The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Other Bass Brands => Topic started by: ilan on March 28, 2017, 10:52:46 AM
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https://www.facebook.com/pg/HofnerGuitars/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10155001648561145
Hand made in Germany and looks awesome. I hope they string them with flats.
If it's anything like the 60's original large body Höfners, the 500/3, 500/5, Senator, President, or Committee, then this is excellent news.
(https://scontent-fra3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/17632073_10155001651066145_8011594002910820885_o.jpg?oh=a3542766143fc35d7221d8ac90c4154d&oe=5950EA3E)
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yes, it has flats!
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This is interesting to see! One of Roger Waters' first basses was a big, hollow Hofner:
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zwDQhnXOnUw/T06ybcbs66I/AAAAAAAAAGE/usMsVIiYtx8/s1600/Reslo+-+Band+Pink+Floyd+The+Tea+Set+1964+Barrett+The+Definitive+Visual+Companion+by+Essential+Works+Courtesy+of+Sebastian+Jenkins+Syd,+Rado+Bob+Klose,+Chris+Dennis+Roger+Waters.PNG)
I imagine that if these are made in Germany then the build quality will be exemplary, with a price tag to match!
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OK, when you said 'large bodied' I assumed depth. Still cool, very, very cool, but yeah.
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Very nice. Any idea about the price?
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duplicate deleted
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And now this. Limited edition (6 only) 500/5 "Reeperbahn".
(https://www.facebook.com/HofnerGuitars/photos/a.10155689662726145.1073742124.194324361144/10155689662941145/?type=3)
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Well hello.
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Beauty. I take it these are German made and will be very expensive.
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5000 euros for the last one yes...
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Wow. That's boutique pricing.
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Double the price of a normal 500/1. But understandable if only six are made, and knowing how much research they had to do.
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I'm bemused that you guys actually find this stuff attractive. In the 70ies and in Germany, they were the epitome of uncool, nobody wanted to be seen with them. A Cimar Jazz Bass copy had a better image. Höfner, Hoyer, Klira and Framus were regarded as pawnshop junk. 8)
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I'm bemused that you guys actually find this stuff attractive. In the 70ies and in Germany, they were the epitome of uncool, nobody wanted to be seen with them. A Cimar Jazz Bass copy had a better image. Höfner, Hoyer, Klira and Framus were regarded as pawnshop junk. 8)
First of all, Cimar J's are great basses, far better than what their market price would lead you to assume.
Now about the Höfners. I had image issues with the 500/1 - didn't want to look like a fan - and it's not a good bass imho. But the 60s large-body Höfners are different. They are the best hollow body basses I know. They have fantastic acoustic qualities. Really. If you had played one note on my 1960 500/3 you'd be smitten.
As for Hoyer, Klira and Framus, most of them were junk, in my experience. For years I wanted a red Hoyer London bass because it's so cute, until I actually played one and the GAS has evaporated.
(http://www.musikkeller.com/mk/_bilderverwaltung/images/hersteller/hoyer/2030270mk.jpg)
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:) Yeah, I know a guy who traded a '60s Höfner for an '80s fretless Bass Collection bass:) Stupid. And more such stories. Nobody wanted Ricks either in the eighties. having said that I love to play those small Höfners:) I did some special Höfner interviews and some other work and I have quite some Höfners now:)
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First of all, Cimar J's are great basses, far better than what their market price would lead you to assume.
Ironic that Cimar instruments are a bit neglected as they are Ibanez! You can pay X for an old Ibanez Blazer or Y for the Cimar version. All because of a headstock decal...
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Chris, your overtly germanophile leanings worry me deeply.
(https://wo2forum.nl/download/file.php?id=18543&mode=view)
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First of all, Cimar J's are great basses, far better than what their market price would lead you to assume.
Now about the Höfners. I had image issues with the 500/1 - didn't want to look like a fan - and it's not a good bass imho. But the 60s large-body Höfners are different. They are the best hollow body basses I know. They have fantastic acoustic qualities. Really. If you had played one note on my 1960 500/3 you'd be smitten.
As for Hoyer, Klira and Framus, most of them were junk, in my experience. For years I wanted a red Hoyer London bass because it's so cute, until I actually played one and the GAS has evaporated.
To me, the Höfner just never looked "rock", to this day I prefer a Ric, a WAL or even a Yamaha in the hands of Paul McCartney.
Of course not all the German instruments were junk - people like Jan Akkerman played them after all and he could have played anything. But to us in Germany they had no rock'n'roll - an Angloamerican invention - allure, while anything American was deemed cool, British guitars like Burns were at least considered cult'ish and even the Hos from our former Axis friends in the Pacific had the benefit of an exotic aura.
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Ah, another post war collective syndrome; selbstgroytuer. :mrgreen:
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Don't knock Klira, or godofthunder's wrath will descend upon you.
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I'll think about the Waffen SS.
I guess every bass has it's charm. I never played a Höfner on stage with my former rock band the La La Lies, but on the other hand: a Thunderbird with my acoustic bass ukulele duo would e a bit too much.
The problem with the big cheap European brands of the sixties and seventies is the diversity in series. Like Uwe said: Framus made cheap beginner's stuff but also high quality stuff like the Akkerman. Same with Höfner: big, gold hardware, fancy inlay, fancy woodworks archtops versus the vinyl covered solid bodies. Same with Dutch Egmond. I guess most people could afford only the cheap ones and have bad memories.
