Searcy Posted November 3, 2012 Author Share Posted November 3, 2012 Ok, got about 3 coats of Tru Oil o the back of the neck and decided to stop there. I'll let it sit up a few days and see how I like it. Time for a second test fit. I'm sure you guys are sick of seeing the finishing process. To be honest it's always been my least favorite part of building and fixing instruments. Next well be getting into the wiring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff-7 Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 That looks sick man. You're making me want to try my hand at it, I'd probably butcher the damn thing. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 It's looking very nice indeed... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 I try to avoid quoting Gene Simmons, but I gotta say, that is a powerful and attractive bass. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 Gene is my favorite Kiss man. Feel free to quote away. So here is the wiring we will be going with. I'm thinking of adding one slight modification to allow the neck pickup to be soloed but I'm not 100% sold in it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PingPongBob Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Looks beautiful. You Sir are a craftsman! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueblooded Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Looks great! Will look killer with all the hardware on it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Looking good, I like it that you are posting as you make progress. It gives a better perception of the amount of work and time that it takes to do this kind of stuff, when somebody posts a finished project, before and after a lot of us are like "that looks easy, I can do that" By the way, why is the wiring layout labeled Natural Alder? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaleb Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 Gene is my favorite Kiss man. Feel free to quote away. So here is the wiring we will be going with. I'm thinking of adding one slight modification to allow the neck pickup to be soloed but I'm not 100% sold in it yet. Ace is mine.... I wish Gene would use Rippers/Grabbers again. I can't stand his bass tone nowadays. It's distorted, but with the compression of EMGs. It's like a really sterile fart.... I find it really amazing that Ace has stuck to his Les Paul w. Super Distortion into a 100w Marshall concept (except for the Frehley's Comet/pre-Reunion era when he used Laneys) while Gene and Paul have dealt with almost every company in the book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I like the idea you had of doing one PG stock, and another modified. With a pickgaurd mounted this way on these, it would be a perfect testbed for swapping and trying different things. Besides, you said yourself, most of the electronics for most Gibson basses is on the sucky side. So I think the bass world could use some options. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted November 8, 2012 Author Share Posted November 8, 2012 Yea, I'm think we'll start this one totally stock and then build another guard for some tricks later. The reason the drawing says 74 Alder is because I swiped that drawing from a site of a guy who was comparing his two rippers. One was a stock 74 Alder Ripper and the other was a modded 78 Maple Ripper. According to the dates on the pots (1377452) the electronics I found for this project are from 1974. 1377452 This potentiometer was made by CTS Corporation (Chicago Telephone Supply) in the 52nd week of 1974 Most likely they were used in a 1975 Ripper so I thought the 74 drawing would be a good place to start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Fantastic stuff, Searcy! I especially loved the 19sec video clip. It really shows the guitar and finish off well. P. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 The thing that makes this bass so unlike anything else that Gibson every built was the bizarre switching system and the mid rage cut choke designed by Bill Lawrence while he worked for Gibson. The core of this system are these choke coils. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 Not that it really needs it but I decided to do a little shielding to cover up the old red Krylon paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blueblooded Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 Found this ad on my local CL for a fretless sunburst one. These are really cool. I probably wouldn't have clicked on the ad if you weren't documenting your restoration on here, Searcy. http://detroit.craigslist.org/okl/msg/3409216205.html Rock on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 @ Blue That looks awesome! A bit expensive though, no? I've been crious about bass guitar for a long time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 That's actually a very reasonable price. I sold a blond one 15 years ago for the same price and the fretless burst one is worth more than the blond fretted ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stein Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 Looking forward to details of the Lawrence pup...just sayin'. Like the thread a lot, AND the detail. It's read. Just want to make sure fatigue doesn't set in when the best part comes up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted November 25, 2012 Author Share Posted November 25, 2012 I'm going to go into some detail about the pickup rebuild. For now lets focus on these Chokes. This system was invented by Bill Lawrence and is more properly called a "Q Filter". Bill still sells a version of this system on his web site. Here is what he has to say on the subject. The Q-Filter is an LCR network - a 1 henry, low Q noisefree inductor in series with a .02 micro farad cap in parallel with an 8 kilo ohm resistor. Wired like a cap to a tone pot, you can gradually decrease the