I have a Contemporary Club and haven't noticed a rattle either. Maybe some sort of fret buzz or clank? (Which I also haven't noticed.)
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Hofner basses.....not worth it?
- Thread starter 74rickbass
- Start date
Really? I never would have thought that anybody would prefer an old worn instrument over a brand new shiny one.
Interesting thread .... It's not very encouraging. I was thinking of getting a Hoffner, but ended up with Fender Precision instead.
It's hard to tell if they are any good or not from all these postings .... but I noticed that there are several new ones to choose from, in a wide varitey of prices ....
They all look about the same .... One is around $400, another about double that, supposedly a "reissue" model. And a few are around $2000-2500.
Surely one of these must be a decent bass. Or even a great one???
Turtle
It's hard to tell if they are any good or not from all these postings .... but I noticed that there are several new ones to choose from, in a wide varitey of prices ....
They all look about the same .... One is around $400, another about double that, supposedly a "reissue" model. And a few are around $2000-2500.
Surely one of these must be a decent bass. Or even a great one???
Turtle
docwein said:
Oh my word... Two things I really want. The club bass is killer, and that amp... Oh man, great setup you have!
I just recently bought a german-made hofner club with the "cavern" pickup spacing from a shop in Chicago. Price tag was in the ~$2500 range. Wait time was in the ~7mo range. I'd say my experience so far has been mixed as far as the mechanical/functional aspect is concerned. However, I will say this: No matter how you slice it, a fully-hollow, short-scale electric bass has a particular sound that you just can't replicate with anything else. (By fully-hollow, I mean that it has no sustain block like the CTs or Icons). But it also comes with it's own set of physical shortcomings that you can't really get around without compromising at least a portion of the sound. There are a couple of other short-scale hollows that are becoming popular these days, namely the Vox Apollos, Harmony, and Kay basses. But I think any bass player that has been used to playing a Fender-style 34" scale-length bass will find these instruments to be quirky, if not problematic. My 2 cents...
Don't be one of those guys who lets people on TB totally influence you. There are lots of opinions posted here that I 100% disagree with... most of them involving what basses are "perfect" and what ones are "totally unplayable".
My dad's faker is not my favorite bass in the world but it still has "that Hofner sound" that is hard to replace.
A Hofner Icon bass IS NOT EQUAL (And, not in the same ballpark, IMO.) to a genuine German Hofner bass. Dont fool yourself!
A newer genuine German Hofner bass is not exactly equal to a vintage genuine German Hofner bass. This applies to most guitars and basses.
Not all vintage genuine German Hofner basses are made equal. For example, it is believed that Hofners made in 1970 were sub-par. This sometimes applies to other guitars and basses. For example, Rickenbacker 4001 basses made in 1975 were different in a bad way.
A newer genuine German Hofner bass is not exactly equal to a vintage genuine German Hofner bass. This applies to most guitars and basses.
Not all vintage genuine German Hofner basses are made equal. For example, it is believed that Hofners made in 1970 were sub-par. This sometimes applies to other guitars and basses. For example, Rickenbacker 4001 basses made in 1975 were different in a bad way.
The Icon does NOT have a sustain block down the center, only the CT does. The Icon is a true hollow body bass.
Who ever claimed this?
Does $300 equal $1800? The Icon is a great bass for $300. I suppose a German made Hofner is great for $1800. It really depends if you want to spend the money for one made in Germany. I don't.
I have played a German made Hofner, and the Icon is certainly "in the ballpark." It may be in the outfield, but it does approximate the hollowbody thump of its German cousin.
Exactly.
My Icon gives me very similar tone with much improved playability compared to the chunky German made necks. Since close enough is close enough, I'll go with improved playability at about 1/6 the cost of the German made model. I find many are enamoured with the "look" of the German version and try to convert Icons and CTs with "German" parts and other cosmetic mods. I've never felt the need to dress-up my Icons, but I do remove the pickguard since I never use a pick.
To continue the baseball analogy...If the German bass is a grand slam, the Icon is bases loaded with no outs and the home team slugger at the plate with a 3-0 count and a very nervous pitcher who has lost the plate.
There are some worthwhile threads on TB; but come on, REALLY? A TEN YEAR OLD THREAD running down a bass guitar brand. Surely, you are joking.
