German Hofner Bass Trapeze Lengths Vary

[DavyR]

This may have been discussed here before. I'm in the middle of re-stringing my basses so I thought I'd share the info.
The trapezes of German made Hofner basses vary in length, as well as maybe other factors, therefore, the required string length varies up to 1" with my findings. (Not sure about non-German made basses!)

I measured my Hofner basses and they came up as follows from ball end to clear the nut.
2005 Deluxe - 32.75"
1970 500/1 - 33.37"
1966 500/1 - 33.75"

Bottom line (pun intended!), to be safe, strings 34" from ball end to silk are required to be safe. Since most medium scale string sets ARE 34" they, or 'made for the Hofner bass string sets' if they are 34", should fit.
FYI. DavyR

 

[SLaPiNFuNK]

Yes, in general:

Short Scale = 32" Ball to Silk/Taper
Medium Scale = 34" Ball to Silk/Taper

There are some brands that label their strings as "Short Scale" but are actually 34" strings (Thomastik-Infeld and DR).

I have a list of string lengths by company here:

Invalid Link Removed

 

[DavyR]

Thanks again! Great info!

Shame that Rotosound Swing Bass 66 Medium Scale strings are so light gauge, i.e., E = 90. What's up with that?
(The more I explore new string sets the more I think about heading back to good old RotoSound rounds.)

 

[daveman50]

1766 500/1 - 33.75"

That's what I call "vintage"!

 

[DavyR]

That's what I call "vintage"!

Opps! I meant 1866. Yeah, ‘tis an old, old one that runs on static electricity produced by a Van De Graff generator. Very rare! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_de_Graaff_generator

 

[DavesnothereCA]

This may have been discussed here before. I'm in the middle of re-stringing my basses so I thought I'd share the info.
The trapezes of German made Hofner basses vary in length, as well as maybe other factors, therefore, the required string length varies up to 1" with my findings. (Not sure about non-German made basses!)

I measured my Hofner basses and they came up as follows from ball end to clear the nut.
2005 Deluxe - 32.75"
1970 500/1 - 33.37"
1966 500/1 - 33.75"

Bottom line (pun intended!), to be safe, strings 34" from ball end to silk are required to be safe. Since most medium scale string sets ARE 34" they, or 'made for the Hofner bass string sets' if they are 34", should fit.
FYI. DavyR

~
Thanks for doing some homework 10 years ago.

So it looks like there are 3 versions of the trapeze tailpiece for German 500/1 basses, rather than 2.

I'm a gonna revive this zombie thread to ask you to add one more measurement please - the distance from just clearing the nut [as in your other numbers], to the nearest edge of the tuner post of the E string, and is it the same distance on all of the German 500/1 basses which you may still have ?

Knowing this will allow us more certainty in choosing strings based upon their published wrap lengths, if we add it to one of the measurements which you included in your OP

Thanks !
~