Hofner-(not just Beatle Basses)-Group Part 2

[zevv]

Just FYI, you can't ask this question without a supporting membership...

Rule 3 here : Terms of Service and Rules | TalkBass.com

Apologies, I was not aware; I'm not able to edit the post anymore since it's over one hour old, so can't take the question out.

Still interested in more background info about the instrument though!

 

[SJLee]

here's a pretty strange hoffy that i sold years ago:

View attachment 4978009

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Interesting design on this one. The controls definitely carry the same lineage as what was on “the seal”.

 

[markjazzbassist]

Interesting design on this one. The controls definitely carry the same lineage as what was on “the seal”.

View attachment 4978061

that’s the 500/1M. M stands for mix since that’s what those controls do. I owned its brother the 500/1B

 

[SJLee]

Wish Hofner would continue to make a control panel with knobs as opposed to the sliders. My 58 has knobs for both volume and tone and it's much more intuitive and useful, IMO. Still love my Club.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

Very odd happenings around these parts. The pickguard on my new-to-me Ignition Club was a little ragged around the edges at the fingerboard, and I eventually got around to trying to file it straight:
View attachment 4978003
As I started filing something started to come away from the surface. I thought it might be original protective plastic, so I naturally gave it a tug. Unfortunately, it was the actual pearloid layer - transparent over white - and it would not stick back down, so I carried on pulling. Are all pearloids made this way, or is this another cost-control measure for the Ignitions?

...I previously replaced pearloid with white on my Ray34, so I put the white back on but it looked too stark. But a £5 sheet of sticky-backed 3M faux-tort looked like fun. Hopefully not too sacreligious, but you Hofner guys seems a lot more tolerant than some of the Fender Precision die-hards:
View attachment 4978001

All the current Ignitions I see in stores these days, are the "Pro" series, with the teacup knobs. The protective plastic on those pickguards peels very easily, and the pearloid is very much a part of the guard.

I don't know anything about production dates and numbers, but I believe that the black knobs on yours mark it as at least a generation older. The couple I have seen didn't seem to have ragged edges or a separate film on them, but I wasn't paying close attention to the pickguards.

I like the tort against the reddish burst of the Club. I might have to do that on mine!

 

[steve_rolfeca]

here's a pretty strange hoffy that i sold years ago:

View attachment 4978011

The double-bound racing stripe fret markers take me back. They were common on more ornate German guitars in the early '60's.

I seem to remember seeing them on Hoyers as well as Hofners.

We moved from San Francisco to the UK in '57, and lived near Birmingham until November '64. Money was short, because our car died on the way across the States, and the money from selling it in New York was supposed to be my parents' nest egg on arrival in England.

That meant that Guilds and Gibsons were out of the question for the first few years, so my dad bought a blonde Hofner Committee that looked a lot like this one:
https://vintagehofner.co.uk/gallery/archtops/arch60.html

I was too young to know anything about the Hofner, other than the fact that he was hugely relieved when the UK Guild distributor (I think it was Boosey & Hawkes back then) gave him the permanent loan of a Stuart as his demonstrator, and an award for salesmanship.

The Guild was much more to his taste, but that was as it should be- the Stuart would have cost as much as a decent car, if he'd had to pay for it!

 

[SteveCS]

...
I like the tort against the reddish burst of the Club. I might have to do that on mine!

Thanks! It seems I have unwittingly joined the "Tort-and-Flats" brigade!! Are you ready to do the same

 

[steve_rolfeca]

But a £5 sheet of sticky-backed 3M faux-tort looked like fun. Hopefully not too sacreligious, but you Hofner guys seems a lot more tolerant than some of the Fender Precision die-hards:
View attachment 4978001

@SteveCS, where did you get the adhesive faux tort?

My google-fu isn't working this morning, other than to find thicker material for pickguards.

 

[Mike Anderson]

Oh Lordy, I am agonizing. Time to quit lurking this club. I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on an Ignition - Violin or Club, not sure yet - for some time but keep getting pulled back by one niggling thing: "uncomfortable when sitting / neck dive." Okay, two things.

