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Had trouble recording this. Mic placement was hard and I only had one.
She's not bad for the size of an ES-175 ;-)
Will take some pics tomorrow.
I have had both the Jazzica and President. I think the President has the slightly richer tone but the Jazzica is very conformable and like the President, built in the same essential way. Both Hofners dated around 2007 and had an X bracing pattern but with only 1 brace (on the bass side) with solid hand carved tops.
The typical sound of them is extremely mellow and woody. Its almost a cross between an acoustic and an Archtop. Or a Super 400 and a Maccaferri. Really you'll be quite shocked (no very shocked) at how damn loud, mellow and resonant these are.
The President is very light a delicately built, yet feels solid. You can tell its a £3,500 guitar although the maple Isn't my favourite. There are corners cut, the bridge is a joke and there is some sloppy finish, here and there but nothing you would lose sleep over. The strings are well balanced and the trebles are clear but not overpowering. The sting tension is nice with 12's and the fretboard, although appears long, with the extended neck join, is an inviting place to play.
In regards to amplified tone, well I don't like these mini-hum buckers and never have. This one sounds very good but I would much prefer a set in hum-bucker. The guitars acoustic tone is so strong, it can make these awkward to set up but when you do, they sound magical. Really its a guitar to leave at home and play acoustically. The reward however will be hours of lush acoustic sound, at more than enough volume to suit any situation.
For its class, its by far the loudest, most acoustic Archtop I've come across and I challenge someone to find one to match it.
Its like Bob Benedetto made an Es-175. Its far more suited to those intimate moments, when you want to really feel sound, not just project it. As my friend said whilst smoking a Jazz cigarette "Its like I can touch the sound" and I'v never been told that before (must have been some good jazz))
(I got the mic placed badly on this recording)
Last edited by Archie; 11-12-2014 at 08:46 PM.
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11-12-2014 08:01 PM
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It sounds amazing!!! Thanks for sharing it's sound!
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it sounds like a rainy day. I enjoyed the clips. somehow not hofnerring is still a pretty big regret in my life. I think I've seen three, total. ever. two at a shop that no longer exists. so your clips are like the melancholy soundtrack to my own failure
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I can help you recover from that anytime.
Originally Posted by feet
it sounds like a rainy day. I enjoyed the clips. somehow not hofnerring is still a pretty big regret in my life. I think I've seen three, total. ever. two at a shop that no longer exists. so your clips are like the melancholy soundtrack to my own failure
Verythin, President, Jazzica, Chancellor - come on down!
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Beautiful tone. I absolutely loved it. I think what I liked most about it . . even above its tonal beauty . . is the fact that I can't really compare, or equate its tone to another guitar. It's got a certain kind of unique beauty in its voice.
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I do admire you! Forever the consumate sales professional. Originally Posted by Hammertone
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Sheesh, the guy is clearly on the ledge. I'm just offering a lifeline, in the colour of his choice. Originally Posted by Patrick2
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Heaven, tell us more about your recording techniques, please!
All acoustic?
Amp?
Mic type?
Mic placement?
Your clips sound great!
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To those who have a bit of insider information: Why have the Jazzica, Hofner, and German made Verythin been taken out of the US market?
There was a time when said instruments were regularly spoken of on forums and seen on stages. Both are happening far less often.
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I've only had time to make it through the first piece so far but that was really lovely, both musically and tonally. Very enjoyable. Thanks for posting. I'm planning on making back to listen to all of them.
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Lots of things have happened in the past few years. Ownership of Hofner changed @2004/2005. Distribution into the US changed @2005/2006. There was a world-wide recession. Distribution into the US changed again @2012. The value of the euro against the US dollar increased. The percentage of Chinese-made instruments significantly increased. Hofner increased its prices significantly between the year 2000 and now. Originally Posted by Klatu
Hofner continues to make instruments in Germany - violins, violas, cellos, upright basses, bows, classical guitars, short-scale hollow electric basses (mostly "Beatle" basses) and even a few jazz guitars once in awhile. The jazz guitars built over the past two or three years have tended to be one-offs, in unusual and interesting colours. Over the past few years, it has been easy enough to find out what their current offerings are here: Hofner Electric Guitars and on Facebook. Hofner has simply made some choices regarding where they want to put their efforts in terms of product selection and marketing.
Most of their current steel-string and electric guitars (Verythins, Shortys, "Violin" and "Club" electric basses, flattop guitars and more) are less expensive instruments made in China and Indonesia. This does not mean that the German-made Verythins, Jazzicas, Presidents, New Committees, and Chancellors are gone. There are still some new instruments available for those who want them and are willing to pay the price for them. Many of them are in Europe. I have a good selection as well, and typically have a few ads posted in the For Sale section of this forum.
Threads without pix are useless,
so here are a few pix of German-built Hofners from my inventory:
Jazzica:
Chancellor
Vice President
I'll post a few more.Last edited by Hammertone; 11-14-2014 at 03:07 PM.
