Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

walker wrote:It rubs the lotion on it's fingers, or it bleeds all over the bass again.

walker wrote:It rubs the lotion on it's fingers, or it bleeds all over the bass again.

Good one Mark!

Thanks - just paraphrasing Brian's signature tribute to Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb!

And while we're at it, how about a 'Bloodiest Bass Photo' contest! Fortunately for me, I have nothing of competitive caliber. But OH, you know I can certainly conjure something!

walker wrote:Thanks - just paraphrasing Brian's signature tribute to Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb!

Oh, I knew. That was the beauty of it.

That's good. Just wanted to give Brian props as my set-up man!

Interesting fact that it was Ringo who had blisters on his fingers at the end of Helter Skelter

Really? I'm no Beatles expert, but the popular legend that I heard was that it was Lennon. He played bass on Helter-Skelter, and from what I understand, he encountered the same issue that Mr. Luke did.

walker wrote:And while we're at it, how about a 'Bloodiest Bass Photo' contest! Fortunately for me, I have nothing of competitive caliber. But OH, you know I can certainly conjure something!

The Zipper bass.

Just be careful not to get anything caught in it!

A fine quality bass, but I have to wonder if it would have sounded better if Gibson had in fact used those pick-ups that are pictured, instead of the other ones that found their way onto this once-famous, and somewhat mediocre sounding bass?

Yea, I owned one back in the day. Sould have bought a Ric instead. Hindsight!

Before any blistahs or blood on the fingahs Cuck Norris will have worn down the strings from their wound and played for another 4 hrs set on the string core!!!

Ric N. Backer wrote: The Zipper bass. Just be careful not to get anything caught in it!

HA! Good one, Robert!

I didn't actually own one back in the day, but a friend of mine let me play his for a few performances when I was in junior high.



And that's no optical illusion - the bass and I are the same scale. Hard to tell from this photo, but the pickups might be the same as those in the "Rip your ears off" ad. PG is different, obviously - I suppose the "Zipper" had it's variations from year-to-year, like certain OTHER basses we know!

Note the notable 6-strings in the photo - a nice old Gibson ES 335, and a BC Rich Seagull, the first original design by Mr. Rico himself back in 1972, back when they were actually really good guitars.

Are those Kustom cabs?

There's the one Kustom cab on the right, stage left. Those suckers were awesome! I believe that one in particular also doubled as a fold-out bed.

walker wrote:

Ric N. Backer wrote: The Zipper bass. Just be careful not to get anything caught in it!

HA! Good one, Robert!

I didn't actually own one back in the day, but a friend of mine let me play his for a few performances when I was in junior high.



And that's no optical illusion - the bass and I are the same scale. Hard to tell from this photo, but the pickups might be the same as those in the "Rip your ears off" ad. PG is different, obviously - I suppose the "Zipper" had it's variations from year-to-year, like certain OTHER basses we know!

Note the notable 6-strings in the photo - a nice old Gibson ES 335, and a BC Rich Seagull, the first original design by Mr. Rico himself back in 1972, back when they were actually really good guitars.

I LOVE this picture. Absolutely FANTASTIC!!

Thanks for posting.

The one you are holding is in fact the production model, which has the standard super-humbucker pick-ups that were common to that bass.

The Ripper pictured in the ad was a prototype that never came to light. The pick guard was canned because it approximated the Ric 4001, and the EB-O type pick-ups weren't used because it was felt that the new bass deserved a new set of pick-ups. Gibson didn't want to issue something that was too similar to their declining EB-0 & EB-3 line of bass guitars.

That picture you posted is too cool for words... love it! Brings back a lot of fond memories.....

walker wrote:There's the one Kustom cab on the right, stage left. Those suckers were awesome! I believe that one in particular also doubled as a fold-out bed.

Ha! I had one in the Silver Charcoal (or whatever Kustom called the color). My drummer used to call it "the flotation device!"