 1978 Gibson Ripper - more images and sound clips of this late-period maple bodied bass
Ripper variations
 Prototype?: The earliest photographed Ripper appeared in the Jan 1974 guitar magazines, and is pictured here. This would have been built in 1973, and is perhaps the 1 guitar shipped in that year, or maybe just a prototype. Either way, this Ripper is very different from all later guitars featuring a smaller pickguard (only one pickup is mounted in it), 2 EB style humbuckers with surrounds and no bridge cover (also no strung through body?). If this guitar was ever commercially available, it is certainly incredibly rare. If you know of this guitar, i'd love to hear from you.
Production models: There were some other differences between the earliest and latest rippers other than choice of body wood. Most notably in body shape, but also varitone selector markings and pickup mounting. The earliest models were wider bodied, but with short rounded horns, and tortoiseshell pickguards ranging from deep red to almost black. In 1975 with the change to an alder body, the horns were lengthened, and sharpened, whilst the body became slightly narrower.
The next modifications came in somewhere in late 1976, early 1977; the pickups had previously been mounted with 2 screws going through the centre of the pickup itself, however now this was replaced by 3 screws attaching it to the scratchplate. This required modification of the pickup routes; from rectangular, to a five-sided shape.
At around the same time, the varitone position labels were etched into the scratchplate, rather than using a label ring similar to an EB3 bass, and the back of the body now had a recessed black metal plate through which the strings pass, rather than individual string holes. Pickguards (at least on some instruments) were now five-ply b/w/b/w/b. All of these differences are illustrated in the pictures to the left.
The ripper was still featured as late as the 1983 catalogue, with no changes in specification, except for an ultra-safe "Posi-Lok" strap button fitted to all Gibson basses of this period.
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