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There was something very post-war about them. And while the famous American models were introduced at the same time or even earlier, they had something grandiose about them. Playing a Framus or Höfner (and no one I knew in Germany did so voluntarily) was really like being stuck with a Volkswagen Beetle when all you craved for was a tail fin Buick. There was a reason why all these companies went broke in the 70ies and beyond.
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I would agree that solid body Höfners were junk, they were poorly designed low-grade Fender-influenced guitars. But the hollow-bodies were different. Nobody else made basses with violin-family construction. Gibson's EB2 looked similar but had a center block and sounded very different (you know what I think about their sound. And they definitely don't rock). The Senator, President, Committee, 500/3, 500/5 basses didn't look rock'n'roll - but you can say the same about a burst Les Paul. So it's an image thing.
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Hofners and VW Beetles being criticized in the same thread. That's too harsh for this early in the morning.
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Of course everybody wanted a Fender or Gibson like The Americans.
Still there's something stylish, European and sophisticated about hollow European guitars and basses. Let's say a P versus a Verithin is Corvette or 'Stang (*) versus BMW 507, Austin Healy, ...
(*) Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Mustang; not Warwick Corvette and Fender Mustang.
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Whose verithin then?
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Not the ugly Healey Sprite with the frog eyes. The normal Healey is one of the prettiest cars around.
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It was largely image, true. And what you saw on the record covers and at live concerts.
I have a Höfner 500/1 (and a Framus and a Hoyer) myself, it's a construction all of its own with a sound all of its own. It's a joy to play, but as a 16 year old in 1977 you would have broken my heart forcing me to play one where people could see me with it! :mrgreen:
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Not the ugly Healey Sprite with the frog eyes. The normal Healey is one of the prettiest cars around.
Semi-officially known as the "Bug-Eye Sprite". Great, classic sports car that operationally is the epitome of the saying "It's more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow."
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To me, the Höfner just never looked "rock", to this day I prefer a Ric, a WAL or even a Yamaha in the hands of Paul McCartney.
Of course not all the German instruments were junk - people like Jan Akkerman played them after all and he could have played anything. But to us in Germany they had no rock'n'roll - an Angloamerican invention - allure, while anything American was deemed cool, British guitars like Burns were at least considered cult'ish and even the Hos from our former Axis friends in the Pacific had the benefit of an exotic aura.
I like all those brands. Also, under the right conditions I think they can all look rock. But in terms of just sound, whether in the studio or on stage, I think Paul McCartney sounded the best playing a Ric.
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The Höfner 500/1 didn't suffer the image problem here as it did in Germany. By contrast, when I was in high school, no one I knew wanted to be seen with a Silvertone/Danelectro.
A close friend in high school bought a well-used Austin Healey 3000 and dropped a Chevy 283 in it.
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If you played a Silvertone, that was as low as you could go. It was considered a beginner's instrument that people got because they couldn't afford anything better. You might even have been better off with an off brand no one had heard of. But if you had one and kept it, you would be able to make some money on a Silvertone today.
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And Swedes can't understand why anyone would want to play Hagstroms, they are considered kindling there.
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While we Dutch some more weed and ask ourselves why nobody playes Egmond.
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If you played a Silvertone, that was as low as you could go. It was considered a beginner's instrument that people got because they couldn't afford anything better. You might even have been better off with an off brand no one had heard of. But if you had one and kept it, you would be able to make some money on a Silvertone today.
If I had had to play a Silvertone back then, I'd have had to put a bag over my head, and another one over the headstock.
They bring ridiculous money today, relative to their original cost.
While we Dutch some more weed and ask ourselves why nobody playes Egmond.
Doesn't Ed Friedland still have his Egmond? I remember a thread here from about 4 years ago where someone was asking $2500 for one on eBay.
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If I had had to play a Silvertone back then, I'd have had to put a bag over my head, and another one over the headstock.
They bring ridiculous money today, relative to their original cost.
Doesn't Ed Friedland still have his Egmond? I remember a thread here from about 4 years ago where someone was asking $2500 for one on eBay.
On the other hand, I had a friend who played some kind of no name violin bass for a while. No one knew what it was, but at least it wasn't a lowly Silvertone. People thought it was cool and you couldn't help but associate it with a Beatles vibe. It had a turquoise finish. I've never seen one like that since. Most likely some kind of Japanese brand, but not Teisco. My friend was older. I hadn't even started playing bass when he had that. But the memory of that turquoise bass always stuck with me.
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For a while in the 70's my brother had an obscure 60's violin-body bass around the house. I looked for it a while back but couldn't find it. I remember that the pickups were incredibly microphonic, but I now know enough that I could replace them easily. The body and neck were actually good.
No luck, long gone after the parents moved from the big country home to the smaller home in town. No big loss, either.
I had a Rogue VB-100 for a while, and it was actually a pretty nice bass. I had no problems with it, just lost enthusiasm for it and sold it. Maybe should have kept it, but I'd still be ignoring it if I had.
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I've seen quite a few Japanese violin bass copies, some of them very good; Conrad and Greco come to mind.