There's a guy here locally, Tim Lawson, at tims guitar. He takes a while but Jesus his results are phenomenal. He is old school and his attention to detail is crazy.
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Hofner neck reset horror story.
- Thread starter godofthunder59
- Start date
Fire the drummer.... out of a cannon... at that first "luthier"s head. And a pox on his mailman!
I couldn't pay money for that in good conscience. Maybe put into escrow for him to fight for it? I dunno. It's just awful that you'd have to pay so much for such poor quality work.
Glad it got turned around by someone else. I'd be yelling curses from rooftops.
I couldn't pay money for that in good conscience. Maybe put into escrow for him to fight for it? I dunno. It's just awful that you'd have to pay so much for such poor quality work.
Glad it got turned around by someone else. I'd be yelling curses from rooftops.
Man kudos to you for not giving up on your baby. I would have sold that thing as soon as I got it home. Congrats!
As someone who is at a point where my two bass brands are Hofner and Rickenbacker, this story made me feel ill but is a good lesson to check out whoever will touch my Hofners.
The first guy could see he did a shoddy job.
I wish he would have just gave you your bass back.
I had a 63 RI US P Bass partially refretted by a famous repair guy.
It had a hump above the 12th fret.
He pulled the frets and planed the fretboard.
Then refretted the 12th and up.
The action was higher than a Georgia Pine.
It was pitiful.He had excuses why it wasn't better and told me after he was paid $ 275 that I " needed a new neck."
Flash forward......I found a area luthier who fixed my bass for $ 100.
Same neck. Better craftsmanship and the guy cared.
Low action now.
I wish he would have just gave you your bass back.
I had a 63 RI US P Bass partially refretted by a famous repair guy.
It had a hump above the 12th fret.
He pulled the frets and planed the fretboard.
Then refretted the 12th and up.
The action was higher than a Georgia Pine.
It was pitiful.He had excuses why it wasn't better and told me after he was paid $ 275 that I " needed a new neck."
Flash forward......I found a area luthier who fixed my bass for $ 100.
Same neck. Better craftsmanship and the guy cared.
Low action now.
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Best freudian slip in a long time. Glad it all worked out.
Excuse my ignorance, why is it necessary to reset the necks on these? Is it something you do when a particular condition shows up or it has to be done with a certain regularity? Thanks.
As noted previously Hofner necks are glued into place (with hide glue). No screws, bolts, dovetails or mortise and tenon joints. Over time, the glue eventually begins to give way. A competent luthier can simply reglue the neck and it's fine for another few decades or so.
Thanks for posting this...... it makes my $500 fretless work seem very reasonable in comparison. 
Thankfully the neck on my '64 500/1 has never needed to be reset, though it has worried worried me sometimes over the past 29 years of owning it.
Thankfully the neck on my '64 500/1 has never needed to be reset, though it has worried worried me sometimes over the past 29 years of owning it.
What kind of strings you got there? Also do you add neck relief or keep it straight?
The giving way of hide glue is a bit dependent on the circumstances.
Hide or bone glue is sensitive to moisture and heat, so a lot of sweat in steamy clubs could become a problem on the long run. It also depends on how tight the neck fits in it's joint, how much clamp-pressure was used to keep the neck in place when the glue dried and not unimportant, how old the hide glue is (is it the first time it got dissolved & heated of the third time).
Anyway, I seem to remember some salesmen talk, that the modern Hofners are glued better with modern glue. So according to that, resetting a neck is a more of a sixties models problem.
The neck was last looked at around 1989 when I showed it to luthier, near to were I used to live back then who hadn't seen a 500/1 for a long while. It has the same frets that were on it when I bought it in Nov 88, as for the strings with these I had to butcher the odd set of strings to fit.
When this picture was took it either had an old set of Rotosound short scale flats, or a butchered set of 40 -100 rounds. Which I used to cut down to size & undo some of the windings so they fit through the machine heads, and then squeeze the end that was stripped to stop it from cutting my fingers while stringing up.
The small town I lived in back in 1988 had 1 guitar shop that only sold round wound bass strings & as a Peavey dealer, so it was either Peavey bass strings or his cheapest no name brand. Strange how you remember these things after all this time.
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I debated whether or not to go into detail about hide glue, but decided not to. However, you are correct, although it's my understanding that Hofner still uses hide glue. Maybe the cheaper ones not assembled in Germany don't.
Yeah but if the new ones do need to be reset, thats a pain to get them unglued. My guy had to drill into the neck and steam it out, and it wasn't easy even on a 60s model. And he had to put a piece of ebony in the heel to reinforce the joint. I read somewhere that hofner recommends just pouring hot water on the joint until it comes loose.
Anyway my neck seems super fragile now that he had to plane the neck and get the twist out of it, so i have stuck with low tension strings (also because ti jazz flats sound incredible on the hof) to put as little stress on it as possible.
The ignition/icon sounds really good surprisingly. Like 95% of the sound is there, and this was a guitar center stock model with no setup. It kinda pissed me off at first, but now ill probably get one for practicing or altered tuning to supplement my 67.
- Feb 19, 2006
- 9,059
- 38,435
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Cataldo Basses, Whirlwind products, Thunderbucker pickups
Modern Hofners, at least those made in Germany, still have the neck glued with hide glue. It's a great method. The glue is strong with only a very thin film applied, and it dissolves when heated, so the violin maker can open the neck joint, do whatever repair is needed, and then re-glue it to place. Not as easy as 4-bolt plates, but looks cleaner.
Almost all 60's Hofners I've seen had some sort of raised action problem, if the neck hasn't been reset in 30-40 years. Many owners have shaved down the bridge to lower the action. With one of my Hofners I had to have a violin maker make a new ebony bridge base, when the bass was in his shop for a neck reset.
When I buy a 60's Hofner, I always take it for a pro neck reset, then I know I have at least 10-20 years of stable neck joint.
