OK, first off, it's not really a NBD because Hofner never made a bass in this configuration. Along with a lot of other people, I was hoping to find a Club Bass in the Contemporary (mid price) series with a center pickup instead of the nearly useless bridge pickup. I didn't have the $4000 for a German built Custom Shop Limited Edition, of which there were only ever 48 a year built and even those were discontinued. And anyway, I prefer the longer sustain of the HCT with a center block over the deader "thud" of a full hollow body.
So I converted my standard HCT club to a Cavern. It was actually simple and took just over an hour to move the pickup. I swapped the taller pickup ring to the neck position and used the low one for the center pickup. The biggest problem was what to do with the 3 leftover holes. I suppose I could have bought a third pickup but it would have been purely cosmetic. Instead I put a piece of polished stainless over the empty holes, which does the job without looking too much out of place.
I also simplified the non-logical switch wiring by reversing the switches. Now the "Bass on" switch turns on the neck pickup instead of turning off the bridge, and the "Treble on" switch turns on the bridge pickup instead of turning off the neck. With both switches up, both pickups are on. Intuitive. The blend is still controlled by the volume pots and "Bass on" also engages a treble cut capacitor like it did before.
I am more than satisfied by the improvement in tone options. In stock configuration it really had only one good tone, and if all I ever played was Beatles it would have been OK. But I stared at that useless quacky bridge pickup every day, knowing that so much more was possible if only it weren't jammed down against the bridge. Now I get singing highs and low-mid growl that were totally unavailable before. I can still revert to classic thumpy 60's tone by dropping out the bridge pickup.
Anybody have a clue why they don't sell this configuration as stock? It's been a long time since the 1950's and I think this would be more popular today.
So I converted my standard HCT club to a Cavern. It was actually simple and took just over an hour to move the pickup. I swapped the taller pickup ring to the neck position and used the low one for the center pickup. The biggest problem was what to do with the 3 leftover holes. I suppose I could have bought a third pickup but it would have been purely cosmetic. Instead I put a piece of polished stainless over the empty holes, which does the job without looking too much out of place.
I also simplified the non-logical switch wiring by reversing the switches. Now the "Bass on" switch turns on the neck pickup instead of turning off the bridge, and the "Treble on" switch turns on the bridge pickup instead of turning off the neck. With both switches up, both pickups are on. Intuitive. The blend is still controlled by the volume pots and "Bass on" also engages a treble cut capacitor like it did before.
I am more than satisfied by the improvement in tone options. In stock configuration it really had only one good tone, and if all I ever played was Beatles it would have been OK. But I stared at that useless quacky bridge pickup every day, knowing that so much more was possible if only it weren't jammed down against the bridge. Now I get singing highs and low-mid growl that were totally unavailable before. I can still revert to classic thumpy 60's tone by dropping out the bridge pickup.
Anybody have a clue why they don't sell this configuration as stock? It's been a long time since the 1950's and I think this would be more popular today.
