Dweezil Zappa may have just auctioned off a huge guitar gear haul, including a replica of the heavily modded Hot Rats Les Paul and his Madonna-clad True Blue Jackson.
However, as he tells Guitar World in a forthcoming interview, one model that he elected to hold on to was the instrument known as ‘the Ripley guitar’ in honor of its inventor, the musician, producer and gear-tinkerer Steve Ripley.
The decision is perhaps not surprising when you realise that the forward-thinking electric guitar was limited to just three instruments, each of which was placed into the hands of a groundbreaking guitarist – namely, Eddie Van Halen, Ry Cooder and Dweezil Zappa.
“The Ripley guitar that I have is the very unique one that Edward Van Halen used to refer to as ‘the Super Pluto Guitar’,” explains Zappa.
“They all had these extra electronics, and a two rack space brain that went with it, and a special cable that’s a 12-pin connector between the head and the guitar.”
The rack unit enabled the player to control elements like distortion, compression and even pan individual strings to different areas of the mix.
Eddie Van Halen with his Ripley which has separate panning for each of the 6 strings. Circa 1983. 🎸#evh #Ripley #guitars #pickups pic.twitter.com/NCd7NRAlAwApril 21, 2022
“Three of those were made. I had one. Ry Cooder had one. Edward Van Halen had one. And they were so specialized that if one of them broke, you had to call one of the three of us to borrow one to use it again.
“Ry Cooder had been using the brain that went with my guitar for maybe the last 12 or 13 years. I finally got it back a year or two ago maybe. But he had it for a long time because his stopped working, and Steve Ripley passed away a few years back so nobody knows how to work on these things.”
Later, thanks to a hook-up from Van Halen (who even named an unreleased song in Ripley's honor), Kramer would license and develop an S-style production version.
That model was known as the Ripley Stereo Guitar and offered much of the same functionality – and has become pretty rare in its own right.
“They do cool stuff!” summarises Zappa. “I am doing a lot of stuff in my studio which is [mixing in] Dolby Atmos and I can actually take that guitar, I could play something, and I could have it pan all the way around my head.”
Keep an eye out for the full interview on Guitar World and check out Zappa’s full auction sale at AnalogR.
