Jens Ritter Instruments is a manufacturer of high-end electric stringed 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. Jens produces 50 to 60 handmade instruments each year in his shop located in the small wine town of Deidesheim, Germany. A number of well-known bassists play Ritter Basses including Phil Lesh, Josh Dunham and Doug Wimbish. Jens Ritter Instruments are best known for their progressive design and construction, artistic appearance and limited availability.
But Jens is more than a luthier, he is an artist. He initiates regularly around the guitar artistic projects. One of those projects is "The Stage". This is an installation made by Jens Ritter at the MPK Museum in Kaiserslautern, Germany in 2015. It consists of a slow rotating Princess Isabella Guitar covered with approximately 11000 Swarovski Crystals and illuminated by colour changing lights.
His work is widely recognised and for example the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City acquired a bass from Jens to start their collection of electric bass guitars in 2012. The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. has recently obtained a Jupiter 'Eye of Horus' bass. After the "father of the bass guitar" Leo Fender, Jens Ritter is now the second representative of the instrument species "Electric Bass Guitar" to receive the honour of inclusion in the permanent collection of the world's largest museum - and this during his lifetime!
His instalation is now part of our collection!