Here's what I know about Hofners by direct experience. In the late seventies, I had just acquired my first Alembic Series I. Amazing bass, if not too ergonomic. I was was doing some performances with a Detroit area community orchestra (with my upright, obviously). During the summer, the orchestra did pops at outdoor performances. The first chair brought his Hofner for one of the tunes, might have been a Bernstein Broadway tune or something, can't remember. Anyhow, that bass was absolutely gorgeous and produced as close to an upright sound on an electric as I have ever heard. It was beautiful. Since it wasn't an electric sound I was after, I never chased it. But, it left a long standing impression of the quality of the instrument and potential big tone they can produce.
So there.
I wish cats here would cease and desist running things down that don't line up with the particular thing they are trying to do. Better to understand how the different tools can be used. Diversity rules. EOR.
Here's what I know about Hofners by direct experience. In the late seventies, I had just acquired my first Alembic Series I. Amazing bass, if not too ergonomic. I was was doing some performances with a Detroit area community orchestra (with my upright, obviously). During the summer, the orchestra did pops at outdoor performances. The first chair brought his Hofner for one of the tunes, might have been a Bernstein Broadway tune or something, can't remember. Anyhow, that bass was absolutely gorgeous and produced as close to an upright sound on an electric as I have ever heard. It was beautiful. Since it wasn't an electric sound I was after, I never chased it. But, it left a long standing impression of the quality of the instrument and potential big tone they can produce.
So there.
I wish cats here would cease and desist running things down that don't line up with the particular thing they are trying to do. Better to understand how the different tools can be used. Diversity rules. EOR.
NOTE: apologies to those who've already read my little novel here, which I mistakenly posted in the "Hofner not just Beatles" thread. It was meant for this thread, and various things that have come up in its long life...
But anyway, great thread, just read the whole thing (I know, get a life!). VERY interesting how over the life of the thing, opinions on many aspects are all over the map: great tone-crappy tone, one trick pony-versatile, like-dislike, new built better-old built better, etc. etc. Just goes to show, so much is subjective.
For what it's worth though, through the miracle of modern "research," here's some clarification on various Macca related points. Thanks to Andy Babiuk's book "Beatles Gear" and then the more recent one by Tony Bacon and Gareth Morgan, "Paul McCartney: Playing the Great Beatles Bassline," an entire book devoted to Paul's bass playing and his basses and which one he played on what song. In fact they have a song by song list of every officially released Beatles song and what bass was most likely used (and WHO played it).
Paul didn't "inherit" Stu's bass when he quit (he died later), Stu played one of the big bodied single cutaway Hofners. On p. 49 of Beatles Gear (2nd ed.) there are several different fragments of the story, including two separate and slightly contradictory interviews with Paul himself, then the recollections of the shop salesman, and that of Tony Sheridan and Pete Best. Paul himself doesn't say he got it custom made left-handed, but he doesn't clearly say he bought it that way off the shelf either. He did say he paid 30 British pounds for it. The shop salesman only remembers the installment deal they worked out, but Sheridan insists that there just weren't many decent instruments around, much less left-handed, because there were very few home-grown German rock musicians at that time. So he insists that Paul got it special ordered, as did Pete Best who was supposedly with Paul on the day they first saw it (a right-handed one) in the shop, "He didn't just go into a shop and buy it off the peg, he got it custom made." Author Babiuk surmises that's what probably happened, Paul saw and liked the right-handed one, realized it could easily be converted, and asked to have it done (or have one made that way).
The first Hofner (the block lettered headstock, close spaced pups) was stolen around 68, as someone already noted. But the second one, which he got in late 63, is the one he used almost exclusively from that point on, and is the one he plays today (however maintained/modified/restored/whatever). Rickenbacker gave him that bass in late August 65 when they were in California.
As for the songs, some real surprises. Bacon and Morgan think that he used the Rik on MOST of Rubber Soul, and from then on almost exclusively until the White Album, when the lefty Jazz Bass appeared. So that means...wow, Michelle, Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, Day Tripper, Got to Get You Into...Taxman, all of Pepper (I always swore Little Help from my Friends and Lucy were the Hofner...woody tone, very short sustain), were ALL the Rik.
Whew, sorry for the novel...I get into this stuff! Check out these books though, they're both very informative.
