Bass appears to be a fretless.
Is that Roger McGuinn rocking the Ric?
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A little love for the Ripper fanbois
- Thread starter GretschWretch
- Start date
Bass appears to be a fretless.
Is that Roger McGuinn rocking the Ric?
Rick apparently owned four Rippers – I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of them was fretless.
It does look like McGuinn on the Ric. Maybe John Sebastian on tambourine? Richie Havens on acoustic?
It does look like McGuinn on the Ric. Maybe John Sebastian on tambourine? Richie Havens on acoustic?
Nothing gets me wanting a Ripper more than this!
I thought Sebastian, maybe, on harp. I could not get a good enough view of Richie to be sure it was Richie.
Yes, harp...I should've watched the whole video...just caught a few seconds of him with something in his hand and stupidly assumed it was percussion.
+1.
In the late ’90s a friend hired me to dress the ebony fingerboard of his black ripper which had never had a setup since new.
Up until that point I had never been a big fan of Gibson’s basses but I couldn’t deny the high build quality, playability and great tone of that bass. If one came my way at the right price I wouldn’t hesitate to…. er…. grab it.
I’ll see myself out.
Up until that point I had never been a big fan of Gibson’s basses but I couldn’t deny the high build quality, playability and great tone of that bass. If one came my way at the right price I wouldn’t hesitate to…. er…. grab it.
I’ll see myself out.
I’m having a carbon fiber Ripper body built for me.. can’t wait to grab it!
J Wilson
Supporting Member
The first bass I ever owned, bought new back in the 70's.
Yep, just like that, though fretted, like this one.
I could have lived without the string-through, but not bad for all-maple (far lighter than the all maple RD I bought after this). To my mind the closest Gibson ever came to a real alternative to PBasses, Jazz Basses, most other 34" scale axes. Could stand a revival with Seymours and careful tweaks.
Yep, just like that, though fretted, like this one.
I could have lived without the string-through, but not bad for all-maple (far lighter than the all maple RD I bought after this). To my mind the closest Gibson ever came to a real alternative to PBasses, Jazz Basses, most other 34" scale axes. Could stand a revival with Seymours and careful tweaks.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
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A Ripper is the bass I learned to play on. My high school owned one for use by the Jazz band class. I played guitar in the band my junior year, then our bass player graduated. Since the bass was far more essential to the band, I switched over and spent the summer before my senior year practicing with that Ripper bass. I played it all year until right before graduation when I got a new ‘76 fretless P-bass. The Ripper had a lot of good sounds, but the P-bass had THE sound. I still have good memories of the Ripper, though.
Greetings from the North,
That's Rick Danko on that Ripper. I loved watching him play.
Rezdog
That's Rick Danko on that Ripper. I loved watching him play.
Rezdog
That was a great movie and they did look oh so cool. I was very disappointed to read that Danko removed and replaced a lot of his own audio. That’s just cheating!
In the first minute I could not decide one way or the other, but the close-ins on the bridge do not clearly reveal frets, plus I detect a certain amount of fretless bloom (not mwaah) on the top (octave) note of the repeated 1-5-8 pattern.
With a dark 'board there would be no doubt, either way.
It's too bad that the audio was replaced. It would be cool to hear Danko and Manuel's parts.
In the Last Waltz, virtually all of the Band was overdubbed except for Levon's parts. Helm mentions how much that bothered him in his autobiography.
In the Last Waltz, virtually all of the Band was overdubbed except for Levon's parts. Helm mentions how much that bothered him in his autobiography.
It's very clearly the studio recording and not the live recording we're hearing watching Levon Helm's drumming.
There's Levon, Richard Manuel, Danko in the video along with Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian and Richie Havens.
I had an awful chain reaction in bed the the other morning: I knocked a pillow off the bed while turning over which fell onto the bedside table, which knocked the metal lamp off the bedside table which fell onto my Ripper which fell over striking the door with the headstock before knocking a metal garbage over noisily.
Fortunately the Ripper seems none the worse for the mishap but this is what it looked like before the event:
There's Levon, Richard Manuel, Danko in the video along with Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian and Richie Havens.
