The Last Bass Outpost

Another photo from the same show...

And another photo from the same show....
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Here's a pic I just found on Facebook that was taken at one of the Madison Square Garden shows in NYC on December 17 or 18, 1973. If you look closely, lake is holding a natural finish maple Ripper. Wonder if that's the Brain Salad Surgery bass before it was painted?

It's well-documented that Greg Lake used a black Gibson Ripper with a maple fingerboard on the Brain Salad Surgery tour in 1974. The Ripper was never available in black with a maple board, and so some have speculated that Lake had received one of the early prototypes that used the eventual production body shape and then had it painted black.

Here's a pic I just found on Facebook that was taken at one of the Madison Square Garden shows in NYC on December 17 or 18, 1973. If you look closely, lake is holding a natural finish maple Ripper. Wonder if that's the Brain Salad Surgery bass before it was painted?You cannot view this attachment.

Uwe:  Thanks much!  I had always thought to be the case. I remember reading somewhere that all reverse T-Birds began life as II's, and that when it came time to make a batch of IV's Gibson just grabbed some already-routed II bodies and added the bridge pickup.  Your measurements add life to that story.

 Someone on another board asked if the neck pickup on a 60's reverse T-Bird IV is in the same place as the pickup on a 60's reverse II. His question is pasted below, and it hasn't been answered. I am fortunate enough to have a couple of '64 T-Bird IV's, but I don't have a II. On my '64's the neck pickup cover is 3 1/4" from the end of the fingerboard, and the metal pickup surround is 3" away from the end of the board (By the way, on my 76's the pickup cover is only 3" from the end of the board - 1/4" closer. I never knew that!) So, does anyone know the answer to this question:

"I'm having an ongoing debate with some friends about 1960's Gibson Thunderbird II's and IV's. The question is: Is the neck pickup on the reverse thunderbirds the same distance from the fingerboard or is it different on the II's then on the IV's?? I've heard that on a II, the distance is 3 1/4" from the end of the fingerboard to the pickup, not the ring but the pickup. ON a IV, I've heard that it is 3". However...I have a buddy that has an original II, an Original IV qnd a refin IV and he claims that the measurement from the end of the fingerboard on all 3 is 3 1/4". The NON REVERSE basses are in the same position. I know also that these basses were not made by robots so either could be true. Anybody have any thoughts?? Thanks!"