1958 Gretsch 6187 Clipper Hollowbody Electric Guitar

If you've read the blog long enough you've seen Clippers come and Clippers go. A lot of them were made (in the same way a lot of ES-125s were made) over the years and they show-up for sale fairly often online. This Clipper, however, is pretty far outside the norm.

It has an original DeArmond DynaSonic pickup (rather than the later HiLoTron type) which, on its own, should make your ears perk-up. These are some of my favorite pickups ever made. They're just... different and lovely.

It also has an original "hump-block" fretboard and inlaid-logo headstock veneer. Apparently right before this guitar was made, per its serial number, there were a batch of Streamliners made. Perhaps this Clipper got one of their necks sans-binding and an accompanying non-standard (but original) black pickguard as well? Perhaps it was finished in natural to begin-with? It's an oddity!

The owner thinks it's refinished and perhaps rebound. I know at least the back of the neck is refinished and/or oversprayed as it's too clean and glassy. The binding looks original to me, though, and the body finish does show weather-check/crackle where you'd expect it -- here and there all over -- which is typical for maple ply. It's possible that it's been refinished on the body, though, because it is pretty clean.

Still, there aren't any streaks of color in the finish so I doubt this was refinished from a sunburst or dark-stained guitar if it is refinished on the body. It's often pretty hard to get a clean "natural" refinish on Gretsch boxes because the ply is relatively thin and it's easy to burn-through when resanding after a strip job. I know... I've done it. Ick.

Regardless of all that, it's a cool-as-heck guitar, sounds killer, and handles beautifully. I only had to give it a glorified setup before it was ready to go -- a level/dress of the frets and some modifications to the saddle. Said saddle has two sets of string slots on it, now -- one set compensated for wound-G stringing and one for plain-G (what it has on it right now) stringing.

Hardware, wiring harness, etc. is all-original.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, cleaning, and glorified setup.

Body wood: ply maple

Bridge: ebony

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: maple

Pickups: 1x DeArmond DynaSonic surface mount

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, with room to adjust)
String gauges: 46w-10 unwound G

Neck shape: medium D

Board radius: ~12"

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium

Scale length: 24 3/4"

Nut width: 1 5/8"

Body width: 15 1/2"

Body depth: 2 3/4" +arching

Weight: 5 lbs 11 oz

Condition notes: the back of the neck is refinished. The body is possibly refinished but was likely natural from the factory. All hardware and components appear to be original. There's mild scratching and usewear here and there throughout but nothing obvious at a glance. There are some marks on the headstock veneer and the "ears" of the headstock look like they were reglued in the past and show lines at their seams -- but they're stable. The tailpiece and endpin are misaligned.

It comes with: a good, modern, hard Gretsch case.