Dave Kiswiney and the Gibson Ripper

Dave Kiswiney I got a Ripper in '73, it was one of the first ones. They say they came out in '74, but I know I got it in 1973, as one of the first ones. I bought it from Massimino's Music (Shelby, MI), which was a big store. I had never seen one before, and it was like wow man - it's got lots of switches and pickup configurations, so, I took it and started playing it. I actually traded that Thunderbird in, I got some money for the Thunderbird, it was about an even trade, I might have had to pay 20 Bucks because they went, ah you ruined this bass - you know I just needed something to play.

FlyGuitars who were you playing with at this time?

Dave Kiswiney : Local bands around Michigan. After I got out of the Mike Quatro band, I used it in a band called Airtight, My Friends and a few other bands. But the Gibson Ripper was like a godsend for me. It was balanced, different variations of what you could do with the tone, it just worked for the amplification I was using, it just worked. And it had that big body, that big maple body, right? and it just was a fantastic bass.

I played it stock for a long long time and then I Frankensteined it; put those Precision pickups in it and some more switches, and it would do anything. I had those pickups that I took out of the EB, the '54 that were from an early Precision bass - I still have those pickups they're probably worth a fortune - and hacked out, did the same thing, took the pickguard off. I was always into stuff like wiring, and fixing amps and things like that. There were great parts stores and electronics places and you could buy switches and stuff. I just started drawing it out and wiring it up.

So it had the black Precision pickups in it, and I showed up with that bass in the Nugent band and they were like woah what the heck is that? they asked me why I didn't have a Fender.. I said well I don't.. they ended up loving it, the sound guys loved it, Nugent loved it. The sound man Dansir (McCullough), he loved it. It had that great big body on it and it would just sustain and hold notes, stand in front of the amps... put that body in front of the speakers and it would just resonate and hang, they loved it.

The Ripper with added black Precision pickup

The Ripper with additional white Dimarzio pickup

Then the road crew guys, they went "hey you've got to put Dimarzios in there"; so they fit right in, they just took it apart and put in those white ones and that's the way I played it the longest time with those white pickups in. The Dimarzios were just louder, that's a great passive pickup. They also put them in my '78 Precision bass that I used on Scream Dream.

And then I put it away after I got off the road I put it away; I really screwed up, I should have taken it apart and just sterilized it but it went to bed with sweat impregnated in it - you know what I mean. There was so much sweat and moisture that got into that bass. You could clean the surface of it off but it just corroded you saw the pictures. I took it out and a couple of years later and the strings had broken they had just released and there was that patina that crud all over it, and I was like oh my god what have I done - so I spent a day cleaning each piece, piece by piece I had ordered a replacement pickguard of course the original one was tortoise - this was a three layer one you know with the white in the middle but the original one just deteriorated you'd just touch it and it would fall apart, it was crazy. I took all the pieces out and rewired it stock and it plays great. The only thing that's missing is the rotary switch, the actual pointer switch that came on it. I'd have no idea where that is. I put that toggle on which was a much better switch 'cause I could flip it with my little finger you know I could move it to an out of phase position or a coil tap or whatever it was with one little flick.

That's about it for the Ripper it was a great bass and a lot of people love that bass; it was kind of my signature thing.

"I took it out and a couple of years later and the strings had broken they had just released and there was that patina that crud all over it, and I was like oh my god what have I done"

A look at the wiring - "The Dimarzios were just louder, that's a great passive pickup"

FlyGuitars As a Gibson artist, did they ever encourage you to use their amps, the Norlin Lab Series, for example?

They never mentioned it. I mean for an amp there was nothing they could do that could compare with what I had. I mean what I had in the Nugent band, if you stood in front of it with that Ripper it would move you. If you had loose pants on, your pants would shake. It would move that much air. And that Ripper... I could actually lean back in that folded horn and move that body to the side of me, to my right side, and expose it to the 2x12s and that thing would start screaming. I mean it would just roar. And Nugent loved it. He absolutely loved it and at the end of the night we'd take out instruments off and they'd bring out out a stand and we'd set them down and the whole stage would just be screaming with Byrdlands and Rippers and just be vibrating the whole thing 'til they shut it down. It was unbelievable.

Ted Nugent live; left to right: Charlie Huhn, Dave Kiswiney and Ted Nugent

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