Höfner HCT-J17 review

[citral]

Hi folks, as there is little info on the web about this guitar I thought I'd make a review.

I will add pictures, and sound if possible tomorrow, for now it's text.

So after returning an Ibanez AG75 that had excessive bridge, pickup and pickguard rattle, I thought I'd give this model a go, as I wanted something longer overall than those small 16" es-175ish designs.

This fits the bill, overall length is comparable to an Artcore AS73 which is one of the guitars I'm the most comfortable with.

First thing I do on a guitar I just received is to look absolutely everywhere for any flaw. As far as finish go, mine has only one bad point, the sides of the frets are a little bit raw, can be easily fixed tho. Will post a pic of that.

Other than that the wood, bridge, tailpiece, pickguard, lacker, f-holes, everything is perfectly finished. Everything was also firmly screwed, had no need to tighten up anything as it's usually the case with low end gear.

There is no annoying vibration coming from anything and the pickguard is firmly held, and does not go in the way of my pick at all, which is also a big improvement over the AG75.

Last thing about the hardware itself, the neck is so much different to the ibanez I love (my AS73) I first really didn't know if I'd keep that. It's very thick, plain C, only guitar I ever played that had such a thick neck was an old german archtop incidentally.

However after a few hours of noodling around I find it nice. Not as fast as an Ibanez neck for soloing maybe, but better and more comfortable for long comping sessions. I have pretty long hands so YMMV.

By the way the neck had tons of relief. I was surprised to find a "quality control" for setup etc. in the hard case because it really looked like it had not been setup at all. Action was really high (I'd say 2.8mm or so) but that gives this kind of archtop a good sound, more on that later.

It was equipped stock with roundwounds, I'd say .11s or .12s, the sound was really bright, good acoustic sound overall I'd say even if the strings felt cheap.

Didn't last long before I put D'addario's .12 flats on it, straightened the neck leaving just .3mm clearance (truss road was really easy to tighten, not much resistance if any which is a good sign) and turned down the bridge to see how low I can go on action.

Well, with the 2mm/1.3mm indicated as default setup on their specs sheet, the frets rattle was unbearable (including light strings) and the sound totally tamed because of that. Raising it up to 2.3mm/2mm seems to be the best compromise I can get to have a moderate rattle while moderately strocking the chords, and a good, clear sound, but it's still present on the 3 lower strings from the 5th to 10th fret. I use a very heavy gipsy pick but that shouldn't be the problem, the Ibanez AG75 did fine with the same strings and 2mm/1.7mm.

Of course with 3mm/2.5mm the sound is awesome, loud and clear, but I find it too high for me.

Anyway apart from that fret buzz the sound is extremely well balanced, with light basses, that are very articulate and don't overwhelm the mediums/highs. It sounds pretty loud acoustically for a pressed top, much more than a 16", and in a nice way really. Almost no disturbing harmonics from the tailpiece (which contains a piece of metal, the ebony is just a cover in case you wondered). It won't cut through a band of gipsys playing on selmer-like guitars, but is certainly loud enough to annoy your neighbours at night

What is really nice is that all this qualities become better after a few hours of playing as the wood "breaks in", you get a sound that gets clearer and clearer, with more harmonics as time passes. And all of these is really accurately reproduced by the pickup, which is a bit on the low gain side but beautifully compliments the sound and reverb this guitar naturally produces. Defined, clear basses, mellow mediums, highs present but not agressive. Really a good jazz sound. The tone pot is not cutting as much highs as on usual electrics, it is usuable all the way, might lack a bit of roll-off for some people that like very dark sounding jazz guitars but I like it that way.

So I'll add some picks and if I get time to record, some sound of it tomorrow, before I possibly send it back if I can't get a way to get no frets buzz with a decent action. Would be a shame because it sounds really really good, but well if the neck or frets are terrible it's not worth keeping imo.

[citral]

Erm, I can't find the usb cable of my camera so I can't upload the pictures yet, but here is a demo of a track I recorded this morning for my sister to sing over it :

Puttin' on the Ritz by Halarach on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

It's made in 3 takes, each time with the HCT-J17 recorded through an AT2020 condenser mic and a bit of direct input, no equalisation whatsoever so it's fairly faithful.

You can notice the fret buzz despite an action raised to 2.5mm/2.2mm.

Also, the horror : the guitar has no braces nor any kind of reinforcement between the sides and the top/bottom. It's just glued together... I let you imagine what's going to happen in a few years.

So that's it, this guitar is a joke despite having a pleasant sound, I'm returning it and my last hope within my budget lies in the Emperor Regent after my issues with Ibanez and Höfner, or maybe if I spare enough money and be patient one month or two, a Furch A-17 that should be really good this time.

[Retroman1969]

It's a shame you had a bad experience with it, they look like beautiful archtops. Perhaps on the buzzing issue there's a sprouting fret or two... Not unusual in a guitar that has been shipped from overseas and gone through a climate change or two. I'd be willing to bet a good Luther tapping down and filing the frets and you could get that action as low as you want it.
I'm not sure I understand about the bracing. Are you saying there's no top bracing?
On the other hand I don't think you'll go wrong with the Epiphone. They're turning out some incredible stuff for the money these days.

[citral]

Well it cerainly beautiful but it's badly built, after many verifications the issue is not the frets but a bad neck angle. And yes I'm saying the top/bottom have no bracing.

The Ibanez are nicely built but suffer from subpar hardware (that's upgradable tho so better than Höfner in any case), same goes for Epiphone I think so not really worth the hassle, look I spent 300 Euros to upgrade an AS73 (which is nice now of course) when I could just have waited and bought a much better 700/800 Euros ES-335 knockoff.

So all things considered I think I'll just spare a bit or pay in 3 times for a Furch A17-40-cm, this guitar has no fancy sunburst finish / inlays / whatever but that means every single euro is spent in the wood and craftsmanship, and it has a solid top, I'm pretty sure even if I haven't tried it yet that it's well worth it, their standard acoustics get raving reviews from competent people.

Furch

Should nicely suit my needs of a 17" acoustic oriented archtop, that can do gipsy as well as standard swing. And it comes with a real Kent Armstrong pickup, can't see anything going wrong with that.

[mr. beaumont]

What do you mean by "no bracing between the top and bottom?"

[citral]

I didn't say between, I tried to say (excuse my bad english) that the bottom has no X-bracing, in fact no bracing at all, and the sides are just glued to it without any kind of reinforcement, normally an archtop has this kind of thing to reinforce the joint between the sides and the top, and the sides and the bottom :

http://www.grellier.fr/shop/archtop_1/12.jpg

[spiral]

Originally Posted by citral

I didn't say between, I tried to say (excuse my bad english) that the bottom has no X-bracing, in fact no bracing at all, and the sides are just glued to it without any kind of reinforcement, normally an archtop has this kind of thing to reinforce the joint between the sides and the top, and the sides and the bottom :

http://www.grellier.fr/shop/archtop_1/12.jpg

Most archtop guitars don't have bracing for the back plate since there is no downward pressure on it. Your guitar is a laminate so i don't know if you really need kerfing to secure the sides to the plates. I have a high-ish-end semi-hollow that has no kerfing. Your Ibanez might not have it either.

FWIW, I've played the Chinese and Korean Hofners and bad construction wasn't something i found to be a problem. I thought they were on par with Ibanez, but with less nice appointments / attention to detail (hardware, tuner buttons, fretwork).

[citral]

Hmm, the AG75, AF75 etc hollowbodies do have kerfing (thanks that's the word I was looking for), the AS line does not, but they're very thin and I suppose the sustain block makes up for that in a way.

Anyway my intention is not to smash Höfner's reputation (their german made guitars are awesome) but to warn people about this chinese model, if you're looking for it by any means try it, as I said it looks and sounds good but there may be some serious issues you should look for before buying. You might get lucky and get a good one with a right neck angle, who knows I only tried one, I would have keeped mine despite the lack of bracing if the neck was good honestly.

But this neck is going at such an angle that to get 2.3mm of action I have to raise the bridge to almost its upper limit already, it's not normal and not the case on pictures I can see around of this guitar. It came from factory with an extremely pronounced neck bow which is certainly not a good way to make up for it.

[spiral]

Originally Posted by citral

But this neck is going at such an angle that to get 2.3mm of action I have to raise the bridge to almost its upper limit already, it's not normal and not the case on pictures I can see around of this guitar. It came from factory with an extremely pronounced neck bow which is certainly not a good way to make up for it.

This was my experience as well: the bridge was really high. I didn't think you were bashing Hofner. I didn't like their H5 or J17 either. I'm a Hofner fan but I think an Ibanez is a better value and easier to find--new and used--than Hofner's current affordable offerings.

[Retroman1969]

Originally Posted by citral

Well it cerainly beautiful but it's badly built, after many verifications the issue is not the frets but a bad neck angle. And yes I'm saying the top/bottom have no bracing.

Ah, I got it now.
Bad neck angle... I can see how you might be a bit unhappy with that.
On the bracing: Come to think of it, my Joe Pass doesn't have kerfing or back bracing either (maybe that's normal for laminated archtops, never thought about it). It does however have the typical parallel braces under the top. If the Hofner didn't have those, that's kind of bizarre. Lot of pressure on that top.

[oldane]

Originally Posted by Retroman1969

On the bracing: Come to think of it, my Joe Pass doesn't have kerfing or back bracing either (maybe that's normal for laminated archtops, never thought about it). It does however have the typical parallel braces under the top. If the Hofner didn't have those, that's kind of bizarre. Lot of pressure on that top.

I have never seen an archtop with a braced back (they may be out there, but I guess they are rare). Also, I have never seen an archtop without a braced top - carved or laminated. An exception is of course those 335 clones with the huge centerblock (which must be considered as a super-brace).

As for kerfing, the need of it depends on the bindings and the thickness of the sides. If the guitar has broad bindings there actually is removed some wood from the outer edge of the top/back, and then it makes good sense to use kerfing or the top might fall off when the route for the binding is cut. Tom Painter, who makes unbound laminate archtops, doesn't use kerfing as the top is extending to the outer edge of the sides, and the sides are thick enough to offer a sufficient gluing surface for the top.