Hi. Hofner Ignition

soulfool · #1 12-29-2009, 10:30 PM

Hello all.
I'm new to this forum and to playing bass. I've been playing guitar for about 10+ years. This Christmas I got my first bass, a Hofner Ignition, from my wife. I've been sweating this guitar online for the past year, which is how I found this site. I finally joined since I own a bass now and have many questions on how to do a decent set-up on a Hofner.

- s.fool

odysseios · #2 12-30-2009, 01:08 AM

Ignition owner: here i am.

soulfool · #3 12-30-2009, 09:08 AM

My Ignition bass arrived with pickups that had a protective film or "tape" over them which I removed. I'm noticing some static coming from my amp and wanted to see if I was supposed to leave the tape on?

The pickups themselves do seem high so that could be the issue.

odysseios · #4 12-30-2009, 09:47 AM

I too removed the tapes from the pickups, but the only time i listened to some rumours was because i wrongly plugged the amp to the power...
If you have an Ignition i suppose you are in Europe...?
For the setup, i'm still not going to the luthier for a control but i think my exemplar was in tune from the store and the neck seems to be quite straight.
Maybe after the Christmas holidays i will go to the luthier to proceed to some customization (already begun).

soulfool · #5 01-02-2010, 10:34 PM

Good to know I was supposed to remove the tape from the pickups.

I'm actually in the US. I ordered an Icon but when I opened the box it was an Ignition. I thought it was odd too that I received a European Icon so I emailed Hofner. They replied back the next day to inform me that the Ignition is the same as the Icon and that they are in the process of changing the name. Which makes sense now since about a month ago I noticed the HI Series (Ignition) recently showed up on the Hofner website, which is need of a revamping IMO. Prior to, there was no mention of the Icon on the official Hofner site.

I ordered a set of D'Addario Chromes Flat wound (.045-.100). They arrived a couple days ago. I'm hesitant to start the set up process without asking some questions first on this forum. Plus, the new strings have a blue silk wrap that, just by holding in front of the guitar, will end at the nut and have a long blue wrapped string from the nut to the tuning pegs. I think the blue string may look odd on the Hofner headstock so I haven't committed to putting them on yet. Although I'm dieing to hear what flat wounds sound like on this guitar.

odysseios · #6 01-03-2010, 08:58 AM

The natural strings for this bass, and with which i strung mine, are the nickel flatwounds Hofner H1133b (40-100 gauge), with green silk (once it was light green), or the Pyramids which are the same strings with another wrap. Many people, especially in the US, prefers to strung this bass with the Labella Deep Talking Beatle Bass (black silk, 39-96 and 50-100 gauges), made by steel, and i have a new set of these as replacement. The Labellas has been used by Paul McCartney in the last years. It seems he's recently back to the Hofners as in the 60s.
Yes: Icon and Ignition are the same thing, i have spare parts of Icon on my Ignition.
The only difference is the writing on the truss rod cover (Icon Series/HI Series), and the fact that the Icon wasn't never officially recognized by the Company, differently by the Ignition which appears on the Hofner web.
Ah, another: Icon was made in China, Ignition in Indonesia.

Bob Johnson · #7 01-18-2012, 05:15 AM

I just bought a lefty Hofner Ignition violin bass. The Hofner violin bass was the first bass I owned when I was 16 years old in 1964. Being a luthier myself I have often thought of making a replica for myself...purely for sentimental reasons really so when I started looking round for photos etc I came across this really good deal from Thomann. Despite having read a few negative reviews I thought "for this price how bad can it be" and being in the busines reasoned that whatever, if anything, was wrong with it I'd be able to sort it out. First impressions when I opened the box were very good. The paint job and binding are really good; better than they look in any of the photos I've seen. The hardware is actually chrome like my old 1964 version and not nickel as is advertised on a number of sites. Anyway, feeling rather please with the first impressions I plugged it in to find a number of faults with the electrics. On closer inspection it turned out to be a number of dry joints between the selector switches and the board....took ten minutes to fix so no real problem there. I think it sounds very much like my old one which relatively speaking probably about four times as much. I prefer the neck joint on the new one, the cello like neck joint on the old ones was a real weak point and I have reset many of them over the years. I am very happy with my new purchase and will definitely be gigging with it as soon as I'm really confident with the short scale length. I can't believe how much like the old one this one is and find myself chuckling every time I pick it up......aah to be 16 again