GIBSON RIPPER
MARK TENCZA
thats from?
One of the 2 pickups appears to have a coil tap and there is also what
appears to be choke in the circuit what would this be for?
Does anyone have any recommended sources for guitar parts via mailorder?
thanks
Mark
Dean Aldridge
From: MARK TENCZA, mark....@syncomm.com
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 94 16:31:00 -0400
In article <89F93DF.0B13...@syncomm.com> MARK TENCZA,
mark....@syncomm.com writes:
>I'm rebuilding a Gibson Ripper Bass s/n 397129 anyone know what year
>thats from?
>One of the 2 pickups appears to have a coil tap and there is also what
>appears to be choke in the circuit what would this be for?
If it has humbuckers, which it probably does, then the coil tap could
well be to change from humbucking twin coil mode, to single coil (non
humbucking) mode.
BTW, I love the sound of these basses with humbuckers but haven't heard a
single coil on a ripper - if it is a single/double coil tap then I
imagine in single coil mode the sound should be "thinner" more trebley,
less "fat", and possibly more noisy too. Fit the symptoms?
The part you saw could well be a capacitor too if it has conventional
tone controls. Is it hooked up to the tone knob? The capacitor tone
control simply sends more or less of the treble (above a point decided by
the value of the cap) to ground. This gives a signal with less treble
(hence a bassier sound) or normal amounts of treble.
I've herd of chokes being used in tone controls but don't know how it
works.
MARK TENCZA
ago I was going to have it refinished and refretted but most of the
guitar shops said "why bother its a Gibson bass". Glad to know you also
appreciate the sound. I dont think anything out there can top its sound
for funk playing.So I'm doing the job myself- fiddleback mahogany veneer
on the top and back and satinwood veneer around the sides. the pickup
cavity will be re-routed as I will keep one of the original ripper
pickups and, if I can locate one, add a Rickenbacker horseshoe pickup in
the treble position. The frets will be dressed and a brass nut and
bridge will also be added.Considering you can pick up a ripper for
around 150.00 in good condition, its a great start for an even greater
sound.
Play on
Mark
Andrew Rogers
>I'm rebuilding a Gibson Ripper Bass s/n 397129 anyone know what year
>thats from?
I used to own a Ripper - while I don't have an exact date for your serial
number I believe they were made only in the mid-70s. I got mine around
'76 (used).
>One of the 2 pickups appears to have a coil tap and there is also what
>appears to be choke in the circuit what would this be for?
I don't believe it was a coil tap; that extra wire was for phase (as I
recall, switch position #4 gave you both pickups out of phase). I may even
still have a hand-traced schematic somewhere, and if I do I'll get back
to you... I think the four positions (not necessarily in order) were one
of 'em alone, series, parallel, and series out-of-phase. I thought the
latter position was useless and added a jumper to get the other pickup
alone instead of both out of phase.
The choke is used in conjunction with a capacitor to form a notch filter;
it's used as a midrange cut control. Gibson used this idea on the L6-S
guitar as well.
>Does anyone have any recommended sources for guitar parts via mailorder?
Stewart-MacDonalds for parts in general, although for Ripper-specific stuff
you probably will have to try Gibson themselves (and hope they still have
them).
Andrew
