Music videos featuring Fat-Bottom Girls (Rippers, Victories, etc)

[uwe]

I think we've had it twice before, but it's always worth watching.

[Basvarken]

Must be Alzheimer's light...🥴

[uwe]

Let's just quickly forget about it and you'll post it again in a few weeks, ok, Robbie dearest?

Repetition is sooo underrated.
Repetition is sooo underrated.
Repetition is sooo underrated.

[Granny Gremlin]

So as per the LP bass vid thread I saw a pic on social media of these guys with a red Victory Standard and had to go find a vid to post.  Due to appropriate punk production values it's really hard to see but there's finally a bit at about 4:40.  Headstock then body shape and a glint of red highlight.  What you can't see is the large patch of finish wear to the bear wood on the lower bout that I could see in the pic.



Anyway, seems Greg Norton had a Gibson bass phase that overlapped with Mould's  Flying V phase (see the LP vid thread).

[Basvarken]

German bass player Oliver Porschmann made a nice video about the G3:

[Granny Gremlin]

Great vid.  Always loved the sound of the G3, but can't stand the body shape and maple fretboards.

[Rob]

I agree.  Something about that design is repulsive to me.

[uwe]

Rippers/Grabbers/G-3 all have an acquired look with that huge and flat body, no one in his right mind would call them beautiful. But hey, they are immediately recognizable and the G-3 is as close as you can get approximating a Ric sound with a Gibson. No other Gibson bass sounds like it. They should have called it the "Snapper".

Poschmann (without an "r") actually knows what he is talking about.

[gearHed289]

Huh, the body shape never bothered me. At least they're pretty thin. What I don't like is the all blonde ones. Kinda plain looking.

[uwe]

I always thought that the only person it actually looked ok on was Gene Simmons in his stage gear, he dwarfed the bass and not the other way around. Always liked the Grabber/G3 look with Flying V'ish headstock better than the more traditional Ripper.

I had my first encounter with that shape in a live setting when I saw the Scorpions on their Virgin Killer tour in early 1977, Francis Buchholz played a natural Ripper over his Hiwatt rig.

[westen44]

I feel like I'm in the minority since I genuinely like the way Rippers look.  For Gibson basses, I would say aesthetically they are in second place to the T-Bird.  The worst looking Gibson basses are ones with the SG shape.  I've played them through the years because of circumstances going way back and because I like the sound and ergonomics.  But I've never much liked the look of the EB-0/EB-3/SG very much.  I play them for reasons which have nothing to do with looks at all.  But to reference Jack Bruce, something like an EB-3 is a great bass if you're going to be singing and playing at the same time and as Jack put it, you don't want to sound like most everyone else who is playing a Fender.  (Paraphrased)

[uwe]

Herr Wetton and his black Victory Artist.

[gearHed289]

Herr Wetton and his black Victory Artist.

We're probably actually hearing his white '60 P bass.

That's a fun one to play/sing, but the high A at the end of every other line is a bitch for me. Greg Lake cheated and sang all the lines the same. Here he is with an Alembic 8.

[uwe]

John was never very particular about what bass he played. Basically: black or white, bolt-on, four-string, Fender style, and if it says Ibanez on the headstock so what.



This will get me killed, but I think Pat Thrall was a better fit for Asia than Steve Howe. Howe, fine guitarist he is, cannot play a rockin' solo to save his life. 

I once spoke to John backstage after an Asia gig why he had returned to playing his ebony Victory after the Asia reunion and he said he'd dig it out if he felt like playing a black bass - and if he  felt more like playing a white one, he'd choose the Zon ("The Gibson is harder to play nowadays, none of us were meant to still play rock'n'roll at our age."). Plus: "I'm a Yin & Yang guy."



A man who played for ... yes, fins ... Himmel, I do have to come to terms with that ...




PS: Greg had a nice voice and did an admirable job stepping in at short notice (while John as AWOL, when he should have been AA), but he has a lower range - that caused issues with lots of Asia material.

[Pilgrim]

If Bond was a bass player, I can hear this exchange between him and Goldfinger:

"Do you expect me to talk?"

"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to solo!"