But anyway, great thread, just read the whole thing (I know, get a life!). VERY interesting how over the life of the thing, opinions on many aspects are all over the map: great tone-crappy tone, one trick pony-versatile, like-dislike, new built better-old built better, etc. etc. Just goes to show, so much is subjective.
For what it's worth though, through the miracle of modern "research," here's some clarification on various Macca related points. Thanks to Andy Babiuk's book "Beatles Gear" and then the more recent one by Tony Bacon and Gareth Morgan, "Paul McCartney: Playing the Great Beatles Bassline," an entire book devoted to Paul's bass playing and his basses and which one he played on what song. In fact they have a song by song list of every officially released Beatles song and what bass was most likely used (and WHO played it).
Paul didn't "inherit" Stu's bass when he quit (he died later), Stu played one of the big bodied single cutaway Hofners. On p. 49 of Beatles Gear (2nd ed.) there are several different fragments of the story, including two separate and slightly contradictory interviews with Paul himself, then the recollections of the shop salesman, and that of Tony Sheridan and Pete Best. Paul himself doesn't say he got it custom made left-handed, but he doesn't clearly say he bought it that way off the shelf either. He did say he paid 30 British pounds for it. The shop salesman only remembers the installment deal they worked out, but Sheridan insists that there just weren't many decent instruments around, much less left-handed, because there were very few home-grown German rock musicians at that time. So he insists that Paul got it special ordered, as did Pete Best who was supposedly with Paul on the day they first saw it (a right-handed one) in the shop, "He didn't just go into a shop and buy it off the peg, he got it custom made." Author Babiuk surmises that's what probably happened, Paul saw and liked the right-handed one, realized it could easily be converted, and asked to have it done (or have one made that way).
The first Hofner (the block lettered headstock, close spaced pups) was stolen around 68, as someone already noted. But the second one, which he got in late 63, is the one he used almost exclusively from that point on, and is the one he plays today (however maintained/modified/restored/whatever). Rickenbacker gave him that bass in late August 65 when they were in California.
As for the songs, some real surprises. Bacon and Morgan think that he used the Rik on MOST of Rubber Soul, and from then on almost exclusively until the White Album, when the lefty Jazz Bass appeared. So that means...wow, Michelle, Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, Day Tripper, Got to Get You Into...Taxman, all of Pepper (I always swore Little Help from my Friends and Lucy were the Hofner...woody tone, very short sustain), were ALL the Rik.
Whew, sorry for the novel...I get into this stuff! Check out these books though, they're both very informative.
Very interesting thread, folks. A question for those of you who own the CT500/1 Contemporary model:
I like nickel roundwounds but am having a tough time finding short scale strings that fit the CT500/1. Yeah I could order the Hofner branded set, but I prefer Daddario strings or at least some sort of nickel round's without the green silk windings.
I have tried Daddario EXL220S's. These are short scale and are in Hofner's recommended .040 - .095 gauge, but have a problem in that the E and A strings taper down about an eighth of an inch short of the zero fret. Ditto for Fender 5250XL's which I recently tried. (Stopgap solution: place a small piece of thin cardboard cut from the string pack under the E and A strings at the zero fret to lift them a bit - it works but who wants to show their bass with such a workaround really?).
I am pondering a set of Daddario EXL220M medium scale strings. Having measured it, I figure that the extra 2 inches (32" medium scale vs. 30" short scale) should make for the E and A strings clearing the zero fret but tapering down just before the tuner pegs. Has anyone out there tried these, and will it work?
I like nickel roundwounds but am having a tough time finding short scale strings that fit the CT500/1. Yeah I could order the Hofner branded set, but I prefer Daddario strings or at least some sort of nickel round's without the green silk windings.
I have tried Daddario EXL220S's. These are short scale and are in Hofner's recommended .040 - .095 gauge, but have a problem in that the E and A strings taper down about an eighth of an inch short of the zero fret. Ditto for Fender 5250XL's which I recently tried. (Stopgap solution: place a small piece of thin cardboard cut from the string pack under the E and A strings at the zero fret to lift them a bit - it works but who wants to show their bass with such a workaround really?).
I am pondering a set of Daddario EXL220M medium scale strings. Having measured it, I figure that the extra 2 inches (32" medium scale vs. 30" short scale) should make for the E and A strings clearing the zero fret but tapering down just before the tuner pegs. Has anyone out there tried these, and will it work?
