Author Topic: Musing on the gender of instruments (Read 538 times)

jsaylor · « **Reply #60 on:** November 29, 2006, 03:00:46 PM »

Actually in an interview with Jens, he said that Carl Tompson was an influence. Interview taken from Talk bass
Q: What led you to your current designs and how did you arrive at the various models of basses you build today?

JR: These models are just the result of ideas I had. I always designed basses inside my head when I saw cool stuff like Thompsons or old Atlansias or whatever. So I already had shapes I liked most in my mind before drawing them on paper the first time. Some of them I changed a very little bit, but most are original like in my mind.

lidon2001 · « **Reply #61 on:** November 29, 2006, 03:56:10 PM »

Sorry gang, but I find this to be a bit sophomoric:

I thought bolt on necks were a compromise for easy change when a neck goes bad. I prefer a luthier who has enough confidence in their choices for the neck wood that they can commit a neck to a bass.

And for the thread:

BalK - female
Pele - goddess of fire
E.T. - ? hermaphroditic alien? I believe it's on the masculine side myself...

hifiguy · « **Reply #62 on:** November 29, 2006, 06:28:06 PM »

Herr Ritter's less expensive instruments are quite something to look at. Nice to see that he does everything in-house including his pickups and has come up with truly original shapes for the most part. Not many high end bass makers can say that. I hope I get the chance to play a Ritter some day.

Nothin' wrong with bolt on necks - I own three basses with them. The physics of the string vibration are more complicated and variable than with neck-throughs, though.

lidon2001 · « **Reply #63 on:** November 29, 2006, 09:14:01 PM »

I want to get up to Bass Central and try one. But I've seen pics of two of his basses with the upper horn broke off. I guess the only thing weaker than a Ritter upper horn is an Alembic omega tip.

And Les Paul has experimented with multi-coil pickups beyond duals long before Herr Ritter, so I guess I don't see the innovation that others might with regard to his electronics.

And then there's his amboyna bass. Strings go out of tune so I would need tuners and I wouldn't want to rely on a volume pedal for control. lol

Obviously he is of great talent and has a prolific body of work. It will never move me as what we have here does.

dnburgess · « **Reply #64 on:** November 30, 2006, 02:04:10 AM »

Green Square Music is presently the Australian representative for only one instrument maker - Alembic. That will change in a few months when we get our first few Ritters. Jens Ritter has great respect for Alembic and exhibits a similar passion - in a teutonic kind of way.

jsaylor · « **Reply #65 on:** November 30, 2006, 12:33:04 PM »

David,
The way you phrased that, made it sound like you were putting Ritter below Alembic and/or Jens looks up to Alembics over his own designs. I know thats not what was ment, but thats the vibe I picked up off of it. Respect is a loose term, often used to show superiority.
How can your shop survive just selling Alembics? How long have you guys been around?

mikedm · « **Reply #66 on:** November 30, 2006, 02:20:52 PM »

Jordan, I think it's entirely possible to respect someone and not feel inferior to them. Seems to me that someone with Jens' talent might not suffer from an inferiority complex, he certainly has no issue with creatively expressing himself.
And if all David wanted to sell was one brand, then that's his choice and we should respect that.

On topic, my Alembic is used to express what's inside me, so I guess it's masculine at heart. I'm woefully out numbered in my house by females and a guy's gotta have a friend to talk to.

[edit for typos]

(Message edited by groovelines on November 30, 2006)

adriaan · « **Reply #67 on:** November 30, 2006, 03:07:29 PM »

Jordan (jsaylor) - sorry to bring this up, but you need to get your geography straight.

Some creative stuff is flowing out of Dutchland.

Germany is known in the local vernacular as Deutschland. The people called the Dutch live in the neighbouring country called the Netherlands, locally known as Nederland, but known around the world as Holland.

Locally, Holland was the most dominant of the Dutch provinces, until it was split it up into the North and South Holland provinces sometime in the 1800s. If I may assume that you're a US citizen, you should be aware of the Founding Fathers and the example they took from the Dutch republic, which was something quite different from the archaic nobility system in place in Germany around the same time.

The low countries or as you might say nether lands are Nederland and Belgium , or better: Belgi? or la Belgique. They are separate nations, where the northern half of Belgi?, known as Vlaanderen or Flanders, shares 90% of its language with Nederland, and the other 10% of its language with the rest of la Belgique, known locally as la Wallonie, as well as with la francophonie - the grand idea that there is Frenchness around the globe.

You should by now be aware that some Germans are putting out very creative stuff, like Jens Ritter, and that the Dutch are always eager to point out those tiny mistakes that you make without meaning any harm. And so I apologize. Anyway ...

jsaylor · « **Reply #68 on:** November 30, 2006, 08:01:30 PM »

Adriaan,
Yes I know the difference. I always get the two mixed up.

dnburgess · « **Reply #69 on:** December 01, 2006, 01:30:02 AM »

Jordan - Green Square Music is a hybrid importer / retailer. We represent Accugroove, Acme, Acoustic Image, Schroeder, Raezer's Edge as well as Alembic and soon Ritter. We wholesale some of our lines to dealers as well as selling direct to customers via phone / net. We carry manufacturers that I like and respect (that word again) and that don't have the volumes to excite the big wholesalers.