NAME THAT HOFNER

[noelford]

Can anyone tell me which Hofner model this is, please? My own best guess is one of the colorama models from around 1960.

[chas]

The photos are too small to see any detail, but from what I can see I would say it's modern (or relatively) guitar and not 60's.

Chas.

[noelford]

Sorry about the pics, I took them with my phone and had the settings all wrong. I played this guitar on Saturday and it's definitely a Hofner and not modern.

[JimN]

The picture is of a Chinese-made Hofner, probably from a batch made around five years ago. The features, including humbucking pickups, bridge and tailpiece copied directly from the Gibson Les Paul Standard, would never have been seen on a Hofner from the 1960s.

It's now been discontinued in favour of a new version of the Galaxie.

JN

[noelford]

Thanks, Jim. You sound quite certain, but:

1: The pickups look very similar to those on 1963 Hofner Super Solid.

2: Having handled the guitar and examined it closely, there is no way, even allowing for accelerated wear and tear, that the guitar is only five years old.

Cheers

Noel

[JimN]

Hi, Noel,

I am, as you say, quite certain. Those pickups are copies of Gibson humbuckers and are not the same shape as Hofner "Diamonds" (which would be the units used on a 1963 Hofner). Hofner Diamonds were narrower than Gibson hb pickups.

Until the mid 1970s, no Hofner guitar had obvious copy components - that was a phenomenon which didn't come about until the later 1960s - and even then, it was an Asian innovation (apart from the odd hand-built replica here and there).

The Hofner company designed their own components and either made them in-house or had them produced on contract. Additionally, original 1960s German-made Hofner solids with clear and obvious Fender-style body shaping always had single-sided headstocks - until the recent batches of Chinese-made guitars, that is. I did give thought to buying a recent Colorama (they had them cheap at Peter Cook's), but passed when I saw the non-authentic three-per-side headstock, which I don't think suits that guitar.

Happily, Steve Russell's superb Hofner / Selmer / Watkins / Futurama / Bird website almost clears up the mystery:

http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/vintagehofner/oddballs/odb12.html

A prototype from 2003 or so (though I think your pictured example is a short-batch production model from later).

HTH,

JN

PS: There was this, in the late 1970s:

http://www.vintageguitar.com/online-readers-gallery/electric-guitars/hofner-164-iv-electric/

But you will appreciate the obvious differences immediately. The 1970s were as unhappy a time for Hofner as they were for Fender (and for fans of both makers).

[noelford]

Thanks, Jim. There are certainly some close similarities. The real problem I have is with the date and I can't see that the guitar I closely examined was built so recently.

[noelford]

It has now been positively identified as a 2004 HOFNER MODEL HE-179 SOLID GUITAR PROTOTYPE , considered by Hofner for production in their Chinese factory from 2004. In the end, it was the New Colorama that went into full production. (Although a few HE-179's have got out onto the market).

It really did seem a helluva lot older than that!

Cheers

Noel

[JimN]

The headstock really doesn't suit that style of guitar, does it?

JN