Neck Joint is a very special and mostly totally neglected sound influencing element. … After comparing different constructions (identical wood from the same tree), I developed my ”Multi screw Bolt on Neck Joint”. I always use the maximum possible amount of screw per available area. … The reason is a lower absorption of the string amplitude energy, because the absorption area (vibrations-system) is divided into 2 “oscillation-arms” with different lengths, which hardly move with the string frequency." -Jens Ritter

Ritter 3D bridge

This bridge is adjustable in all 3 dimensions, is made of heavy brass, and is lockable with a design meant to produce perfect conduction of the string oscillation. Ritter B1 String Attachment Each string attaches to the body separately which is meant to produce an absolutely independent tone development with sonic transparency.

The BB1 tremolo system

The optional Ritter BB1 Tremolo System operates with 4 radial miniature ball-bearings. This construction is meant to produce smooth action without the friction commonly found in classic tremolo systems. With a gear-driven spring tension adjuster, the BB1 can allow regulation of the spring tension without removing the instrument's rear cover plate.

Bodies, necks and fingerboards

In addition to the numerous shapes Ritter basses take, the bodies, body tops, necks and fingerboards are made from a large variety of woods and materials including various maples, ebonies, rosewoods, snakewood, kingwood, camphor, ash, amboina, poplar and more. Jens is known to seek out and experiment with unusual materials for his basses like 9000-year-old bog oak.

Ritter Guitars

Models

After a meeting with George Benson in the spring of 2010, a variation on the Princess Isabella CO Baritone guitar was released, called the Benson Tribute. It has a scale of 24.75 inch (e.g. like a

Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typi ...

). The

fingerboard The fingerboard (also known as a fretboard on fretted instruments) is an important component of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material, usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument. The stri ...

, pickup, bridge foot and truss rod cover are naturally finished. A tone and a volume pot was also added. The Benson-Tribute is one of very few

solid body thumb , Sound sample of solid-body electric guitar. A solid-body musical instrument is a string instrument such as a guitar, bass or violin built without its normal sound box and relying on an electromagnetic pickup system to directly detect th ...

guitars in George Benson's guitar collection. In 2011, the Monroe was released, followed by the PJS in 2012 and Porsch in 2015.

Notable players

* Paul Turner of Jamiroquai *

of Phil Lesh and Friends and The Grateful Dead * Hellmut Hattler *

Rob Derhak ''Robert Derhak'', also known simply as Rob, is the bass guitar player and a founding member of the American jam band moe. History Derhak's earliest known time performing as a member of a band was on Halloween 1989, playing at a party with gui ...

Moe Moe, MOE, MoE or m.o.e. may refer to: In arts and entertainment Characters * Moe Szyslak, from the animated television show ''The Simpsons'' * Moe, leader of The Three Stooges, played by Moe Howard * Moe Higurashi, supporting character in ''Yash ...

*Martin Motnik *Josh Dunham of Prince *Aram Bedrosian * Doug Wimbish of Living Color * George Benson * Matthias Richter of

Schandmaul Schandmaul is a German medieval folk rock band from the Munich area. As well as using modern instruments such as the bass and electric guitar, the band also utilizes instruments typically used in Medieval folk songs such as the bagpipes, hurd ...

* Paulo Roberto Diniz, Jr. (PJ) of

Jota Quest Jota Quest is a Brazilian pop rock band. The band was founded in 1993 in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais as ''J. Quest'', but due to trademark issues with Hanna-Barbera, they renamed themselves ''Jota Quest'' (''jota'' being the Portuguese name ...

* Otto Waalkes (Ottifanten Guitar)

References

{{reflist

External links

ritter-instruments.comAn Interview with Jens RitterA review by Bass Player MagazineJens Ritter Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2019) Bass guitar manufacturing companies Musical instrument manufacturing companies of Germany companies based in Rhineland-Palatinate