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Hofner made various models for wholesale under different names - Gagliano, Selmer, Pöhlert, and one or two more. Pöhlert was a smart guy with an in at Höfner who made some extra coin selling his own-branded guitars to his students. Only a handful of them exist. In the mid-2010s, Höfner made a few guitars (New Presidents and Verythins) for Gary Hutchins guitar company, sold under the Hutchins label.
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10-03-2022 10:52 PM
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Here's my newly accquired 68/69 457 S/E. Got what I think is a steal.
First off - All thanks and praise to Hammertone for his guidance, info and insight on Hofners. Secondly - this guitar was love at first sight and play, right out of the case. The picture doesn’t do it justice, it's got a really aged orangy color. The box sounds great acoustically and of course through an amp.
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I will need to replace the bridge. The G and B strings are cut too low. Also, it appears to be a 12" radius, while the fretboard is 10" radius by my gauge. I found this bridge on Reverb, but it's a 12" radius. ABM 2115 Hofner Style Guitar Bridge with Base - Rosewood | Reverb
Any suggestions on another bridge option?
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Just did a little research and discovered that a 12" radius bridge is probably the right choice for a 10" radius fretboard.
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Originally Posted by Ampig
But, you don't need a new bridge. The one on your guitar, also made by Teller, appears to have plenty of wood in the saddle, so you can sand down the top of the saddle, radius it any way you want, and re-notch the wood to the right depth, with lots of wood and up/down adjustment room left.Last edited by Hammertone; 10-12-2022 at 02:52 PM.
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Originally Posted by Hammertone
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Originally Posted by Ampig
Last edited by Hammertone; 10-13-2022 at 01:59 AM.
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She's going to the shop for some fretwork and the bridge will be tended to there.
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Originally Posted by Rockakenny
Does anyone know what kind of jack output this one has? Got one of these guitars but want to convert to standard 1/4 jack. This looks like something inbetween mini jack snd standard one.
thanks
Ogi, The Netherlands
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Originally Posted by loaweb
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Here’s a picture
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I can't tell what it is. An old German style jack I guess. Maybe take it to a guitar repair shop.
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On mine, the jack is located on the pod module and is standard quarter inch.
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I've got my 457 back from the shop after a refret. While removing the strings to prepare for rewiring and replacing the electronics, I found that the ball ends were stuck in the tailpiece and had to be "coerced"out. Apparently the ball ends on the D'Addario mediums I'm using are too large. Have any of you come across this with your Hofners? Can you recommend strings with a smaller ball end?
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The rehabilitation is complete.
First was a refret and fingerboard planing by my great friend and luthier Dave Merrill who also made the pickguard. The headstock face was delaminating and had to be re-glued. The pots, caps and wiring were all replaced. The knobs were replaced with official Hofner repros. The original bridge had been cut too low and was replaced with a rosewood StewMac bridge. Finally the whole guitar was cleaned and French polished. She plays and sounds great. The original tuning keys hold well. The Schaller single coil pickups produce a nice Grant Green tone. Thanks again to Hammertone for the Hohner guidance.
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There's been a lot of old Höfners and "Partshöfners" in Finland. The latter refers to guitars made from parts purchased by a local luthier following the demise of production whenever that happened. I used to have an original archtop back in the mid-1960s. Which model, can't tell due to the chaotic diversity that only Hammertone has a handle on. The common view was/is that intonation problems were due to something wrong with the fretboard. Just looking at the photos along this thread, I could swear that the distance from 13th to 14th fret is as wide if not wider than from 12th to 13th.
Last edited by Gitterbug; 02-02-2023 at 05:18 PM.
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Originally Posted by Gitterbug
Last edited by Ampig; 02-02-2023 at 11:58 PM. Reason: Misspelt
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I put the caliper to my frets. Below are the results. Note that my calipers are the inexpensive plastic variety and the prongs for inside diameter measurement are offset, which makes dead accurate measurement problematic. I think I'm reasonably accurate to hundredths place.
10-11 frets 0.708
11-12 frets 0.673
12-13 frets 0.667
13-14 frets 0.573
14-15 frets 0.415
Somethings not right between frets 11 and 13. They must have had a screwed up fretboard jig at the factory and just ignored it. However, I've played both Dm7b5 and E7b9 at the 13th fret and to my ears there's not a discernable intonation problem. So to me it's just an interesting anomally.
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[Somethings not right between frets 11 and 13. They must have had a screwed up fretboard jig at the factory and just ignored it.]
Exactly. And I'm afraid we're talking about a big number of instruments. Whether a box jig or a series of thin circular saw blades clustered on a revolving axis, tooling had a finite lifetime but I have no idea how long (= how many instruments affected.)
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It appears the 13th fret needs to be moved a little closer to the 12th. A good luthier can fix it and I know one, but I'm gonna leave as is. I just don't hear an intonation problem (although I'm sure it's there).
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Originally Posted by Jehu
HeadRush?
Today, 11:54 AM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos