Gibson Ripper Rebuild.

[Searcy]

Many years ago I bought a Gibson Ripper in a pawn shop for $175. I hated Gibson basses but at the time I was broke and needed something to play some gigs with. It wasn't until 10 years later that I sold the bass and instantly realized just how much I had grown to love it. So I decided I would get another one someday...

 

 

4 years ago I bought this basket case off eBay with the idea of turning it into a Ripper all my own.

 

 

Since then it's mostly sat in the corner of my shop while I collected parts and did more important things. Now that the house rebuild is about done I figured it was time to get back to some of these projects. I have also decided that I want to finish all these projects that are cluttering up my shop before I bring home any more new ones. If you have read some of my other stuff you have seen the Kalamazoo amp rebuild and the SG Special mods that I did all in an effort to be true to this idea.

 

 

So it's time for Project Ripper to commence...

[pippy]

I'm REALLY looking forward to folowing this project!

 

 

I know it's putting the cart before the horse but in my eyes that shape is simply crying out for a finish like this one;

 

 

P.

[Searcy]

That's a thought and it's how Rick Danko liked his Ripper.

 

 

This one was originally black. My old 74 was blond. I'm think I want to see how it cleans up. It's it's nice I may do it blond. If it's nasty I may do it white with black hardware.

 

Still in the planning stages.

[Jeff-7]

Those are awesome, really looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[stein]

I'm surprised some form of green isn't on the table.

 

You seem to get worked up whenever something green and swampy comes up.

[Searcy]

I'm surprised some form of green isn't on the table.

 

You seem to get worked up whenever something green and swampy comes up.

 

Ahhhh..... You are paying attention. But the green and black is destine for another bass in my project line. My 83 Fender Fullerton P-bass will be getting a make over at some point after my two Kays are rebuilt. It will be finished in swampy green goodness.

[Searcy]

 

After reading this ad describing the Rippers electronics with it's passive mid cut/boost (designed by Bill Lawrence) you can guess that I was looking at a big task in recreating them. I could have made some pickups to fit the bass and wired it up in a more conventional manner but I wanted to have those same switching options that my old 74 Ripper had.

 

 

 

 

Than I came across this old Ripper wiring harness on Ebay for a song so I snatcheded it up.

 

[stein]

I don't know how many pups you are planning to wind for this, but it might be an oppurtunity to unlock the secrets of the Lawrence design.

 

I don't know anyone, anywhere, that is currently offering a Firebird pup of that design. And while I don't know what the following is or what poeple are ACTUALLY looking for in a Firebird pup, I think those in the know consider them to be good pups, maybe THE pups?

 

This might just put you on the map with the likes of lollar and Fralin?

[jojo68]

Sweeeeet

[rocketman]

Nice! I like the four position transfer switch. Also, I've never seen a midrange controller on a bass? I'll admit that my knowledge of basses is limited.

[kaleb]

If it was mine, I'd spray it black and put a chrome pickguard on it in honor of Phil Lynott!

[Searcy]

I don't know how many pups you are planning to wind for this, but it might be an oppurtunity to unlock the secrets of the Lawrence design.

 

I don't know anyone, anywhere, that is currently offering a Firebird pup of that design. And while I don't know what the following is or what poeple are ACTUALLY looking for in a Firebird pup, I think those in the know consider them to be good pups, maybe THE pups?

 

This might just put you on the map with the likes of lollar and Fralin?

 

I was able to track down an original 74 Ripper pickup on this very forum. A member in the UK sold it to me for a very reasonable price. The cover is busted and one coil is dead but it will teach me all I need to know that do what I need to do.

 

 

(Suzi Quatro)

I'm assuming by "fire bird pickup" you mean Thunderbird or "mudbucker" bass pickup which was a similar but much larger "sidewinder" design. This types of pickup have the coils sitting on their side and the magnet in the middle as opposed to a regular "paf" style pickup that has the coils sitting up and down and the magnets underneath.

 

Seymour Duncan makes some knockoff of these already.

 

Jason and I used to discuss pickup design and winder ideas over on the MIMF back before either of us got any recognition. My success as a winder was mostly from three places. One was doing difficult rewinds that no one else would touch. Another was boutique luthiers wanting me to make them exclusive lines of pickups to set their guitars apart from the rest of the market. The last was what I call "The sky is the limit" market of making insane things that other people dreamed up like 14 string bass humbuckers and stereophonic P-90s. I did well with that before the flood shut it all down. Now that I've had time to reflect I have decided that I would not try to get back into the market by making reproductions again. It's just too saturated a market and frankly guitar players have been fed so much boutique pickup marketing BS over the years that their expectations and reality don't seem to meet to often. My shop is still in taters. If I ever do get back into the market it won't be for another year or two and then it wouldn't be making Gibson and Fender knockoffs.It would be with my own neodymium powered designs.

 

In the mean time I want to have some fun with the gear I have. I'll show you guys some more cool parts I have for this project tomorrow.

[stein]

I see. I didn't know quite that much about what you did or where you were.

 

You might already BE where I was suggesting..as in, perhaps making the one-offs when asked.

 

But the reason my senses perked up, is that to my knowledge, no one is making a Lawrence type pup. The Duncans "Firebird" types are really traditional humbuckers, aren't they?

 

I bring it up, because I had a guitar I bought and had wanted to try Firebird pups in it. And for me, usually I start with the real deal, actual model and go from there. By that I don't mean they have to be "vintage" or old, but rather reproductions that are somewhat accurate.

 

What I discovered, is that makers made a "version" of a Firebird pup, but none actually made what is an ACCURATE Firebird pup. That is, made the same way, made to the same specs, and meant to sound AS they did...as opposed to "like" it or an improved version. I found this odd, as while it ain't exactly the most popular pup, I thought they had a sound and were highly regarded by at least some.

 

Now, let me back up a bit: I ain't a winder or maker. Where it started for me was I had a Strat I wanted to put good pups in (actually, a BUTTLOAD of Strats). When I asked the question "what does this pup sound like?" and the answer was "a vintage Strat pup", and no one could tell me the difference between one maker to another, that's when it started. I actually started buying all the pups I could find, putting them in, and LISTENING to them. What I learned is that there is something to CERTAIN vintage ones, and some makers tended to capture some of this or some of that, and some could make them accurate, better, or both.

 

OBVIOUSLY, there are some makers who came across actual knowledge, and had put the work into it. Some specialize in one area better than another. I think as a whole, it's worth it. But, I agree there are literally a BUTTLOAD of makers who claim to have something special and don't know what they are hearing or talking about. And, so many, many possibilities in between that trying EVERYONES pups doesn't make sense.

 

I was just wondering how far you were going to go with the Lawrence type sideways wind. You gonna just reproduce the spec and make enough for the bass or are you going to try a few to see what makes them better or worse?

[Searcy]

" But the reason my senses perked up, is that to my knowledge, no one is making a Lawrence type pup. The Duncans "Firebird" types are really traditional humbuckers, aren't they?"

 

I think were are confusing some terms here. The Gibson firebirds were just Minihumbuckers with magnets running through the coils like this.

 

 

All the pickups I have see marketed as "Firebird" pickup are made like this. They were designed in the early 60's as a variation of the original Epiphone mini humbuckers of the 50's which varied only in the pole structure. Bill Lawrence didn't join Gibson until the 70's.

 

"What I discovered, is that makers made a "version" of a Firebird pup, but none actually made what is an ACCURATE Firebird pup. That is, made the same way, made to the same specs, and meant to sound AS they did...as opposed to "like" it or an improved version. I found this odd, as while it ain't exactly the most popular pup, I thought they had a sound and were highly regarded by at least some."

 

While there are a lot of pickup makers these days that just get their build specs off the internet most reputable guys get their specs by studying actual pickups in their hands and with their ears. When it comes to a "reproduction" the only variations you are likely to see from guys like Duncan and Lollar and me are the types of magnets (A2 or A5 or ceramic) and the number of turns of wire on the bobbins. The variations are based on the fact that, while the Gibson spec for a FireBird bobbin might be 4000 turns of wire, this was not a precise process. Some might come in at 3800 and some might come in at 4250. Pickup makes usually shoot for making a copy of the one they think sounds the best within those "margin of error" specs.

 

"Now, let me back up a bit: I ain't a winder or maker. Where it started for me was I had a Strat I wanted to put good pups in (actually, a BUTTLOAD of Strats). When I asked the question "what does this pup sound like?" and the answer was "a vintage Strat pup", and no one could tell me the difference between one maker to another, that's when it started. I actually started buying all the pups I could find, putting them in, and LISTENING to them. What I learned is that there is something to CERTAIN vintage ones, and some makers tended to capture some of this or some of that, and some could make them accurate, better, or both."

 

And this is why I don't really want to bother with that market anymore. You discovered the fact that old Fender pickups can sound very different from one to the next. This is because Fender had some of the worst quality control on the planet when it came to pickups. So maybe you stick an old fender into your guitar and run it through your effects and into your amp and out to your speakers and you say "This is it! This pickup with it's Alnico 5 magnets and 7700 Clock Wise turns of heavy build forvar coated wire sounds like the voice of god!" And the next guy comes along and listed to the same rig and says "meh... not impressed". Same goes for old PAFs and P-90s and Tele pickups and so on. One mans holy grail of tone is another mans crap.

