The Kritz Electric basses: the ultimate satisfaction
During so many visits at rock concerts, I was confronted with a poor bass sound.
This was almost always the case during open-air concerts. Muddy bass sounds, “singing” around without much definition. They frustrate many bass players. When you approach a concert from a distance, it often attracts attention that the bass is too loud compared to the rest of the music.
In fact you first hear the bass and sometimes it is not in tune at all. Some notes are louder than others and the overall bass balance is absent. Imagine that at this moment the bass player is trying to hear himself. I’ve seen artists turning knobs again and again, without any convincing result.
Sometimes, the acoustic environment is hard to control. Open air concerts demand lots of energy. Poor or limited amplification is often the reason why bass sounds lack efficiency. I developed the idea that every milligram of sound improvement in the sound generator (= the bass guitar) would result in a much better sound in an amplified environment. I already have some experience with the guitars. Therefore it was very attractive to isolate and solve the problems that afflict the electric basses. One big problem was already solved due to the invention of the 4Everneck. Indeed it is essential on basses that necks have an uniresonance to eliminate nodes and amplify the sustain.
Therefore I designed the bass 4- and 5-string carbon reinforced neck in accordance to our guitar neck. The results where astonishing. Live tests showed that even the drummer became more rhythmic and was much better off with that clean, deep bass sound that we obtained.
But still I thought we could do better. Indeed our “good vibration” program (that’s how we call our Kritz internal application software) showed bugs in the bridge. Our new bridge designs demonstrated again and again node problems. Until we came to the idea to eliminate the bridge completely. This is only possible in a computer by drawing the bridge lines (duct contours) and by giving a zero-mass as SG. Nearly all node warning indications where gone. We could only come to one conclusion: Bridges “eat” sound.
In fact we should have known, because we experienced the problem already with the Floyd tremolo’s on guitars. They also have a heavy bridge mass. The invention of the Kritzwood (TM) became very useful this time. This material is strong and light. Exactly what we needed to design a new bass bridge, it approached as close as possible the ideal computer data. They now appear on all our basses.
It was like a gift of nature when we found that, with these bridges, no more tonal instability occurred. This is the phenomenon where the sound is floating (goes up and down).
This problem remained unsolved until now. But the new bridges made all planned research unnecessary. The new bridge makes the bass vibrate all over its length and width. Strictly controlled due to the exact mass calculations and wood balance, the Kritz Stradovarius Bass gives you double dynamics with the same energy. Imagine that, amplified by tons of kilowatts! Bass playing becomes a real pleasure. Conventional bass concepts become prehistoric.
When you are serious about basses you should try a Kritz before spending even one dollar on a bass.
