Vintage double mud

[gearHed289]

I'm just gonna leave this one right here. 



http://www.ebay.com/itm/322809273538?ul_noapp=true

[66Atlas]

Not quite mudbuckers though.  They're actually a Bill Lawrence design hidden under those covers.  Not bad sounding, but nothing like that boomy-muk-muk of Mud.

[uwe]

As usual, I've shown my helpful side to the seller:

"Hi, I have one of those myself, it's an early 70ies Ripper prototype. Now we know that Rippers are doublecut and this one obviously is singlecut, but the singlecut was a shape they played with in the beginning, but discarded the concept pre-production. Other changes were new pup casings and routings and a pickguard to decrease weight - this thing weighs a ton! Reputedly, Greg Lake (who later on played the standard look Ripper) took a look at those prototypes during a visit to the Gibson factory. A few of them crept out, you don't see them very often, but they crop up now and then. Yours  is also a fretless, but then Rippers were more often fretless than any other Gibson bass type.

Best

Uwe"

It's onyl the third one I've seen (including mine which is a deadringer except that it is fretted). Seller doesn't know what he has (my seller didn't know either), so the price is attractive. If you have a muscular back that is! 

[Granny Gremlin]

Not quite mudbuckers though.  They're actually a Bill Lawrence design hidden under those covers.  Not bad sounding, but nothing like that boomy-muk-muk of Mud.

Still sidewinders, just with smaller coils; Jr Mud, they count.

[uwe]

That was always my understanding: The less than great Ripper pups are nothing but de-testicled muddies.

[clankenstein]

Fat ass magnets.

[66Atlas]

But if you take away its testicles is it still a mudbucker? Maybe instead of Mud Jr we should call it a Unic-bucker 

Ive seen 5 including yours Uwe.  This auction (2), Daves guitars in Wisconson(3) one in Malaysia with VVTT config like the latest auction popped up on the Gibson forum a few years ago (4) and mine (5).  Mine has the l5 marking in the electronics cavity like this one as well as an Custom L-5 truss rod cover. I wonder if they had plans to call it that at one point but thought better of it.  It does follow the pattern of being a styled after a hollow body like the L5S guitar.

[uwe]

"I wonder if they had plans to call it that at one point but thought better of it. It does follow the pattern of being styled after a hollow body like the L5S guitar."

They did.

[uwe]

Is yours brown too? I saw (the picture of) one once in a fancy pants red sunburst as offered by a shop (or they might have actually reserved it as their not sellable stock, I don't quite remember).

[clankenstein]

Do those pickups sound any different to standard ripper pickups?

[66Atlas]

Mine is one of those fancy pants cherry bursts, dont have a pic at the moment besides the pickup one above but can take one tomorrow.  I bet the one you're thinking of the one at Daves Guitars, its part of his private collection and on their website.

http://davesguitar.com/dgs_collection/prototype-bass-mid-70s/

Did you get a case with yours? I noticed from the pictures in Robs book that it looks like it has a full width headstock.  All the others I've seen have a few MMs shaved off their sides and the tuners moved closer together. It seemed odd until I realized that if they hadn't made the changes it wouldn't have fit in the Trini Lopez/335 12string case it came in. Not sure what other reason there could have been for the change, It still looks strange to me.

[66Atlas]

Do those pickups sound any different to standard ripper pickups?

Id say so yes, but not hugely different. They sound much more like Rippers than they do mudbuckers but still like they are a missing link between the two.

[gearHed289]

I doubt this was a factory fretless. Interesting about the pickups. I've still never actually played a Ripper plugged in, but I really liked the feel and overall look and vibe of the black one a friend used to own.

[66Atlas]

Fat bottom girls make the world go round...



That's a lovely one!

[66Atlas]

You can see the differences in the headstock.