impedance of the circuit but maintaining a slightly higher impedance below 1100 Hertz. Also available without the cap and the resistor to gradually decrease the impedance of the pickup. The EQ system is the most versatile system to alter the sound of a guitar and can be used for multiple functions. The basic components are a 900mh low Q inductor in series with a capacitor and a variable resistor (tone pot). We used to ship it as a complete pre-tuned unit to replace the cap at the tone pot, limited for one basic function. However, in conjunction with different pickups in different positions, it's much more versatile when the inductor is separated from the cap, like [shipped now]. In the past, this caused severe problems when players used the wrong caps and resistors, especially when the EQ was wired to a switch only. The system must be wired to a control or you totally limit its functions, as follows: Function A - the L Filter - the inductor, wired like a cap to the tone pot. When you turn the pot from 10 to 0, you slowly reduce the impedance of the pickup. This is equal to taking turns off the pickup or making a sweet clean pickup out of a high power, overdrive pickup. This works fine for the neck pickup. With the control set below 3, the impedance is much too low so we block the control with a fixed 10 kilo ohm resistor or don't turn the control below 3 or 4. Function B - the EQ Filter On the bridge pickup, we want to maintain more lows so we block the inductor with a resistor in parallel with a cap. Now, when you turn the control to zero and you use hi-fi speakers, you can duplicate the sound of an acoustic guitar. With the controls on 3, you can get out of the bridge pickup, the #4 position sound of a Strat. Here are some of the options you have with a volume and tone control with push pull. Push Pull: L to EQ1 L to EQ2 EQ1 to EQ2 EQ1 To Tone Cap only L to Tone Cap only EQ1 is standard crossover at 1200 Hertz EQ2 is similar to a tone cap without choking the highs. L reduces impedance over the total frequency. L = 900 mh low Q humbucking inductor EQ = L in series with .02 cap up to 1200hz high Z and above 1200 hz low Z. EQ alone maintains too much of the lows below 1200hz EQ1 reduces low by 60% (10K resistor over the cap) EQ2 reduces low by 25% (25K resistor over cap) All it takes is a different resistor to change the function. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 So where was I? Oh yea... Destroying a set of Bill Lawrence Gibson Ripper pickups. If you have been following along you might remember that I tracked down two dead original ripper pickups. One was removed from a 1974 Ripper that is rumored to have been the first Ripper imported into the UK. It died so it was pulled and the new owner sold it to me through this very forum. The second pickups I bought was also dead. It was a 1978 that I found on eBay. A sharp eye will notice the two different mounting systems. The original ripper pickups mounted much like a P-90 with two wood screws passing between the outer poles. Somewhere between 1976 and 1977 they switched to the 3 point mounting system with ears molded into the pickup cover that mimicked the mounting style of the 3 point bridge. There are a few other differences in the two ripper pickups that we will cover as we go deeper into this little wonder. First we will tare down and rebuild the 1978 pickup. We start by making notes... Black = Start of Neck bobbin coil Red = Start of Bridge bobbin coil. Orange = Frame Ground 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 This pickup has one good coil which is great!! With a little trial and error we should be able to rewind it to perfect original specs. Next comes the patented "Searcy String Works Epoxy Potted Pickup Disassemble Procedure". Remember, if your pickup guy tells you that your Norlin era epoxy potted Gibson bass pickup can't be rewound... he's right. Unless his name is Searcy. If you don't know how to do this you will bust your stuff. Better send it to me. I'm cheep and easy. Once the pickup is out of the cover I check the magnet orientation for my notes. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 Now the real destruction starts. Cutting, scraping, prying, and breaking the epoxy away from the ceramic magnets without breaking them isn't easy but I got mad skills. Let's take just a second to loo at those solder lugs. Pretty clever that Bill Lawrence. These are not found on the 74 pickup as you will see later. On the other end of the coil the lugs are just folded over and soldered to each other. Smart! I have also found these on epoxy potted 76 Gibson Thunderbird pickups. This is the frame plate. The coils fit snugly on it. The magnets stick to it and the screws go through it. This is where it all comes together. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted March 2, 2013 Author Share Posted March 2, 2013 Once the wire is cleaned off it's time to head out to the shop and rebuild these little suckers. These side winder coils are wound in opposite directions. One is clockwise and the other is wound counterclockwise. Because this is my own personal bass I decided to wire to coils up at a 4 wire humbucker following my regular color code so I could try some phase experiments in the future. Once it's all reassembled a quick wrap of paper bobbin tape holds it all together. Then we stuff it all back in the brand new NOS Kalamazoo Gibson cover. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Nice job Searcy! Although I understand all of your technical details I certainly don't have the skills to do what you do. You should really do an online course. I'd pay for it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 So where was I? Oh yea... Destroying a set of Bill Lawrence Gibson Ripper pickups. . . . . I wondered what was going on. Great work. Love following this thread - glad to see it being updated again. . . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.