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Searcy's Project eBays Grabber


Searcy

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So... I found a good deal on a Grabber body on eBay. I offered the guy $100 under his price and he called my bluff. So I decided to build myself a Gibson Grabber bass.

 

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It sat around for a while. Then I bought a neck for it off eBay that was total junk. After I returned it and got my money back I decided to just let it sit while I worked on other stuff. Grabber necks are hard to find.

 

Then I had a strange thought.... Why just build a stock Grabber? Why not build a sort of custom? How about a "RatRod" bass using only Gibson parts found on eBay?

 

WEll...? Why not?

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Well, if anyone can do it and do a fine job of it, it has to be you.

 

Assuming, of course, you can get some time, cause yer a pretty busy fellow.

 

Good luck with it, I hope it brings you some fun and relief to build it. I hope you sell it for a tonne and take that Mrs out to a good dinner. You both deserve it.

 

rct

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Thanks guys. This ones going to take some time. Hopefully it will prove interesting.

 

Once I decided to deviate from tradition I started looking for another neck. I wanted something that didn't look Fender. Then I remembered that the Epiphone Thunderbird bass sometimes came in a bolt on . A quick check on eBay netted me this fine epiphone neck for $35.

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That dude just looks like he got back from Colorado.

 

 

Ha! Yea, that ad has always been funny. The Ripper he's playing there is a prototype that they used for the early ads. The body is a little different and the pickups are not the Bill Lawrence Super Humbuckers. That one never made it into production.

 

 

So... what makes a grabber a grabber? Well to me its the body style and this sliding single coil pickup. That makes this slider frame one of the most important parts on a Grabber bass.

 

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I have a small stock pile of these frames so the idea I'm having is that I will make several of them up with different pickups in them and be able to swap them out if I want to.

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The grabber has a very unique sound compared to other Gibson basses. The small single coil pickup is very focused and punchy. They are very hard to find. So when this one came up on Ebay for $75 I snatched it up.

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Did these have bolt on necks? Cool pickup

 

In the Bill Lawrence set of bass there was The Ripper which was the fancy model with the traditional Gibson style set neck. The G3 was the middle level bass with a bolt on neck and three pickups. Finally there was the Grabber with a blot on neck and a single sliding pickup.

 

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Rip.jpg

 

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Single coil bass? Is that....a thing? I mean, is it as cool a a LP JR with a single P90?

 

 

In the beginning... there was nothing. And then Leo said "let there be bass" and there was the Precision bass. It had one single coil pickup. And it was righteous.

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So the next thing to ponder is the bridge. When I can I'm trying to stay as original grabber as possible. There's a guy on ebay selling an original Grabber bridge for about $300.... he's on crack... I never liked the original Grabber bridges anyway so there no way I'm paying more that $40 for one. So what should I do? Finally I found this.

 

 

 

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It's an original Gibson Victory Bass bridge. These things are nice and very adjustable. This ones missing a saddle but I'm sure I have an extra one out in the shop so I grabbed it. and set off looking for tuners and after scoring the Victory Bass tuners I knew where I wanted to go with the tuners.

 

 

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I got those mothers for $40!

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So just sticking the parts together for a photo op, this is where we stand.

 

 

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Next this to order is a pick guard. Hmmm.... What color? :-k :-k

 

Personally, I'd paint it white to allow for contrast with the black parts. And that's white nitro in thin skin.

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