Hopf Craftsman.

[Ol' Fret]

Wow whats that model called ?
how much would one of those cost ?

I dig that checkerboard binding

It's a model that Hopf called "319 SL" - or the "Bill Haley Rhythm" because Haley is said to have liked this guitar more than his Super 400 he officially endorsed at that time. It was shipped with a DeArmond 1000.




I like the DeArmonds very much, but on the 319 SL they sound a tad too bright or too much "rock'n roll" for my ears. A JS-style humbucker just seems to fit better, also aestethically. Here a comparison shot with the 319 SL and a Hoyer "Special" on the right. IMO, the DeArmonds harnesses look too jammed on such brash-bulging, curvaceous axes.




Like with most German made archtops the Hopf and Glassl lines are confusing. The Hopf 320 SL flagship posted above (on the left) by Hammertone differs a bit from the 319 SL. The 320 L (L for Lang) was another unrivaled flagship and Glassl's homage to his German fellow master maker. The 319 S - like the various models Glassl marketed himself - is another great sounding archtop , though a bit smaller, and can show up from a fully solid to fully laminated construction. Some of them also have checkerboard binding.
The older Glassl made guitars can be extremely confusing to classify.


About the cost: the last 320 L I saw locally for offer some weeks ago went for under $1,500. A steal... like most of these guitars still are, though most of them are scarce. Consider also that most German archtops led hardly ever a pampered life like their US counterparts; so, after several decades, quite a number of them may need more adjustments than just a regular set-up. Whoever understands a few specific features of such guitars, and is able to carry out such work clean, will certainly sometimes be (positively) surprised at the achieved result or at the performance of comparable competitor vintage models or, at least, at the market value of the latter.

[Hammertone]

While we're at it, a Hoyer Special next to a Glassl/Hopf 320 SL. Close, but NOT the same: