The Clipper...

Right-o gang, here's the Clipper which is in the process of being (slowly!) brought back to life;



..the front is in pretty good nick, with a few graunches and this quite nasty one...



and this in the trem spring cavity...



...none of that is terminal though the bout damage will be a bit tricky!

The guts of the thing; all of the fine tuners are gone and it's missing one neck screw but the actual bridge is in OK nick... it's sitting in the plastic box in the back of this shot...



and the h/b doesn't seem to work!

Tuners...



...they'll just need touching up with a gloss black paint.

All of the microswitches for turning the p'ups on or off are pretty much munted but the pots seem OK; the quality of the workmanship is well up there; check out the way the white wire has been twisted around the ground connection to keep things tidy...



.. and the neck is in lovely condition but the nut is broken in two. Does anyone know if gluing it back together again is a valid option?

So; I've enough to be going on with - if anyone has anything to add, please chime in - I'm always looking for options!!

Looking good there John!

Is that a graphite nut? I suppose you could always try gluing it back together again... it's worth a try! I don't know what you could use though - super glue or some sort of epoxy resin perhaps?

Those machine heads look pretty nasty... do you reckon they will clean up okay?

Keep up the good work and you know where I am if you need anything for it!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Nice 'mother of plywood' body!

Oo-er, there Robert!

I hadn't noticed that! Surely not! I can't imagine any Westone being made from plywood!

Mind you, these Clippers are a bit of a mystery and they could well have been put together during that 'grey transition period'.

I think there is still some speculation as to whether or not they were actually made in Japan and assembled in Korea with left over bits! Who knows?

Well John, whatever it is, keep up the good work there mate, you are doing a heck of a job!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Yes. Yes I am. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Clippers were at least assembled in Korea - the switches in this one have MIK in VERY small writing on 'em!

You're bang on, Colt, althought the top is actual timber; poplar by the look of it...

Things are moving along albeit slowly and some progress pics...



...the damage on the bout fixed and the spray bomb with its colour matched paint matched to the rear of the body!



...a little graunch in the rear edge filled and ready for painting



...bridge ready for installation. I was lucky enough to acquire a whole BM Deluxe bridge as a spare; it's in the box..



...nice shiny new switches attached to the loom.... finally!! I had hell's own job getting the shield wires to stick to the sides of the switches, and had a friend who's good with soldering irons do it!!

WOW!!!!
Somebody has been busy! That's looking spot on there mate - Well done, I'm proud of you!

Spray Bomb??? Is that just a Kiwi term for a spray can? In my recent experiences with those things though, they certainly are bombs!!!!

Keep up the good work there John, I'm dying to see it when it's all put back together again!

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Progress is progress. You've done a good job repairing and reshaping the bout. You are right about the soldering issues. I could have done with another pair of hands to hold things in place, even with alligator clips, when I renovated my Thunder 1. I guess there is an art to heating shield surfaces sufficiently so the solder sticks, without melting plastic etc.

Congratulations to the New Zealand women's rugby league team for their big win against Australia yesterday, and to the men's team for getting to the final of the "world" cup.

Thanks for the comments, guys - this is coming together a lot quicker than my strat project, eh! Polly'll tell you that that particular thing has been ongoing for about a year now... I'm hopeless!
Yeah; those bloody shield wires - gee, they gave me the screaming heebie-jeebies; at one stage I had a 35W iron with a chisel tip on the damn thing but the solder still wouldn't run! I even briefly comtemplated putting a gas flame on it!! And then, my oppo who did the job told me "Easy as, bro!!" Holding everything together isn't too much of an issue as I use a pin vice and jewelers clamps for tricky stuff...

I'll take your word on the sporting stuff, Bun - I don't follow sports at all...

Hey guys,

I tried my hand at soldering last night but I found it really difficult to hold the wires and the soldering iron at the same time so I have just bought this!

I found it by putting in a search for 'crocodile clips'. I'll let you all know if it is any good when it arrives.

Pauline :flower: :queen:

Mooving slowly on...

Pollyanna wrote:Hey guys,

I tried my hand at soldering last night but I found it really difficult to hold the wires and the soldering iron at the same time so I have just bought this!

I found it by putting in a search for 'crocodile clips'. I'll let you all know if it is any good when it arrives.

Pauline :flower: :queen:

You will like it. I've been using one of those and a 'panavise' for over 20 years.

Also, I highly recommend a pencil-type soldering iron with a minimum 40 watt rating (US at 110 volts). The hotter the soldering iron, the less time you have to apply heat to the work, the less chance you have of burning up the work. It may seem counter-intuitive, but a colder/less powerful soldering iron will require you to leave it in contact with the work for a longer time in order to get it hot enough for the solder to flow and you will have a greater chance of burning the work.

$0.02

colt933 wrote:Also, I highly recommend a pencil-type soldering iron with a minimum 40 watt rating (US at 110 volts). The hotter the soldering iron, the less time you have to apply heat to the work, the less chance you have of burning up the work. It may seem counter-intuitive, but a colder/less powerful soldering iron will require you to leave it in contact with the work for a longer time in order to get it hot enough for the solder to flow and you will have a greater chance of burning the work.$0.02

Yep, agree with all and would add that a 45-60W chisel tip iron is a boon as well for doing those heavy earths, like those on the trem claw... or the side of the bloody switches!!

Well, gang - it lives!! It is sitting on the guitar stand, all strung up, action and intonation set, bridge sorted and rocking out; gee, these things have a wonderful neck... fast fast fast!! I need to get a control cavity cover made and get a wang bar from David and job done!







... the new one is on the ?????

Is it.... the one on the right??? Or maybe... the one on the left???

Cool work there mate! Well done to you!

There's a guy on eBay at the minute selling one which has the body off the one that I had! (If that makes sense(?)!)

Pauline :flower: :queen:

yeah, I saw that! Wonder what the neck is?! I do like the Clippers as a gigging guitar and the only thing i really don't like is the crazy switching arrangent; those 3 minis are the p'up on/off with the h/b really just being 2 singles in tandem with a single/off/double coil switch; it makes for intersting changing on the fly!!

It's a proper Clipper neck that he has got on it, albeit a little worse for wear judging by the photos on the listing. I think he must have already had the neck before I sold him the body because I ain't seen one on fleabay!

Funnily enough, I never did get the hang of all those little switches, too complicated for my liking! Give me simplicity like the Paduak's and the Clipper Six, any day! A single humbucker, a couple of knobs and away you go!

I had my pink Pantera out last night and I had to ask Stephen what to do with the 5 way switch and coil tap to get it to sound right! Duh!

Pauline :flower: :queen: