Gibson Ripper

[mike1walsh]

Hey

 

I just came into owning a gibson ripper and the serial number is unreadable. It has the imprint of Made in USA but i cant make out a serial number. The bass is in rough shape but sounds amazing! its a god of thunder of a bass. Is there any other tell tale signs of a age for this MoFo. I was led to believe that its a 70's but i want more info..

 

Cheers

Mike

[L5Larry]

You can get an approximate date from the potentiometer codes. Open up the bass and look at the back of the pot cans, hopefully there will be one or two that don't have ground wire solder hiding the numbers. The number your looking for is a seven-digit number probably starting with "137" that will tell you the week and year the potentiometers were made.

 

The first three numbers are the manufacturers code (137 = CTS), the next two numbers are the last two digits of the year the pots were made (so "75" would be 1975). The last two digits are the week they were made (01-52).

 

Since parts are purchased in bulk quantities, it is impossible to know when any specific part was shipped to Gibson, or installed in a guitar, but it can be assumed that an early-mid year codes would be used within that year, and a late in the year codes were probably used early the following year.

 

There are also ways to read an "unreadable" serial number, and a few other "era" defining traits of the Ripper. Post some photos and we'll see if we can give you anymore info (plus we just like photos of Gibson instruments). I can tell you that the "heyday" of the Ripper bass (production and sales) was the mid-seventies.

[mike1walsh]

Cool

 

I just ordered a new pick guard and a bridge cover so i will wait to look at the pots then but thats great advice thanks so muck..

 

Cheers

Mike

[pfox14]

I could kick myself for selling my 1976 Gibson Ripper. It was a great bass. The neck was so much better than the Gibson EB basses and NOT prone to "bowing". Oh, well.