1975 Gibson Ripper L9-S Vintage Electric Bass Guitar Natural, Alder Body & Flame Maple Neck

Up for sale, a 1975 Gibson "The Ripper" L9-S bass in excellent condition and in perfect working order, with a highly unusual deeply figured flame maple neck. One of the more unique and versatile Gibson basses ever produced, the Ripper comes equipped with its original pair of Bill Lawrence designed "Super Humbucker" pickups and a four-way rotary switch for series, parallel, and out of phase pickup settings.The contoured alder body is a particularly rare option, only offered on the Ripper in 1975 and attributable to the instrument's smooth, balanced natural sound. The set neck, string through body design, and maple neck and fingerboard ensure a powerful tonal platform and excellent sustain, with the glassy articulation and note attack of maple. And while the bass does have a distinctive growl and grind accentuated by a set of roundwound 45-105 strings, rolling back the Tone knob to taste can yield a broad, meaty thump. The pickups have a rich tonal palette, delivering fundamental punch and top end cut. Extremely lightweight for a Ripper, the bass weighs only 8lbs 5oz and has been professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar with slinky action and spot-on intonation.The three-piece flame maple neck has a round, substantial C profile carve, modestly more slender at the nut yet with appreciable heft as you travel up the maple fretboard, measuring .840" deep at the 1st fret and 1.015" at the 12th. There is light palm wear through the nitro gloss on the profile central to the carve behind frets 3-9, and the fretboard has been refretted with medium jumbo fretwire that matches the size of the original frets, yet with more crown. The new frets show zero wear, and the bass plays cleanly up the 34" scale with a straight neck and responsive, optimally adjusted truss rod. The nut measures 1 5/8" in width, upgraded to a hand-carved piece of bone for optimal note clarity and sustain. On the headstock, the original tuning machines are intact and work as they should with light patina, and the "Ripper" truss rod cover is present.All of the electronics work as they should, with CTS pots that date to the 42nd week of 1975. The four-way rotary pickup selector switch works as follows:1 in phase — series2 bridge only — single3 in phase — parallel4 out of phase — seriesThe original bridge is intact with extremely clean chrome plating, complete with the bridge cover. The plastic parts include the original three-ply pickguard which appears black but is actually a very dark swirling tortoise material, along with a modern trio of black speed knobs.The Natural nitro lacquer gloss finish is 100% original with quite a bit of ambering, highlighting the incredibly deep tiger flame which extends the entire length of the neck and headstock. There is buckle rash central to the waist and various small dings and scuffs, primarily on the back and body parameter, with prominent, tight horizontal lacquer checking, and a sliver of wear through the deeply ambered gloss where the forearm crosses the top.