More Ripper prototypes

[doombass]

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 don't think he used that Ripper for any long period of time. He used a P-bass:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgTtlmqHUmk

[Chris P.]

I interviewd Suzi Quatro some weeks ago. She loves the Ripper and hates the Grabber.

[uwe]

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.

[uwe]

I interviewd Suzi Quatro some weeks ago. She loves the Ripper and hates the Grabber.

Women are like that. They want you to stay concentrated in/on one place und not slide up and down. Personal observation.

[godofthunder]

  Man those prototype Rippers look like can openers.

[uwe]

They certainly deserved no design awards. A Porterhouse steak of a bass: "Make something LARGE!"

[Grog]

  Man those prototype Rippers look like can openers.

Must have been a theme in the Gibson Design Department......

[Basvarken]

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.

That is a fun song to play. We did it with Definition Of Madmen

https://youtu.be/J4KqbiyDFJU

Women are like that. They want you to stay concentrated in/on one place und not slide up and down. Personal observation.

😂 very true!

[D.M.N.]

I interviewd Suzi Quatro some weeks ago. She loves the Ripper and hates the Grabber.

I LOVE SUZI.


Just picked up a Suzi Quatro shirt and will die on the hill of spreading the good word of her.

[swood_de]

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.

[swood_de]

Another photo from the same show...

[Alanko]

Seems plausible. Lake had a modified Rickenbacker that was due to receive a custom engraved metal pickguard had he not gone off the bass immediately.

ELP had a big budget to play with, so he probably thought nothing of sending the bass off to get a 'piano black' refinish to match Keith's Steinway.

[uwe]

I once read that Greg Lake actually had some involvement with the Ripper and visited the Gibson factory for prototypes. Wouldn't rule out that they gave him one to try out. There were even bolt-on Rippers in the prototype stage initially, they pretty much threw everything against the wall to see what sticks.