[dukeplaysbass]

Heya-

Are the bridge and neck pups on the Rippers identical? Even the casing/plastic housing they're set into? Wondering because in trying to drop the action on mine, the bridge pup (even cranked all the way down) buzzes against the E string....

I replaced the bridge pup (had a non-original replacement pup in it when I got it) with what I thought was a bridge Ripper pup, but maybe I got a 2nd neck pup by mistake.....

Any help appreciated.

[bassdroid]

A quick glance at my '74 parts bass shows that the pups are the same, but the depth of the cavities they are mounted in is different. The bridge cavity measures .375" and the neck is .5"

[guitarshark]

I'll bet you have an early (like '73) Ripper. I once had an early Ebony Ripper brought to me for repair because of the same problem. The only solution was to remove the pickup from the bass, (unsoldering the wires, of course) tuck the wires up into the center of the underside, and rub the cover on a piece of coarse sandpaper (100 grit is good to start, when you achieve the proper height, switch to progressively finer grades of paper) placed on a level surface.
Remove a little at a time, checking in between sandings to make sure you don't remove too much material.
Since the pickups are potted in epoxy and cannot be removed from the covers, be careful with the wires.

I believe Ripper pickups are dimensionally and electronically identical, they do have different color coding on the wires to facilitate ease of assembly.

[dukeplaysbass]

Thanks, you two. I'm thinking the same thing, that I'm going to have to file down the housing in order to get enough clearance under the strings.