$100 Bass Challenge - Ripper Style 30"

[potomac]

Because of my short fingers, I've decided to build a short scale Ripper. The body will have a size of 88% of the Gibson Ripper. Deadline: 08/31/2015


Name of the project: La Grange (The Barn)


Ingredients:


- Body; sandwich of Radiata Pine Select from New Zealand - 2 Boards, ¾” by 3’ by 7 ¼”, $2.00 each = $4.00 from Home Depot, Mt. Pleasant, NY

- Top; from an old wine crate (scrap) from Wine Warehouse, White Plains, NY

- Neck; white ash, 1 3/8" by 5 1/4" by 36", on Sale and additional 50% off – $3.50 from Condon Lumber, White Plains, NY

- Fingerboard; Walnut - 1/4" x 2 - 2.75" x 23", $2.65, ebay by “spitski”

- Tuning Pegs; 2R+2R, $5.50 from amazon by “lotmusic”

- Fretless or Fretwire; 4’, Electric Bass, 2.9mm White Copper, $4.02 from ebay by “mysupertop”

- Nut; Bone for free (thanks to my dog)

- Trussrod; 42cm, $ 8.84, from ebay by “mysupertop” (hope it’s long enough for 30”)

- 2 Pickups; Schecter Bass Guitar Humbucker “Omen”, $ 6.99 x 2 = $ 13.98, ebay by “partsguitarsummer”

- …to be continued…


$ 4.00 Body

$ 3.50 Neck

$ 2.65 Fingerboard

$ 5.50 Tuning Pegs

$ 4.02 Fretwire

$ 8.84 Trussrod

§ 13.99 Pickups

_____________________

$ 42.50 so far

Edit: I changed the body size to 88% of the original Ripper/Grabber size, according to the scale length and the deadline to end of August.

 

[Dug2]

what is the wine for?

 

[buldog5151bass]

When he can't put it together, and runs out of beer?

 

[potomac]

Yes, ...sometimes I need a little bit inspiration from a good red Wine ...and later on the Box will be a nice Top for the project.

 

[reverendrally]

Well done! This is great. I've been trying to tell people you could do this for years!

 

[mapleglo]

I think I bought the same tuners. Lets hope they work!

sub'd.

 

[Jonny5bass]

Can't wait to see these all come together!

 

[potomac]

I think I bought the same tuners. Lets hope they work!

sub'd.

Hi, what is your deadline to finsh your $100 project?

 

[mapleglo]

Hi, what is your deadline to finsh your $100 project?

The Phoenix Comicon starts May 28th, so I have to finish mine by then. The timing was never set up in the "official" rules, but the 6 month timeline was thrown out there.

 

[tedious1]

sub'd

 

[bassingeorge]

Suuuubbed. These $100 builds are gonna be interesting.

 

[gmjhowe]

I think I bought the same tuners. Lets hope they work!

sub'd.

I have always had great success with cheap tuners off amazon. They take pride of place on all my bass guitars.

 

[potomac]

Some more thoughts about the Cheapo Ripper/Grabber:

I have found some pics and plans of the Ripper/Grabber basses on the internet. I decided to build a Ripper-Style bass, not a clone. So, it'll get a triangle headstock, like the Grabber bass had in the 70s and of course no pickguard, because I don’t want cover the beautiful wine crate logo with plastic.

I think the pine body will be very resonant; a piezo bridge could bring an acoustic color into the sound. So I changed my plan. Only one Schecter Pickup in the P-Bass position and a piezo as a bridge pickup.

I have a NOS Washburn piezo bridge in my stock ($ 17.80) ebay by wiguitar

The electronics: vol – bal – hi – mid – low ($ 9.40) ebay by unitednewfrog

It is an active circuit; will it work with the passive pickup?

With a wiring like that, I’ll be able to combine the sound of the piezo bridge and the humbucker pickup. That could be a nice sounding combination for my style; I usually play Blues or Folk.


Dimensions:

The Scale: The original scale of the Ripper/Grabber is 34” I’ll shrink it to 30”, what means 88%.

The Nut: Short scale bass guitars are better sounding with thick strings .110 for the E string is fine. So I will use a 1” ¾ nut.

The Neck Width will be 2 ½” at the 22nd fret.

The string spacing at the bridge should be around ¾”x 3 = 2” ¼

The body will be 88% of the Ripper/Grabber size, according to the scale length, that means 12” 7/8 by 17”.


Budget update:

$ 4.00 Body

$ 3.50 Neck

$ 2.65 Fingerboard

$ 5.50 Tuning Pegs

$ 4.02 Fretwire

$ 8.84 Trussrod

$ 6.99 Pickup

$ 17.80 Piezo Bridge

$ 9.40 Electronics

_____________________

$ 62.70 - so far

 

[potomac]

Member joseplluissans helped me out with his version of a G3 Grabber plan, combined with my own drawing it came out pretty nice, thanks José.

Again; this project won't be a Ripper/Grabber clone. The plan should be good enough to build a nice router template.

Now, progress depends on the weather, my garage has no heating and temperature is falling.

 

[potomac]

Here some pics to compare the body sizes.

The 1st pic shows you the standard Grabber body size with a 30” Gibson style bass neck (I’m not allowed to use, because of the challenge rules).


The 2nd pic is the same 30” neck with a body size shrunken to 88%.

What is the better body size for the 30” scale?

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I like the smaller body better.

 

[michaelwayneharwood]

I like the smaller body better.

+1

 

[scourgeofgod]

I like the full sized body better.

 

[potomac]

Body sizes

 

[mapleglo]

I like the look of the smaller body, but the larger one may be less prone to neck drive. I'm not sure it's an issue with this bass, having never played one.