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Thin President
New President
Verythin Classic
Last edited by Hammertone; 11-14-2014 at 03:11 PM.
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Originally Posted by kamlapati
High kam
Actually nothing complicated. A £120 Rhodes Cond Mic into an Apogee One. I used garage band and added a touch of reverb but not much at all.
I did position the mic near the 12th fret but it missed out too much of the bass, so I put it past the 12th (just) and slightly aiming to the body. Thats the results you hear in the last two recordings and the mic on the 12th fret, in the first.
Thanks for your compliments.
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I really liked the overdubbed clip. I wish it had been a lot longer. I was getting into when it suddenly ended (I guess I;m guilty of that myself a lot so ...). Really good job on all three of these. Nice to hear.
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Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
Jim your totally right, it does end a but abruptly.
I should have done another chorus but it was the last recoding I did, after loads of takes (mostly of the first piece) plus I haven't been playing for a few weeks so my chops were rusty (excuses I know)
I certainly think the last two sound better than the first one.
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I'm not really an aficionado on acoustic arch top sounds, but I thought the first one sounded very good. I also like what you had to say in that one so my judgment was colored by the content as well but I did like the way all of them sounded.
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Originally Posted by Jim Soloway
Fair enough. I liked the clearer more intimate tone of the later ones.
The first one is a composition of mine, needs a lot of work but the basic structure and melody is there.
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Yours is a wonderfully accurate representation of the New President's acoustic tone. I've noticed that sometimes the idiosyncratic sounds of particular guitars are lost in amateur recordings, but you have captured the tone perfectly. I have several nice acoustic guitars that I have used in public and with my teacher, but the only time I can remember him going out of his way to compliment the sound of a guitar was the President.
Along with having lovely unique tone, the guitar is in a class by itself when it comes to neck comfort and high fret accessibility. Being that the President's neck joins the body at the 16th fret rather than the traditional 14th, access to higher frets are a breeze, similar to that of electric guitars. This influences my playing in that I tend not to play above the 12th fret on my other guitars, whereas it feels very natural and comfortable to do so with the Hofner.
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Great playing ATH! More like this...love your compositions.
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Originally Posted by Klatu
Yes I agree. I had never heard a President or Jazzica before this last month, when I got one of each. Prices just become so insanely low that it was really silly not to. Theres something very wrong in the guitar world, when you can buy both for £1500 (not each). Yes the price of a new Yhunzi got me a Jazzica and President.
As I have said, I challenge anyone to find a more acoustic resonant and deep sounding guitar for the size and money.
Why is it then, whenever we hear them being played in a bop context, they sound thin and pretty average?
Put it this way, the guy who did the Heritage comparison videos (plays a Pres at the end) didn't make the President sound nearly as acoustically rich or competent as the others, yet turn the amp off and its probably the best acoustic sounding out of the lot, and with the smallest body! If he had of done that, everyone would be screaming for the President, instead they go "oh, sounds ok"
And thats where I think the problem is. People bought these expecting to get an L5 tone in a 16 bout guitar. What they ended up with is a Stromberg/orchestra in an Es-175. Basically is it too much tone?
The other issue is, if you don't play it right it will sound bad. Its definitely a guitar that needs to be played by a player who understands its strong points. Your average player coming to jazz, probably wont know what to do with it.
Its weak points are being amplified. The pickup just can t deal with the tone (imo). It just ends up sounding a bit flat and lifeless but then all mini floaters do to me. If you Mic'd the guitar, now theres a different story.
So in all, you get what everyone wanted, a guitar so acoustically rich, theres not a Gibson or heritage that will beat it. Its playability is very high, access is great, necks are very nice etc.. Yet I've never seen a guitar lose 3/4's of its value from new.
Anyone who is buying a Loar, or Eastman or any 'Hand Carved' mass produced guitar, that has the 'best' acoustic tone, you are looking way up the wrong tree, in the wrong forest and on the wrong continent.
If your looking for a guitar that you don't take out (unless to very select gigs) but rather keep at home and enjoy for the pure acoustic tone of it, which is almost everything you would want, a carved top acoustic guitar to sound like, then the President, Chancellor and Jazzica are the best choice. You would have to go to a very good luthier, to have him make you a 16" archtop that sounds as rich and as good as this and how much will that cost?
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Sorry I didn't want that last post to come off as putting anything else down, or as a string of gushing hyperbolise.
I feel the guitar needs someone fighting its corner and I, and Hammertone seem happy to do it. It seems the internet at large, has got these quite wrong.
I do have to also state I have a horse in this race, so I'm hoping the sound clips will back up my claims and I will now shut-up.
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It stops being hyperbolizing when you back it up so well with actual recordings. But for whatever it's worth, I don't think it's that the internet got these wrong as much as the internet didn't get these at all. They just never seemed to get enough traction for anyone to pay real attention. I like them a lot when they were first released but they clearly had some marketing issues. Originally Posted by ArchtopHeaven
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