Well, "awfully polite" sums the Ripper pups up, certainly the weakest component of the whole instrument. It wasn't for nothing that many players (who could have afforded a Ripper) preferred the cheaper Grabber's more raucous output or the G-3's snappy bite. The Ripper had substance, but it was put across in such a docile manner, you would have never described it as, say, 'assertive'. Of course, the set neck also had something to do with it.Gene Simmons was given both Rippers and Grabbers by Gibson, yet ended up playing only the latter, because Kiss needed something snarly live. Peter Cetera, Greg Lake and Mel Schacher played Rippers only transitionally and had all established "their" respective trademark sound before with different basses. Of those three, I'd say that only Mel had a dominant sound (Chicago wasn't the type of band for anything to sound dominant, they had to leave room for each other; Lake's hi-fi'sh clank never approached Chris Squire's Ric-ferocity), but if you listen closely, by the time Mel was playing a Ripper***, his sound had become more subdued due to Grand Funk having left the Railroad in the station and departed the trio format, discovering songwriting along the tracks as opposed to the improvisational frenzy of their early years. (Not a knock, I prefer the later GF(R) to the earlier one and liked what Craig Frost brought to the band.)*** VERY fleetingly, I couldn't find a single live vid on youtube from their heydays where he was not playing his mudbucked Jazz Bass which provided his formidable sound in a way a(n unmodded) Ripper never could have
I interviewd Suzi Quatro some weeks ago. She loves the Ripper and hates the Grabber.
Man those prototype Rippers look like can openers.
Mark Farner always had a nice shapely butt and wasn't afraid to flaunt it either. It's the package that sells. Sin's a good man's brother.
Women are like that. They want you to stay concentrated in/on one place und not slide up and down. Personal observation.
