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McCartney... why Hofner?

#61
Better pic.
hof_zpsab0d3232.jpg
 
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#62
theduke1 said:
When Sir Paul was poor left handed basses were rare and vey expensive, so the Hofner violin bass allowed Sir Paul to tip it over, and restring it left handed maintaing a somewhat nornal look as aposed to doing it to other models.
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This. I've read it in interviews.

Symmetry. If you look at real early photos of Paul playing bass or guitar, he gravitated toward symmetrical body shapes so he could flip, re-string, and still have the same look and neck access.

When he spotted the righty Hofner in the shop, he was going to buy it and re-configure it for lefty. But after a chat with the shop owner, the owner told him he would contact the Hofner factory and see if they would build him a left-handed version, with electronics and pickgaurd reversed. Sure enough, Hofner obliged, which makes the lefty Hofner Paul first played the first custom-made left-handed electric bass in the minds of a lot of folks.

FWIW, Hofner was not an entry-level, budget, or "cheap" brand. Not the most expensive either, but not the low-quality cheap brand that we might label certain brands today. They were/are a well-respected maker of quality stringed instruments of all kinds. I think there were other motivating factors behind that choice, including the uniqueness of the aesthetics.
 
#66
ShoeManiac said:
So how do you like the CT bass, Ivan?
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Excellent! Don{t let the country of origen fool you, great quality. Very fun for me to play, It has a rather chunky neck.
One thing though, it is NOT a full hollow body like the germans, the sound is noticably different.
This goes without saying, but it is a pain to intonate, but if you move the saddles and get the angle right, It is fine.
If you have any specific questions, I{ll be more than happy to answer.
I initially had an icon, then upgraded, I can say this is a better bass in many aspects.
 
#68
KeithKlaxwell said:
i've got a '58 RI, i want a bridge pickup so i'm going to swap it for a '63 RI. there is a woodier quality with the '58 single coils that doesn't come from the humbucker models though.
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I highly suggest against switching for the bridge pickup. The bridge pickup is useless IMO (nice palm rest), I've tried many times to get solid tones out of it, but have never succeeded. It always sounds so "thwacky" I don{t even know how to put it.
Have you tried a model with bridge pup? (If so and figured out a way to get good tone out of it, please share)
 
#73
Nice basses, Ron.

My "Beatle Collection" consist of My hofners (icon and CT), an epiphone texan and a copy of a Rick 325
I mainly go for McCartney gear, but I saw the 325 on craigslist, it was incredibly accurate for being a copy and I had to pick it up.
I plan to build a nice shortscale 4001C64S copy in the future.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I{m entirely impressed by the MMT paintjob on the rick.Saw it in the past on the Rick resource, but always enjoy seeing it. Looks great.
 
#74
In addition to my Ric 4001 and Hofner CT, I've got an AmStd Jazz bass--I almost have the Beatles basses taken care of. Fortunately, I can coax out more than just McCartneyesque tones from these basses.
 
#75
Fran, just a little update, I removed the foam from the bass as a mute and it really helped the bridge pup come alive with your suggestions (it really does need to be mixed with the neck pup though to work). Though the sound it produced isn{t really my thing, it was still there and available. I could see definately using it for more modernstuff though. Especially since the CT isn{t full hollow.
I like the sound of the neck pup with the bassboost and mute foam the best though.


ch willie said:
In addition to my Ric 4001 and Hofner CT, I've got an AmStd Jazz bass--I almost have the Beatles basses taken care of. Fortunately, I can coax out more than just McCartneyesque tones from these basses.
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Yeah, hofners are surprisingly versatile. I play one for everything. My friends/bandmates always push that I use the fender mustang, but the hofners are where its at.
I{m not to good at slap (not really too into it) but I can cop some basic slappy stuff out of hofners.
 
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#79
Okay, since this is somewhat of a "hofner thread" I figure this would be the place to ask.
On a cavern reissue, what is the spacing between the pickups?
Is it the same distance of the width of the pickups, or a bit smaller.
It seems to vary, from bass to bass, atleast in the photos I´ve seen.
I tried looking at photos of vintage ones, but I can{t get an accurate representation from the pickguard because the celluloid appeared to had shrinked.
 
#80
The symmetry thing was definitely a biggie for Macca as others have already said. I've heard speculation about cost, but I think selection and timing were the other factors i.e. they were in Germany and gigging there so perhaps using a cool looking instrument made in the country they were playing in made a some sense at the time. Timing is everything sometimes and what a choice! Love my CT club bass. One of the best necks I ever played, easy to reach everything and a warm, woody tone like its violin relative. Mine is strung with D'Addario Half-Round all nickels and has the German tuners. Great sound, great vibe and a ton of fun to play always!
photo5_zps26eef67b.jpg
 

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