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Understanding the Beatle

C

CThompson

Jun 14, 2003
204
3
57
Cincinnati Ohio, USA
cthompson.com
#1
I've never played, or even been near a Beatle bass, and for some reason I've got GAS for a Rondo/Brice/Douglas or a Turser as a platform for some mods I have kicking around in my head.

What I don't know, however, is about the various dimensions.

They look like they have incredibly close set strings, very narrow. The pickups are tiny and don't look like any form factor I've ever seen.

So, can someone help me understand? How narrow is the string spacing? Could you do something crazy and install, say, a darkstar on one? Would the strings even line up?

What aftermarket pickups AT ALL would fit?

Also, anyone have any idea how hollow is hollow? If you had to route around the bridge area to install, say, a kahler trem :ninja: could you?
 
#2
I've only played a real one, a Hofner which I owned for a short while many years ago and an Eko which I still own. The Hofner felt like a toy to me coming from a Fender P bass strung with Fender flats. They are small basses with close spacing, the Eko is a little more rugged to play than the Hofner was, don't know about the ones you mentioned. They are semi hollow like most so called hollow basses. They have a board coming right through the middle under the top plate for strength, I think the pickups are mounted on that. I prefer the bigger short scaled semi hollow basses like the Gibson EB-2's which are big bucks nowadays unfortunately, they sound better and feel better to me.
 
#3
I played the epiphone viola bass just recently and i really dig it. the strings are close but, combined with the short scale, its super easy to play. as far as the darkstars, fred hammon makes them in different models with different pole spacings. you can actually email him personally(there's a contact link on his page - see the link below). just tell him your plans and he'll email you back shortly with all the info you could ever need on the topic. really nice guy to work with.
http://www.hammoneng.com/contact1.htm
 
#4
The body top wood is pretty thin IIRC. I don't know if it would hold up to a whammy bar.
I don't even think the wood was thick enough to consider routing. The bridge was wood with bone saddles and was held in place by string tension.
Maybe with a reinforcing block glued underneath the bridge - but still.....

I had a Univox copy in the late 60s - early 70s. Very light bass.
 
#5
ryco said:
The body top wood is pretty thin IIRC. I don't know if it would hold up to a whammy bar.
I don't even think the wood was thick enough to consider routing. The bridge was wood with bone saddles and was held in place by string tension.
Maybe with a reinforcing block glued underneath the bridge - but still.....

I had a Univox copy in the late 60s - early 70s. Very light bass.
Click to expand...

Yup, I remember those saddles, mine all flew off I played the thing so hard coming from that P bass which I went right back to.
 
#6
I did email Fred. He was noncommittal on it fitting, though he indicated that he thought the string spacing would be too narrow. Probably not a request he gets every day.

Now I'm thinking of getting an inexpensive pickup, like the GFS MusicMan copy, just for the Alnico polepieces and winding my own. There's no limit to how far one will go to do something ill advised.
 
#7
bobyoung53 said:
The Hofner felt like a toy to me coming from a Fender P bass strung with Fender flats.
Click to expand...
I watched a McCartney video on ITunes (Only Mama Knows) of Macca playing the Hofner live and it really DOES look like a toy. Something along the lines of a ukelele. I gave mine up because of its tiny string spacing. I know have a 51RI Fender and feel mor eat home.
 
#8
See the show "Love" in Las Vegas. The vintage tone of the Hofner sounds amazing in a huge theater with the bass pumped in speakers that surround the audience.

Even if you don't like the Beatles its a lesson learned in what the bass does and can do. Brilliant mix.
 
#9
I've played en Epiphone version as well as a "real" Hofner version. Both sounded very alike, with tons of low end and a lot of punch. Personally, I would just leave it alone and play it for what it is. They sound great and cut right through the mix completely stock. The bodies are way too thin to really modify anyway.
 
#10
Trying to put an after market pup in something like this to me is ill advised. It would probably ruin the bass in the end, and make it nearly impossible to sell if you ever decided to move it. The Hofner German and Icon basses are hollow, the Contempory, and a few of the copy's have a light solid sound block in them. That's why they feel like toys to some. Besides, I know of no company that makes pups to fit these basses. If you do decide to get one, I'd just play it for what it is. If you don't like it, you could probably sell it without having too much in it.
 
#11
As someone who makes a living playing a Hofner, and who used to own an Epi Viola, my first thought of DarkStar-ing such a bass was not the string spacing but the "carved" top, it's not flat and would probably require some sort of base/pickup ring to be devised in order to mount the pickup to the bass.
 
#12
It has been a number of years since I played one, but I recall the Hofner feeling like a toy. It was so light, I found it to be disconcerting. The top and back of the body literally seemed to be made from only a wood veneer.

I also think this is a poor bass to consider for modification. One of the musical charms of this bass, IMHO, is its wonderful thick sound. A pickup swap would undoubtedly destroy this characteristic sound, in addition to being physically difficult to accomplish. It would also destroy the value, insofar as the demand for these instruments is based on history and nostalgia.

Just my $.02.

Bluesy Soul :cool:
 
#14
Personally, I think they sound aweful, and that's coming from playing a $2,000 Hofner. Everytime I play one, I always think it's gonna sound better or different and everytime I walk away thinking how anyone can like the sound of these basses. They have very narrow string spacing and sound extremely thuddy. Though I love the way they look, I just can't stand the sound or playability of them.:(
 
#15
I've had a Douglas violin bass for a couple of years. If you want a violin bass to fool around with they don't come any cheaper than the Douglas, at less than $150 from Rondo. I found mine to be suprisingly well-built and aside from an initial neck adjustment and pickup lowering I haven't had to touch it. I use it regularly in the big bands that I play in.

The construction is basically hollow-body with a 1" or so square "soundpost" in the bridge area. You won't be able to retrofit any other kind of standard bridge to this kind of body.

The pickups were very boomy sounding out of the box but adjusting them pretty far down (mostly the neck pickup) gave the bass a nice woody sound. I also threw on a set of 40-year-old Burns tapewound strings (made by Rotosound I think).

Rick B.
 
#16
I have two Hofner Icon basses (traditional burst and pink) and I think they are cool little basses.

They are strung with LaBella Beatle flats (duh!) and sound great. They sound bass-y, fat, and low. Remember, McCartney just wanted a bass sound for Beatle songs, as did everyone back then. So, a lot depends on how you play and what you want to play.

If you love Metallica or Tool, a Hofner is not for you. But if you want a great sounding bass that is easy to play and is LIGHT, get one.

At the moment, for my 50s band, all I play are short scale basses with flats, and that means my Waterstone Indra basses and my Hofners as back ups. I don't need anything else. They are fun to play, easy to play, sound great and look cool.
 

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