I had an awful chain reaction in bed the the other morning: I knocked a pillow off the bed while turning over which fell onto the bedside table, which knocked the metal lamp off the bedside table which fell onto my Ripper which fell over striking the door with the headstock before knocking a metal garbage over noisily.
Fortunately the Ripper seems none the worse for the mishap but this is what it looked like before the event:
Out in the internet you can find the soundboard audio from that night. Here are a few I have in case you wanted to hear them. You can probably tell why they decided to overdub the audio.
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Last summer, I saw an ad for a fretless Ripper on Reverb and when I looked to see who the seller was, it turned out to be a shop local to me where I've done frequent business. I went there the next day and played it, a later '70s model (it had the numbers for the four-position switch printed on the pickguard and no round base for it) in the rare tobacco burst with ebony neck. I was excited as the price was reasonable ($1,700) and it came with the original case in good shape. And then I played it...
My very first bass was a Ripper, purchased in early 1978, fretted with natural finish like most were. I was very proud that I had a Gibson while everyone else around me played Fender basses, and I said so like a snotty teenager who didn't know better would. (I held out until with that Ripper until 1981, when I traded it and cash for a '66 Fender P which I thankfully still possess).
Playing that fretless Ripper last summer demonstrated that my faded memories of it weren't inaccurate, that (IMO) it had one really good sound/pickup choice (as wired from the factory) and three other much less useful - one of them useless - options. Also, the factory dots on the side of the neck were in the wrong place for fretless, i.e. between the frets and not on the fret lines like a fretted bass. On this bass, a previous owner had added his own "correct" dots with a black Sharpie, so the visible side of the neck was full of them and quite confusing to look at.
I had the money but a hard pass on it was the easy call. The salesman, an old friend of me, wondered with me about the current valuation of Rippers as we both remembered when getting $300 for one was considered a too high price. Times change of course and no offense intended to the many Ripper fans. I like Gibson basses and while an Epiphone Embassy Pro is as close as I currently come to owning one, I'd love to get a reverse T-Bird one day. Danko's tobacco burst Ripper in The Last Waltz is what got me excited about the one described here and I was truly sad to make the only sane choice and walk away from it.
My very first bass was a Ripper, purchased in early 1978, fretted with natural finish like most were. I was very proud that I had a Gibson while everyone else around me played Fender basses, and I said so like a snotty teenager who didn't know better would. (I held out until with that Ripper until 1981, when I traded it and cash for a '66 Fender P which I thankfully still possess).
Playing that fretless Ripper last summer demonstrated that my faded memories of it weren't inaccurate, that (IMO) it had one really good sound/pickup choice (as wired from the factory) and three other much less useful - one of them useless - options. Also, the factory dots on the side of the neck were in the wrong place for fretless, i.e. between the frets and not on the fret lines like a fretted bass. On this bass, a previous owner had added his own "correct" dots with a black Sharpie, so the visible side of the neck was full of them and quite confusing to look at.
I had the money but a hard pass on it was the easy call. The salesman, an old friend of me, wondered with me about the current valuation of Rippers as we both remembered when getting $300 for one was considered a too high price. Times change of course and no offense intended to the many Ripper fans. I like Gibson basses and while an Epiphone Embassy Pro is as close as I currently come to owning one, I'd love to get a reverse T-Bird one day. Danko's tobacco burst Ripper in The Last Waltz is what got me excited about the one described here and I was truly sad to make the only sane choice and walk away from it.
Thanks for posting that. So Levon’s vocals and drums are the same? I can’t tell cause the soundboard stuff is mixed rather poorly. The final result (the film) is a great show but it hurts my naïve little brain to know so much trickery was involved. The film is not really a document of the Band’s last concert, it’s a glorified Hollywood version of what you’d like it to have been. I guess Zappa overdubbed stuff on Roxy & Elsewhere too and I know Chuck Berry’s vocals were all overdubbed on Hail, Hail Rock & Roll. My bubble has been broken. I won’t be so self critical listening to myself recorded live anymore. Don’t tell me that the Allman Brothers @ Fillmore East was all overdubbed too, or my heart will break.
Did not mean to hijack this thread. I never owned a Ripper, but I do remember being impressed with them in music stores back in the day. Too many basses and not enough time.
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