Gibson Ripper promo 7" record

Nocturnal · August 11, 2009, 07:15:16 PM

http://cgi.ebay.com/GIBSON-RIPPER-The-ripper-story-rare-seven-inch-record_W0QQitemZ230366514878QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar_Accessories?hash=item35a2ea0ebe&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Never knew anything like this even existed. Anyone ever seen one before?

Dave W · August 11, 2009, 10:44:33 PM

Never heard of the record.

I do know Dartanyan Brown and Bill Chase. Dartanyan, who's still around, was lead singer and bassist for Bill's group Chase in the early 70s. But Bill and 3 other band members died in a small plane crash sometime in 1974, so this had to be early in the Ripper's run.

One of you Ripper fans ought to snap this up.

uwe · August 12, 2009, 04:38:44 AM

I just put in a bid for it. But I only want to listen to it once (still have a record player) and I'll then donate it to Jules so he can preserve it for posterity (or even create an audio link for his site).

Barklessdog · August 12, 2009, 11:16:06 AM

Looks like the one that I received for Jules, remember the one my dog tore up?

Highlander · August 12, 2009, 01:38:23 PM

Now that is what I would call an "obscurity"... right up my street... not gonna bid, btw... wanna stay living...

I have a 30 second "ad" single for the ABB's "Brother and Sisters" LP and a nice white lable of the "Spam Song", also a lovely promo of a ditty called "Man On The Silver Mountain" by some chap called Richie Blackmore...

patman · August 12, 2009, 01:45:21 PM

I had a copy of that years ago-I remember learning the song, although I also remember not particularly liking the sound of the Ripper on the recording...it was kind of a flatwound traditional thing, and I always thought the Ripper sounded best on roundwoundish "Prog" kind of things--had to play it a bunch of times to learn it---I can still hear it in my head.

Highlander · August 12, 2009, 01:53:21 PM

AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

(the P.R.O.G. word...

)

Dave W · August 12, 2009, 03:06:06 PM

Chase was a horn band, sort of what BS&T wanted to be when it grew up. It certainly wasn't prog (I realize you're not saying this record is prog).

Found these, if anyone's interested:
http://dartanyan.com/ and http://www.dartanyan.com/BillChase/chasetribute.html
http://www.great-music.net/story.html

uwe · August 12, 2009, 03:30:35 PM

Prog is not a four letter word. It has given us some great music.

EvilLordJuju · August 13, 2009, 02:31:30 PM

oh, that one has no cover.... shame

You can listen to this ripper demo record on flyguitars.com

featuring Richard Evans and Dartanyan Brown

I did a mini-interview with Dartanyan Brown too - that I thought was on the site, but seems to have been lost in the swap-over from GibsonBass.com to FlyGuitars.com.

I'll find that and post a link asap...

It is a great demo by the way

uwe · August 13, 2009, 02:51:32 PM

Darn, you have everything, you hoarder!

That Evans side of the promo I just listened to is great and it indeed showcases perfectly how a Ripper sounds to my ears, a very nice mellow, woody and even jazzy tone, just not very rockish in my ears which might explain why it didn't become as prevalent as the more grinding Grabber. The promo also shows how super confident Gibson were about this new bass which indeed was quite a step forward/sideways from the long scale TBirds and EB-Ls they had done in the past not to mention all the short scales in the family.