 

So what's winder to do? One option is wind pickups to the exact specs provided by the customer. I used to do this. This is a great way to find out just how little players know about gear. I had a guy ask me for a Humbucker with a DC resistance of 25K. I told him I could do that but it would lose a lot of clarity and high end and definition because of the amount of wire it would take. He didn't care because he didn't play clean sounds anyway. He didn't care until he got the pickup installed and wrote me back saying "This thing sound muddy!" I would say that about a half of the time when I let guys name their own specs they clearly had no idea what they were talking about.

 

"I was just wondering how far you were going to go with the Lawrence type sideways wind. You gonna just reproduce the spec and make enough for the bass or are you going to try a few to see what makes them better or worse?"

 

My plan here is to restore the one pickup I bought and make a copy to go with it. I was ably to find a guy in Kalamazoo who had a bunch of NOS Gibson stock that he bought when the factory up there closed. I bought a bunch of Norlin era stuff from him including a new pick guard and all the Ripper pickup covers he could find which ended up being about 10. So my other plan is to clean up the old original guard and install a set of my "Passive Aggressive" bass humbucker in it using original Ripper pickup covers and design a different control and switching system for they guard. This way I can just replace the entire pick guard and have my system of the original vintage system in the bass. Just a geek thing that only I would dig I guess but that's the plan.

 

[Searcy]

So the sanding is going nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

I was right about the split being from water damage. I'll have to splint that before making the final call on finishing.

[Jeff-7]

That's a pretty bit of Lumber there, Searcy. It'll look great With that grain showing through.

[Searcy]

I agree. The maple is very nice. I seem to have a soft spot for all maple Gibson instruments. I think I'll be going with a TruOil finish on this one as it's my favorite instrument finish.

 

 

I have these awesome ThunderBird keys that I think I'll use to give it a bit more modern look.

[pippy]

Maple and Black would be a very nice combination for sure.

 

Excuse my total ignorance of the Ripper in action (and most of the other more obscure (shall we say?) basses as well come to that...) but what is it's 'typical' sound? Thumpy like an old EB-0 or more spanky like a Ricky, perhaps?

 

I'm sure with the switching options you are planning it will cover a great many bases (HO!) but I'm probably thinking 'Slim-ish maple body plus maple neck = clear treble response...

 

P.

[btoth76]

Maple and Black would be a very nice combination for sure.

 

P.

 

Yes!

(Excuse me, I couldn't resist...)

 

Cheers... Bence

[Searcy]

I've been thinking of trying to track down one of the all blond maple Les Pauls from the 70's to go with my Raw Power Studio.

 

 

The neck joint looks like it's still strong.

 

[Searcy]

Maple and Black would be a very nice combination for sure.

 

Excuse my total ignorance of the Ripper in action (and most of the other more obscure (shall we say?) basses as well come to that...) but what is it's 'typical' sound? Thumpy like an old EB-0 or more spanky like a Ricky, perhaps?

 

I'm sure with the switching options you are planning it will cover a great many bases (HO!) but I'm probably thinking 'Slim-ish maple body plus maple neck = clear treble response...

 

P.

 

Well, It doesn't have the ringing top end that a Ric has. But it's no where near as muddy as an EB. It's a great straight up rock bass.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o

 

[kaleb]

Well, It doesn't have the ringing top end that a Ric has. But it's no where near as muddy as an EB. It's a great straight up rock bass.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1iR2Wi3u5o

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NK7X2DjxXs

 

Sorry, but Gene's not playing a Ripper here. He's playing his famous custom Spector bass with a humbucker. (which would be kind of a brighter EB-0?).

 

As far as I know, Gene never used Rippers. He used Grabbers and G3s. I think he records with an old Ripper nowadays.

 

I dare he and Paul to take Rippers and Flying Vs on the road again. Paul always brags about his Les Pauls and SGs in the studio, but uses his Washburns live. I know why, but it's not cool.

 

Ace never used his Washburn sig. model in the 80s....

[Searcy]

I think you're right. That is a Specter and yes he usually used the short scale Grabbers but he did use a Ripper from time to time.

 

 

 

 

 

These basses can get a very thumpy, almost upright tone on the neck pickup and the bridge pickup when soloed can get very bright and spanky.

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSy3UvVwQ8g

[Searcy]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t141cliSLHY

[Searcy]