1974 Gibson Ripper L9-S Bass, as made famous by Krist Novoselic

Further Information:

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• A perfectly original Ripper.  An aged beauty, for sure.  It's seen a life on the road, and bears testament with the nicks and chips you'd expect.  But in terms of hardware, fretboard, frets, and electrics, it's in superb condition.

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• Aside from the unique Q-system electronics, there's many other things to love about this bass: the truss-rod cover boldly engraved "THE RIPPER" (a bass making no secret of its targeting at the heavier end of musical taste), the deep dark tortoiseshell pickguard (yes, it looks black, but it's definitely tortoiseshell), the chicken-head varitone that opens up all of those tonal options.

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• And it plays and sounds just fantastic.  From deep bass depth to high click treble.  Plus, as Patrick Hunter says in his video review above, there's a growl you can get from this bass that's unlike any other.  I haven't been through the user guide, but even the most moderate changes to the mid and treble roll-off pots dial in tonal ranges to suit all styles.  No idea how Krist Novoselic had his set, but just set the Varitone to 4, with both pick-ups out of phase, drop in your Chorus, and you're as ready for Come As You Are as you'll ever be.

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• Finally (and geekily), late-60s/early-70s Gibson basses are never that easy to date.  I had the same problem with this 1969 Gibson EB-3.  And, just as then, I'm indebted to Fly Guitars for the wealth of information, spec and design changes that helped date this Ripper.  Skip the rest of this section if that's a step too far into guitar geekery.  Otherwise, read on . . .

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• The serial number wasn't that helpful in confirming the production date of this guitar.  The Gibson Blue Book would have you choosing any date between 1970 and 1975.  For a start, the Ripper was first introduced in 1973, so at least that narrowed the range down to three years.  But it was down to other clues in the build to get to 1974:

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• The pots being the next best place to start.  The latest datestamp on the pots is the 44th week of 1973.  That was quite exciting.  A good chance it could be one of the original 20 Rippers shipped in 1973.   And yet . . .

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• I've never yet dated a guitar by its wood . . . and I'm no expert.  But looking at the body, the grain seemed at odds with the maple neck.  And so it turns out.  The earliest 1973 and 1974 Rippers were produced with a maple body, replaced by alder later in 1974, before again reverting to maple in 1977.  Comparing this one with the alder-bodied 1974 Ripper on Fly Guitars' website, the body has the same swirled pattern.  Which would make this one no earlier than 1974.

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• Like I said, I'm no expert, so I could have got my woods wrong.  Which is where, unlikely as it sounds, the tuners helped at least establish a pre-1975 build date.  Rippers were installed with an updated version of Kluson 546's up until 1974, with a 9/16" tuner post.  Which is what we have on this Ripper.

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• So, everything points to a pre-1975 build date . . . and all it would take is someone who really knows their maple from the alder to nail it.  Which is a step too far, even for me.   I'm just happy to play it.