A few questions about Ripper basses

[exiledarchangel]

and the hardware rechromed

[uwe]

 

The luthier did it without asking me I swear!!!

[veebass]

Is it the one at Music Swop Shop? A few hints in your posts.
I had a look at the pic of that one online-

I think it is too dear for the condition. I'm with Aussie Mark- it appears a bit knocked around, in our fair land $1200 or so, maybe less if there are some issues. Make an offer- the owner will either accept, reject it or haggle.
Ripper parts aren't easy to get, if some need replacing, although they do come up occasionally. The low $AU adds to the cost if you need to get something from O/S.
A few things- check the neck out for twist etc- there are a couple getting around with bad necks. Not saying this is one of those but a twisted neck on a Ripper is a big problem.
Having said that, I really like Ripper necks- they are among my favourites. I have an unbound ES 335 Bass and the neck is very similar.
I had a pickup die in a big bodied 74 Ripper a while back. I got some great advice from the guys here.
I ended up going with a rewind of my pickup by SD Custom Shop- MJ there was great.
The cost was a bit cheaper than a SD CS one out here but not inconsequential when factoring in two way postage- over $AU200 from memory.
I really can't pick a difference between the original pickup and now that it is rewound.
Rippers are a thing all of their own soundwise- you either like them or don't IMO.
I really like mine for our amplified acoustic set- it works really well with the guitarist's Maton ECW80- but Rippers are quite versatile.

[pjm]

Is it the one at Music Swop Shop? A few hints in your posts.
I had a look at the pic of that one online-

I think it is too dear for the condition. I'm with Aussie Mark- it appears a bit knocked around, in our fair land $1200 or so, maybe less if there are some issues. Make an offer- the owner will either accept, reject it or haggle.
Ripper parts aren't easy to get, if some need replacing, although they do come up occasionally. The low $AU adds to the cost if you need to get something from O/S.
A few things- check the neck out for twist etc- there are a couple getting around with bad necks. Not saying this is one of those but a twisted neck on a Ripper is a big problem.
Having said that, I really like Ripper necks- they are among my favourites. I have an unbound ES 335 Bass and the neck is very similar.
I had a pickup die in a big bodied 74 Ripper a while back. I got some great advice from the guys here.
I ended up going with a rewind of my pickup by SD Custom Shop- MJ there was great.
The cost was a bit cheaper than a SD CS one out here but not inconsequential when factoring in two way postage- over $AU200 from memory.
I really can't pick a difference between the original pickup and now that it is rewound.
Rippers are a thing all of their own soundwise- you either like them or don't IMO.
I really like mine for our amplified acoustic set- it works really well with the guitarist's Maton ECW80- but Rippers are quite versatile.

Yep that's the one. I made a fair offer but haven't heard back yet. From memory I didn't notice a twisted neck. I might let this one go and wait for one in decent condition to come up.

[Dave W]

Pickguard gases have long been known to eat/destroy wood, so why not other materials?
When the police gets reports on stolen jazz guitars, they always first check if the guitar was eaten by the pickguard:-)

I've never, ever heard of a pickguard eating wood, but if it were true, it wouldn't necessarily follow that it could eat metal.

Off-gassing from nitrocellulose pickguards is notorious for corroding plating: chrome, gold, and nickel. Particularly nitrocellulose tort guards, more than others. I've seen no evidence that it can eat through sold copper wire, but if so, it could certainly eat through any potting wax or lacquer. So if the guard was somehow responsible for "toasting" Ed's pickups -- and that's a big if -- potting wouldn't have helped. This is all assuming that there was actually a problem with his pickups other than that they aren't high output.

Moisture and acid sweat can corrode and short pickup wire. In general, those are more likely causes.

[veebass]

While I can't say for certain what the degassing from pickguards will and won't eat through, I can say the pickguards on 68/ early 69 Telecaster basses are known to commonly degass. So commonly that there are very few of them around with the original guard. I think they changed the material during 1969. The story goes that the corrosive gasses attacked frets and pickups mainly. There are very few of these early Telecaster Basses around with the original pickup and those that do have often been rewound. Original pickup, even those rewound, have fetched ridiculously high prices.

