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GibsonBass So the first Gibson bass you tried was the EB-2?
Ralphe Armstrong I always liked the sound of it. Being a bass violinist, I like its
mellow tone. Some guys had it sounding mushy, but the guys in Detroit that played around here, they had a sound! Labella strings, they had a big sound going through Ampegs.
GibsonBass You soon got a contract endorsing Gibson basses. How did that come about?
How I got with Gibson guitars was with John McLaughlin, he took me to Lincolnwood, Illinois, in 1975. I met Bruce Bolen and designer Walt Johnston and they asked me to write down what I wanted; and that’s how they came up with this bass called the Ripper and the G-3 with three pickups. And we had the RD Artist, that was a great bass. It was a whole lot of wood and a whole lot of sound! It had a hell of a sound. I had a mahogany fretless RD too, with an ebony fingerboard!
GibsonBass Tell me about your fretless Ripper you used.
Ralphe Armstrong Oh, that bass had a good sound. It had a real deep sound; then it had a very high legato, which is very long. I could do glissandos on it. It had a lot of sustain.
GibsonBass I noticed you had ebony and maple Rippers; did you find any differences?
Ralphe Armstrong The ebony is always closer to the bass violin, the tonality of it.
GibsonBass Tell me more about the RD Artists.
Ralphe Armstrong That to me, it was one of the best ones ever made. A lot of people
did not like it because it was heavy, but I liked because it was big and it
had a long fingerboard; you can play a G harmonic on it and it had a big sound.
It was a well-made piece of machinery.
 | | 1978 advert for the Gibson RD Artist. This RD is a real rarity in that it is mahogany, with a fretless ebony fretboard. Production models were maple-bodied, and rarely fretless. |
 | | 1981 advert for the Gibson Victory. Ralphe remembers owning fretted and fretless Victory Artists, though perhaps also the one-pickup Standard. In 1982 a Gibson Gazette edition claims he had phoned in 'to let us know how pleased he is with his Victory Standard bass... says it gets down, but never lets him down' |
GibsonBass Ever use the Moog options on it?
Ralphe Armstrong Oh, of course! I used everything on that bass!
GibsonBass Did you have more than one Mahogany RD? Where is it now?
Ralphe Armstrong No, just that one and a maple fretted one. I sold it years ago to Marion Hayden. She still has it today; she still plays it. She's an excellent musician. She also teaches at University of Michigan.
GibsonBass Another bass you endorsed was the Gibson Victory; appearing in a 1981 advert along with a number of other musicians.
Ralphe Armstrong (thinking) Oh yeah, the Victory, a great maple bass. All Gibsons are great sounding basses. It was heavy, but
that never bothered me. I had the two pickup one, I had a fretted & fretless version.
GibsonBass Do you still own your original Gibson basses or other Gibson basses? What basses do you play now?
Ralphe Armstrong No, I got rid of them, but I still have the last two they made for a Jimi Hendrix and me special. You know they are making some
really great basses now. I really want to get a 5 string Thunderbird. That bass is amazing. They make some fine instruments. I play some Fenders: a P bass, a Jazz Bass fretless. Also a Thunderbird, the black Les Paul with Bartolinis, an acoustic Hohner bass and a Yamaha 6 string.
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Bassists