Everything else seems to tick my boxes - weight, price, aesthetics, and most of all tone, since I'm an early reggae and ska guy and LOVE that sound. Have read great posts here talking about how good an Ignition can be after nut, bridge, and string replacement. Maybe I'm just here to convince myself it'll be fine, get a wide suede strap, quit running in circles and do something! steve_rolfeca, you've been a huge help in providing info here, so thanks for that. My other option under consideration is a Squier CV 60's Jazz, but they are big beasts and I'm limited as to room here in my wee office studio. Am I just needlessly fretting (hardehar)?

Will stay in touch on this.

 

[Doctor Intrepid]

Oh Lordy, I am agonizing. Time to quit lurking this club. I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on an Ignition - Violin or Club, not sure yet - for some time but keep getting pulled back by one niggling thing: "uncomfortable when sitting / neck dive." Okay, two things.

Everything else seems to tick my boxes - weight, price, aesthetics, and most of all tone, since I'm an early reggae and ska guy and LOVE that sound. Have read great posts here talking about how good an Ignition can be after nut, bridge, and string replacement. Maybe I'm just here to convince myself it'll be fine, get a wide suede strap, quit running in circles and do something! steve_rolfeca, you've been a huge help in providing info here, so thanks for that. My other option under consideration is a Squier CV 60's Jazz, but they are big beasts and I'm limited as to room here in my wee office studio. Am I just needlessly fretting (hardehar)?

Will stay in touch on this.

You are right about the strap. I have no neck dive with a leather strap for my non-Ignition Hofners. I notice it a little with my Ignition.

I don't experience any discomfort while playing the 500/1 models, but I get at the strings from the 'waist' area.

 

[SJLee]

Oh Lordy, I am agonizing. Time to quit lurking this club. I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on an Ignition - Violin or Club, not sure yet - for some time but keep getting pulled back by one niggling thing: "uncomfortable when sitting / neck dive." Okay, two things.

Everything else seems to tick my boxes - weight, price, aesthetics, and most of all tone, since I'm an early reggae and ska guy and LOVE that sound. Have read great posts here talking about how good an Ignition can be after nut, bridge, and string replacement. Maybe I'm just here to convince myself it'll be fine, get a wide suede strap, quit running in circles and do something! steve_rolfeca, you've been a huge help in providing info here, so thanks for that. My other option under consideration is a Squier CV 60's Jazz, but they are big beasts and I'm limited as to room here in my wee office studio. Am I just needlessly fretting (hardehar)?

Will stay in touch on this.

Never had any issues playing either the club or the 500/1 in my lap.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

Oh Lordy, I am agonizing. Time to quit lurking this club. I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on an Ignition - Violin or Club, not sure yet - for some time but keep getting pulled back by one niggling thing: "uncomfortable when sitting / neck dive." Okay, two things.

Everything else seems to tick my boxes - weight, price, aesthetics, and most of all tone, since I'm an early reggae and ska guy and LOVE that sound. Have read great posts here talking about how good an Ignition can be after nut, bridge, and string replacement. Maybe I'm just here to convince myself it'll be fine, get a wide suede strap, quit running in circles and do something! steve_rolfeca, you've been a huge help in providing info here, so thanks for that. My other option under consideration is a Squier CV 60's Jazz, but they are big beasts and I'm limited as to room here in my wee office studio. Am I just needlessly fretting (hardehar)?

Will stay in touch on this.

I tried very hard to buy an Ignition Violin, because the local dealer had a wicked scratch and dent sale on a bunch of them, in various colours. They all had nasty fret sprout, minor dings, bad strings and other setup issues, but the price was almost on par with a Rogue.

I could have also had an immaculate HCT violin for about 4X the price- it was very pretty, and obviously better put together and finished.

But I just couldn't seem to pull the trigger on any of them, for a few reasons:

• The sound didn't knock me out.
• They didn't hang right on a strap, at least for me.
• They weren't particularly comfortable to play sitting down, and they didn't have a great unplugged tone for playing on the couch.
• Even with bad fretwork, I preferred the fatter Ignition neck over the narrower HCT.

All that aside, I still carry the memory of a used German Hofner that I checked out a few years ago. It didn't knock me out at low volume, but when I pushed the amp a bit, the low end got surprisingly round and fat, in a very good way.

