[anyfour]

OK, so I got this epi ripper yesterday that I bought on Ebay. It came exactly as described, and I didnt ask too many questions. It is solid, no major cracks of issues at all. But WOW, the amount of work just to get it playable. The saddles were swapped high for low, the guy had a pick as a shim at the edge of the neck pocket, making the neck have a bow-like effect. There was also a route for P-bass pickups in the pickguard. I was planning on puttin 2 TB plaus' in there, but will wait on that. For the time being, I slapped in an EMG P. Sounds pretty good LOTS of bite.

The main thing that got my attention was the size of the body. I have a plywood template of the ripper / Grabber body as I am making a ripper clone from an ebay neck I found. (actually I plan on making 2....one being a 5 string). But when I tore the whole bass apart, and put the template to the epi ripper body, OMG there is almost 3/8 inch extra body all the way around. From looking at pics online, I thought the botom bout was just a little bit rounder, and thought the Epi body would be like the comparison between the 73 models and the newer ones as shown on Gibsonbass.com. Needless to say, this Goliath will be going under the router in the next few weeks. I just put new strings on it, and want to get some sort of use out of them. I`ll post pics as this project develops.

Id be interested in seeing or hearing of others' Epi Ripper mods.

[anyfour]

Here is a photo of the template on top of the Epi body...at least I hope this works. Never inserted an image on here.

[donnervogel]

I only have the newer Epi Gripp3r reissues (a prototype that differs from the regular model mainly through some more bevelling of the body and the neck being set not as deep, and a regular specimen as it came out), but both have huge bodies too, larger than my 1974 Ripper with still the early large body. I didn't know though that the first Epi Ripper was a giant like that too.

Uwe

[anyfour]

Well, see that's what still bothers me about the whole Epi Ripper reissue. It isnt shaped like a ripper, the pickguard isnt the same, the neck joint is at the 15th fret instead of the 16th. Nothing is the same but the 3 point bridge, and the even changed the saddle height from what I have read in other posts. It resembles a ripper, thats all. you would think they would have access to the original specs to make is perfect. Lots of companies know how to make exact duplicates of the pickguard, why doesnt Epi? And the body, well, even I figured out how to make an exact template, and Im just a bass player.

I'm not as well versed on the other gibson models. Does Epi's EB3 differ that much from the original gibson shape? Looks real close to me.

[anyfour]

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Ok....so here is my Epi Ripper AFTER I routed it down to Gibson size. The bevels arent perfect, but I think they`ll do. Below is the body with a genuine G-3 pickguard. Quite a bit larger all around than the Epi guard.
I still would love to see others modded Epi Rippers.

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[anyfour]

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[anyfour]

[anyfour]

[anyfour]

Here is the beginning of the new finish. Comments?