Hello Everyone, I just bought a fixer upper blond 1974 ripper with a bad case of Nitro Rot. Miraculously the pickups pots and switch all seem to pass signal, so hoping with some cleanup I can keep most of the original electronics. But obviously, I need a new pickguard. This one originally had a dark faux tortoise shell guard, and I'd like to stay as close to that original as possible. However, because it's the 1974 with the pickups mounted to the body rather than the guard, I believe that the template is slightly different than the 1975. Pickguard planet (ie Chandler music), says that black is only color that they have large enough to make that guard. WD only sells the 1975 and newer guards. Any suggestions of anywhere I might be able to source a 1974 size tortoise pattern pickguard? Thanks!!!
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Tort material is readily available in 11x17. I would make my own pickguard. Is the original intact enough to use as a template?
And do you have a router?
My old one literally disintegrated so I don’t have a way to trace it. Someone on Facebook says that they ordered the WD one and it fits perfectly on their 1974, so I’m going to try that.
I owned a Grabber bass for several months back in the late '70s. Not bad, but the movable pickup really didn't have enough travel to get as wide a range of tones as an instrument with both a bridge and a neck pickup, and I didn't care for the sound it got. A matter of taste, I guess.
I think he's saying he had the g1 grabber, & compared to a bass with dedicated Neck & bridge pickups, the grabber's Slide range wasn't really doing much to warrant it overall.
Yeah, I got that.
Kinda like dropping into the Tbird club just to say you had a Tbird, but it was too long of a reach for your left hand so you sold it.
Well hello, I didn’t know there was another RipperClub. My 77 Ripper represent.
Any case-less or just wanting a bag, I submit the following. If it fits this MIJ widebody clone nice and snug without being overly so, it’ll fit any of them.
Good to know - thanks! I have a Casady case, but for tonight's show I wanted to bring a Casady and my Ripper. I don't think the Ripper will fit in any of my gig bags.
Recently, I acquired an old Ripper from the family of the original owner, and I am working on a restoration/refurb. Hard to date it exactly, given the lack of accurate serials in the 6-digit stamped Made in USA era, but based on everything I've added up, it's an early '75 in gloss natural. Apparently, he bought it in the Bicentennial year and played it in country bars and church here in SC for the next 40-odd years before he passed. It's been stored in it's case under the bed since. I offered them a fair price for it that we were both satisfied with (given it's condition), and met a few days later to make the deal/exchange.
The case is complete, but the hinges are shot. No big woop lacquer is very yellowed (almost orange) and has a spiderweb of checking all over ... but I dig that. Everything works and was complete, but was filthy, so I completely disassembled it, cleaned, buffed, and polished for days, and now I am ready to put it all back together. The only non-original parts are one tuner is a later Gibson-branded plate, and the chicken-head knob was replaced with a rounder radio control. I had an old tuner from that vintage in my parts bin, so that is swapped, and eventually I'll find a NOS knob (but that's not a priority at this point).
What is missing are 3 of the 4 nickel eyelets for the through-body stringing holes. I'm looking around and haven't found the exact replacements yet. Anyone have any leads they might pass along?
Thanks!
The case is complete, but the hinges are shot. No big woop lacquer is very yellowed (almost orange) and has a spiderweb of checking all over ... but I dig that. Everything works and was complete, but was filthy, so I completely disassembled it, cleaned, buffed, and polished for days, and now I am ready to put it all back together. The only non-original parts are one tuner is a later Gibson-branded plate, and the chicken-head knob was replaced with a rounder radio control. I had an old tuner from that vintage in my parts bin, so that is swapped, and eventually I'll find a NOS knob (but that's not a priority at this point).
What is missing are 3 of the 4 nickel eyelets for the through-body stringing holes. I'm looking around and haven't found the exact replacements yet. Anyone have any leads they might pass along?
Thanks!
The difference in the road-worn and stage-smoked finish compared to the pristine section under the pickguard is pretty intense...
Also hot ... holding what looked to be a black single-ply pickguard up to the sun, only to find it is a beautiful old dark tort one instead! 
That's a beauty!
Need to be careful with those single ply torts - they're infamous for gassing off and destroying the electrics!!
Being the wrong side of the pond for the majority of TB classifieds to make any sense, I was recently perusing our sister site (Basschat UK), and was surprised to find a Ripper up for sale - which doesn't happen very often.
What really struck me as odd, though, was the fact that most classifieds only generate a page, or two of responses - for some reason, this thread had a huge number of responses, so I clicked to see why...
This is without doubt the coolest for sale thread I've ever come across, so strap in, and read through from the beginning :
www.basschat.co.uk
What really struck me as odd, though, was the fact that most classifieds only generate a page, or two of responses - for some reason, this thread had a huge number of responses, so I clicked to see why...
This is without doubt the coolest for sale thread I've ever come across, so strap in, and read through from the beginning :
The bass sale that turned a (massive) corner… - *SOLD*
This is a killer of a sale. 1. I’ve always wanted one of these; it lived up to expectations. 2. It’s a really good one - I’ve played a few to get to this one. 3. It’s something out of my control causing the sale; but it needs to be done. We were promised support 4 years ago with an extension for ...
www.basschat.co.uk
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