I had my 73 Ripper, the 81 model, the 2009 Ripper II and the Epi Ltd Ed GRipp3r with me at last night's rehearsal.
Some observations:
- The 81 model sounds deepest, probably due to the heavy and massive maple used on the body, it has less midrange than the others, but a real threatening ooomph, a really dense tone, you could play heavy metal with it.
- The 73 maple board alder big body one has the most wooden tone, midrange is prominent, but the tone doesn't have the 81 model's "weight".
- The Epi has no doubt the most cut and bite of all four, and not in a nasty, cheap way either. That Fenderish split coil - why am I even writing this?
- does sound excellent and authoritative. But what the bolt-on giveth in attack, snap and presence in the nether regions, it, alas!, doth taketh away once you are beyond the 12th fret, no comparioson to the sustain of the set neck Gibbies then. Not really relevant for someone who tends to stay low, but always a bit disheartening for me, I'm a high register sustain addict, hence my love for neck-thru TBirds.
- Surprisingly, the 2009 Ripper II is the blurriest of them all (I could finally play it loud at yesterday's rehearsal cause the drummer was there and we had beefed up the pa for the vocs by adding another two active cabs) and even lacks a little attack in comparison to the older Rippers. It does have the most sustain though - sustain to an extent that some of you might find it perhaps a bit much. Those high register notes really elbow their way through.
I haven't mentioned so far that both pups are quite a bit closer to the neck on the Ripper II than on the Ripper Is of various eras. I also have to correct my statement that the two varitone positions that offer one coil from the bridge pup combined with one coil from the neck pup don't really sound that different. Over a large rig, the difference is stark and that slightly scooped sound makes sense as it broadens the tone without cluttering things.
Uwe