None of the offshore Violins did that for me, including the HCT.

On my second visit, the dealer had just unboxed an Ignition Club, and that sealed the deal.

Upper-fret access isn't quite as good as the violin, but in every other way, I preferred it:

• The bigger body sat better, and sounded better unplugged, making it a better couch bass.
  
• It also hung better on a strap.
• It needed way less work to get it feeling and intonating the way it should.
  
• It was $100 more than the ratty B-stock violins, but roughly 1/3rd the price of the HCT, and the colour was more appealing.
• It also didn't hurt that it didn't make me feel like a McCartney wannabe...

...But most importantly, it had that low end push when I turned the amp up.

I'm sure that even after mods and setup, it wouldn't match a German Club, but it got me where I wanted to be.

YMMV, but under those particular circumstances, it was an absolute no-brainer to go for the Club.

 

[Mike Anderson]

Again, thanks very much Steve for your helpful input. I’m sure I will come to a decision next week, and will post here.

 

[markjazzbassist]

Oh Lordy, I am agonizing. Time to quit lurking this club. I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on an Ignition - Violin or Club, not sure yet - for some time but keep getting pulled back by one niggling thing: "uncomfortable when sitting / neck dive." Okay, two things.

Everything else seems to tick my boxes - weight, price, aesthetics, and most of all tone, since I'm an early reggae and ska guy and LOVE that sound. Have read great posts here talking about how good an Ignition can be after nut, bridge, and string replacement. Maybe I'm just here to convince myself it'll be fine, get a wide suede strap, quit running in circles and do something! steve_rolfeca, you've been a huge help in providing info here, so thanks for that. My other option under consideration is a Squier CV 60's Jazz, but they are big beasts and I'm limited as to room here in my wee office studio. Am I just needlessly fretting (hardehar)?

Will stay in touch on this.

I owned a violin and own a club now. The club is very comfortable to play sitting down, violin not so much (for me). As far as neck dive, either weighs 4 lbs, it’s literally so light the neck dive doesn’t feel like anything on your left hand. My solid body bass has dive, i feel and fight it. The hofner? I don’t even notice it because it’s so light the pressure to hold it up is negligible.

 

[SteveCS]

@SteveCS, where did you get the adhesive faux tort?

My google-fu isn't working this morning, other than to find thicker material for pickguards.

Hi Steve,

Amazon.co.uk

It is 0.7mm think so a bit more than just a covering. Actually quite easy to work once stuck down.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

Hi Steve,

Amazon.co.uk

It is 0.7mm think so a bit more than just a covering. Actually quite easy to work once stuck down.

Ahhhhh...

For some reason I thought that your peel and stick option was a thin, flexible film- like wrapping a car.

For folks on our side of the pond, the .7mm tort used for acoustic guitar pickguards is available from Luthier's Mercantile, Etsy, etc. It's used by jewellery makers and other crafters as well.

 

[Mike Anderson]

So just now I learn that there's a thing called the "Ignition SE."
Invalid Link Removed

Does anyone know what if any differences might be relative to the Ignition Pro? The only visual difference I can discern is the Hofner logo near the neck pickup, some sort of decal from the look of it. Maybe just a recent update of the Pro? Thomann caries it: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed].

 

[Doctor Intrepid]

So just now I learn that there's a thing called the "Ignition SE."
Invalid Link Removed

Does anyone know what the any differences might be relative to the Ignition Pro? The only visual difference I can discern is the Hofner logo near the neck pickup, some sort of decal from the look of it. Maybe just a recent update of the Pro? Thomann caries it: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed].

Maybe just the sticker? I don't know for sure.

 

[Mike Anderson]

It might just be Thomann, but they seem to have dropped the price as well. I'm thinking the SE is the latest iteration of the Pro. There's a Club as well. I'll drop them a line.

 

[Doctor Intrepid]

It might just be Thomann, but they seem to have dropped the price as well. I'm thinking the SE is the latest iteration of the Pro. There's a Club as well. I'll drop them a line.

The SE has been around longer than the Pro model. They are both based on the standard Ignition model, but the Pro is for the North American market and the SE for the European market. The sticker is the only visible difference.