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Hofner-(not just Beatle Basses)-Group Part 2
- Thread starter Bryan R. Tyler
- Start date
Tom Hamilton's 500/1
D
I figure ill take them to our local guy. Who is pretty great. See if he can do it. I'm all thumbs. Why I'm a Bass player
It is possible, but holes have to be milled in the HCT 500/5.
And you probably need another set of pickup rings with a more curved bottom.
The blades are bigger, higher and have ears, they're not on top of the body but in it.
The toasters are on top of the bass, there's only a hole for the wire in it.
It's up to you, if you think an irreversible operation is worth it, go for it.
Generally blade pickups are not installed in Cavern position.
≥ Höfner 182 1967-1968 — Snaarinstrumenten | Gitaren | Bas — Marktplaats
≥ Höfner president basgitaar — Snaarinstrumenten | Gitaren | Bas — Marktplaats
I remember coming across what turned out to be a Höfner 'Slap bass' in a music shop, somewhere in the late eighties. It had a piezo system under the bridge, I played it for 15 minutes, but there wasn't a proper bass amp around in that department, that made it hard to get an idea of it's amplified sound. Back then my funds were limited, so I left it in the shop. Sometimes wondering if I should pick it up.
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There's also a type that combines the piezo system with a humbucker.
I guess that would have caused more GAS.
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There's also a type that combines the piezo system with a humbucker.
I guess that would have caused more GAS.
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...Must resist...
I've had a complicated relationship with piezo/mag guitars for decades.
It all started with a guy I met in the late 90's, who had a solo covers act. He had an original Parker Fly, an Oberheim Echoplex pro that he used as a 7-channel loop station, and the original Line 6 AxSys 212. His big drawing card for me was that he ran everything to FOH, and kept the Piezo pickup output of the Fly out of the AxSYS. That meant that he could play fairly convincing acoustic guitar parts without switching guitars, and get huge stereo soundscapes going.
I had a Parker Night Fly at one point (piezo/mag super strat) for a few years, then sunk a ton of dough into a full Graphtek Ghost system installed in an Ibanez semi-hollow. I was never into looping, but got hooked on running stereo effected electric guitar sounds and amps, with the piezo running straight down the middle in mono through a Fender Acoustasonic combo. It was more for my own pleasure than the audience, as I rarely played in situations where I could run stereo in a way that the whole audience could benefit from.
My most recent (and hopefully final) guitar version is a Thinline Telecaster with a Brenner Piezo One passive bridge saddle assembly. The Brenner is cheap, well-made, and sounds stellar through an external piezo preamp. No batteries required! These days, I use the stereo routing features of a Line6 HX Stomp to do all the signal treatment and stereo effects for both the magnetic and piezo pickups, and run everything to either 3 compact powered speakers, or a Deluxe Reverb and a couple of powered speakers.
I've never given serious thought to a piezo-equipped electric bass before- up until now, whenever I've felt the urge for acoustic bass sounds, I've used an acoustic bass guitar or an electric upright.
But a piezo-equipped slab like this Hofner would be great for gigs where I wanted to have both sounds without lugging a lot of extra gear. A fretless version would be interesting, too...
I have a Martin D18 IR in the Stomp, that makes the piezo on my Telecaster sound pretty amazing. I wonder if there are IR's for acoustic and upright basses out there?
- Feb 16, 2008
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- John K Custom Basses
IMO, the Hofner sounds better.
Is he intentionally choking the one note on the Stingray to control the sustain, or does he have a bad string or fret? Very distracting...
The Hofner does suit that part beautifully, though- it must be said!
As much as I like my Hofner, and I know this is the Hofner group, but the StingRay will (should) always be the best fit for that song, IMHO. Shame about the recording quality, double-shame for not learning the part thoroughly and triple-shame for the atrocious left-hand technique that stops the StingRay in it's tracks. But that's just my opinion - YMMV
I thought the recording was fine or I would not have shared it. Maybe he made a mistake but I would not refer to his technique as atrocious. A bit of hyperbole on your part?
Im wanting to put blades in my Cavern if I can source a set, id love to see your end result if you do this.
I don't think so. That is one of those rare 'feature' or signature parts that has to be played right or not at all, IMHO. Every note has carefully considered tone, dynamics, articulation and duration which just aren't there in that recording. As the bass player on this song you are totally exposed. It is easy with a backing track mixed high as here - listen closely and you can hear lots of notes in the line that the player here is not making, and also notes he is making that should not be there. TBH there is so much distortion and clipping that it is impossible to really say what either bass sounds like. Maybe atrocious was a little over the top, but it isn't great.