Here's a pic of my early 69 Tele showing the effects of the degassing- the body finish (nitro) was unaffected (take my word- I am not going to take the guard off). You can see discolouration of the poly finish around the frets. 1969 was transitional with some basses finished in poly and others in nitro and some a "patch work". Mine was nitro on the body, neck and headstock- poly on the fretboard. The truss road nut shows some surface corrosion. I can't see any affect on the wood.
The pickguard is not original- it is a fairly old, though- 3 ply bevelled. The original pickup is long gone. I finally settled on a SD Quarter Pounder after being disappointed with the SD Antiquity II- looked the goods but sounded crap IMO. I was told by a guy who owned it for a long time before I got it (about ten years ago) that it was refurbished in the 70s after the pickguard did it's trick and killed the original pickup.




Here's a shot of the whole bass, just for the sake of it.

[pjm]

They accepted my offer of $1500 Aus, so I'll go in and have a look under the pick guard to see if all the bits are intact.
What do you guys think?

[veebass]

They accepted my offer of $1500 Aus, so I'll go in and have a look under the pick guard to see if all the bits are intact.
What do you guys think?

Good luck! Check out the neck as you would for any bass. Get them to take the truss cover off and demonstrate that the truss works. Also check that the joint where the neck attaches to the body is solid- you would expect some surface cracking in the nitro. Check that the headstock is solid- I have seen where the side laminations have come off. Check that there has been no break or structural crack around where the neck joins the headstock. Check that there is a serial number- it can be faint in some years.Here's what it should look like inside.

Oh and be sure to let us know and post pics if you buy it. Ebony Rippers are cool.

[Dave W]

While I can't say for certain what the degassing from pickguards will and won't eat through, I can say the pickguards on 68/ early 69 Telecaster basses are known to commonly degass. So commonly that there are very few of them around with the original guard. I think they changed the material during 1969. The story goes that the corrosive gasses attacked frets and pickups mainly. There are very few of these early Telecaster Basses around with the original pickup and those that do have often been rewound. Original pickup, even those rewound, have fetched ridiculously high prices.

Here's a pic of my early 69 Tele showing the effects of the degassing- the body finish (nitro) was unaffected (take my word- I am not going to take the guard off). You can see discolouration of the poly finish around the frets. 1969 was transitional with some basses finished in poly and others in nitro and some a "patch work". Mine was nitro on the body, neck and headstock- poly on the fretboard. The truss road nut shows some surface corrosion. I can't see any affect on the wood.
The pickguard is not original- it is a fairly old, though- 3 ply bevelled. The original pickup is long gone. I finally settled on a SD Quarter Pounder after being disappointed with the SD Antiquity II- looked the goods but sounded crap IMO. I was told by a guy who owned it for a long time before I got it (about ten years ago) that it was refurbished in the 70s after the pickguard did it's trick and killed the original pickup.

Tele bass pickups were wax potted. So if the pickup on your Tele Bass was killed by the pickguard off-gassing, that would prove that lack of potting wasn't to blame for whatever problems Ed's Ripper pickups had.

[veebass]

Tele bass pickups were wax potted. So if the pickup on your Tele Bass was killed by the pickguard off-gassing, that would prove that lack of potting wasn't to blame for whatever problems Ed's Ripper pickups had.

Yes, I thought that was unlikely. Telecaster Bass pickups commonly died and the general view is that this was due to degassing. My Ripper pickup died long after the original pickguard had gone- it had a WD on it when I bought it years ago. I have since put a genuine but later Ripper guard on it.

[veebass]

Well, did you buy it?

[pjm]

Not yet, I'm waiting on finances.
Couple of pics.
I think it may have had a headstock repair because the thick layer of paint over the serial number also further down the neck there's two layers of black paint wearing away?? I don't know maybe that's just how it was sprayed??
If it is a headstock repair it seem to be a good job.

[veebass]

That looks to be a decent chunk out of the fret board.
The serials can be a bit indistinct, but if you can see evidence of a repair, you might want to consider how much you are prepared to pay. Just saying.

[Dave W]

That looks to be a decent chunk out of the fret board.
The serials can be a bit indistinct, but if you can see evidence of a repair, you might want to consider how much you are prepared to pay. Just saying.

I agree. That doesn't look good.

[pjm]

I showed the pic to my local luthier and he thinks it could have chipped off when the nut was removed. He suggested making an epoxy/ebony dust mix to fill it in with.
I'm hoping to pick this up today.