Winter Build Off 2019- Der Hoffy Schnitzelblaster

[GeraldMcG]

I didn't intend to do three builds but you know how it is when you make a joke and it turns into a dare.
Building three isn't too much harder than building one.

Be that as it may, I made a joke about somebody making a Hofner violin bass VI but it turns out I don't have a Bass VI of any kind in my collection but I do have a GFS Buyout violin bass body that I bought a few years back with no clear idea what to do with it since I have a Hofner bass.

Here is the body and some European beech that will be the neck. Maybe. Mixed reviews on Euro beech as a loothery wood. Heavy wood and may or may not be dimensionally stable enough for guitar necks. The neck will be laminated rater than slab so that may mitigate any stability issues.

Or I might just get some Home Depot flame maple.

Here's model for reference

 

[GeraldMcG]

This one is going to have a six on a side headstock. Possibly this Hofner style.

With an angle

But I may mash it up a bit more and so something inspired by another German guitar maker Hopf. Their guitars are flashier than Hofner. Maybe something like this.

Or this one.

 

[GeraldMcG]

I think we have a winner!
Gemelli/Hopf 320 headstock. A German and Italian co-creation. If they had got Teisco involved it would have been the WW II if guitars. Lol

Black lacquer but no binding for me and restyle the end to look like the cresting wave of a Hofner.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Various parts. Hofner tea cup knobs, white dpdt slider switches, truss rod cover, surface mount jack, pearl knob tuners, and cream plastic strap buttons.

 

[GeraldMcG]

I have a couple of sets of bass minibuckers but I think I want to minimize the holes in the face. I have a couple of options with Dynasonic style EY Guitars pickups.
Black single coil style

Or white Dynasonic style. The extra screws are just for looks and don't raise the magnets like real Dynasonics.

I need to take one apart and see if I can fit some pearl top plates on them. White or black is kind of bland.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Bridge and tailpiece options.
I have a jazz hollowbody roller bridge and base plate. The rollers might be too small for the bass VI strings so I may have to dig up a normal tunomatic.

The rosewood base is too wide for the violin body. I may cut it down or start from scratch with a block of rosewood.
The Rick style tailpiece doesn't look too bad but I think a simple trapeze tailpiece looks better for such a small light bass.

It's a little too long but I can cut it down and thread it to fit the bass VI strings.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Cutting the European beech for the neck.
The Rockler board cutting slider thing is very handy and much safer than using a fence on narrow boards. The neck boards are 1 3/4" and I don't want my fingers that close to the finger removal device. This makes it safe and easy. Set it up once and then just clamp the boards on. It's great for angles too.

The edge of the jig rides right against the blade so I just set it up for the width I wanted and started cutting.

The main neck blank top view

And with headstock wings.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Stuck at work al day then Christmas festivities so the shop is closed for the holidays.
For your entertainment and edification here is a video showing how the real Hofner basses are made.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

This is awesome. I can’t believe there isn't already a band named Schnitzelblaster. I’m picturing some heavily inked lunatic in lederhosen shredding on lead tuba. Bavarian Headbangers.

 

[GeraldMcG]

This is awesome. I can’t believe there isn't already a band named Schnitzelblaster. I’m picturing some heavily inked lunatic in lederhosen shredding on lead tuba. Bavarian Headbangers.

Heavy metal polka!

 

[postalflunkie]

 

[Gilmourisgod]

I’ve watched that Hofner video before a bunch of times, surprisingly low-tech operation, which probably explains the high price. The guy made me a little nervous with the freehand tablesaw action cutting neck blanks, but he’s probably been doing it that way for 30 years. That’s about how Fender made basses in the 50’s. Love me a violin bass, my son has a Jay Turser clone, sounds great and fun to play. Sub’d.

 

[Beej]

This is awesome. I can’t believe there isn't already a band named Schnitzelblaster. I’m picturing some heavily inked lunatic in lederhosen shredding on lead tuba. Bavarian Headbangers.

Me neither...I really hope some TBer starts a band with the name, and then does gig reports in Bass Humor & Gig Stories, and posts regularly in Band Management about how lederhosen are hard to come by, and how their lead guitarist wants everyone to sing in Low German, but most of the band members are only familiar with High German dialects, and all anyone can recommend will be that they fire the Schlagzeuger...

 

[GeraldMcG]

Gluing up the neck blank. Pencil hash marks and sanded flat all mating surfaces then applied generous helpings of Titebond and squished it all together.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Idle hands and all that. Since I am closing the shop tonight due it being freezing cold (California freezing, not real freezing) I have been doing research. By reserch I mean somebody on the Hofner owners Facebook group posted a question about Hofners made in Spain. I had found out about the Spanish Hofners when researching headstock designs but another person on the group posted a link to a page with more info and pictures of Spanish Hofners and who among us can resist looking at pictures of guitars and basses?
A few of the guitars had Hofner "Vibrators" installed at the factory which got me thinking, Leo's Bass VI had a "Tremolo" maybe the Schnitzelblaster needs a "Vibrator."
I never saw the point of a vibrato on a bass but then I have never tried one either. I'm not a big user of guitar vibratos either.
It would look real cool and would be a fun fabrication challenge. Might need a milling machine though...Oh wait I have a milling machine.

 

[GeraldMcG]

Examining one of the potential pickups to if there is potential kick the style up a notch.

Cheap import Dynasonics with fake adjustment screws. The manufacturer must not know that these are surface mount pickups because the center mounting holes are threaded and the pickups came with screws and springs for under pickguard mounting. Easy enough to fix that but the plain white could be a little flashier.

Here it is out of the case.

Very basic Fender style construction. Two pices of forbon held together by the magnets. I was hoping for bobbins for what I had in mind I think plan B will work even better but it's a surprise.

Badly shielded in copper tape. Kind of pointless since the pickups are encased in metal.
The coils are tiny but the "bridge" pickup is 9.7k and the "neck" is 6.7k. I'm going to swap them around and put the hotter pickup in the neck position. I never use the bridge pickup on any of the two pickup basses I have but I will wire them in series so I can get a bit of a boost by switching both pickups on.

 

[GeraldMcG]

This is the crazy Hofner wiring set up.

I'll be going with volume and tone instead of two volume controls. On/Off for each pickup and series/parallel switch because who knows and it's supposed to have three switches.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Yes, that Hofner switching is just.... demented. I can’t understand the theory behind that layout, it must have made sense to somebody. Whammy bar would be cool, but of course require a solid bridge block. My concern would be the weight and balance, but maybe it would counteract neck dive?

 

[GeraldMcG]

The vibrato should work with out a bridge block. Same as on hollow Gibsons or Gretschs with Bigsby vibratos. Or this archtop Hoffy.

And it would help balance the body though I've never been bothered by neck dive.

Re the switching. Maybe I will go "full German" and make one switch the Polka-nizer for those OomPah bass solos.

 

[GeraldMcG]

More Hofner research.
Hofner did make six string guitars with vibratos.

It's bad enough that the call their vibratos "vibrators" but this model is the "V2." Great idea, name your vibrato after the Buzz Bombs that flattened London in WW II. Silly Germans.

An article on Reverb about forgotten vibratos had this to say about the Hofner V2-
"They work exceptionally on Spaghetti Western and surf–style guitar lines. If you get can your hands on an old Hofner V2 in good condition, you will not be disappointed."
The six string above also has built in fuzz and treble boost. Hmmmmm?

Bass VI, V2 vibrator, built in fuzz?
Buzz Bomb indeed.