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Hofner T6S
Very Rare.
Hofner ceased
production of its Verithin range toward the end of the 70's
and developed the entirely new T Series of guitars.
The T2 and T4 were
a major step forward in electrics but were mainly Thinlines at 2" body thickness.
Finally, in the early
80's, Hofner
launched the T6 with a 1.25" Verithin body
and a
full sustain bar but without f-holes. It was
marketed as "The return of the Verithin".
In fact, this guitar represents the ultimate phase of Verithin development as all subsequent Verithins have been
retro models.
Note the subtle change in the spelling from Verithin to
Verythin!
The original Verithin was created in the Selmer period and
Selmer obtained the legal right to the name.
When the T6S was launched, Hofner initially advertised
it as "The return of the Verithin" but quickly re-wrote
their marketing material using the description VERY THIN.
The name stuck, and all retro verithins became Verythins.
Mine is the
factory-fitted twin Di Marzio version (the other option
available at that time had Schaller humbuckers and a
piezzo under the bridge/tailpiece). These
pickups are monsters - amazingly powerful and quite a handful. Interestingly, Hofner
mastered the volume boost problem that Gibson always
suffered and designed their active circuit to compensate
so that you can toggle between passive and active and
the volume stays the same - very clever and just what a
player needs. On passive it has a
conventional tone control although it is very
subtle, whilst on active the acoustic filter
(notch filter) works like an EQ but with compensated top
end. When the filter is rolled off
toward Bass, the top end notes still retain their volume
so that the sound doesn't become dark and muddy.
Again, very clever. It overcomes the
problem of not being able to play top end melody when
the tone is heavily on Bass. With this
arrangement you can!
The body is true
semi-acoustic. The sustain bar is full length with an
acoustic pocket either side but the absence of f-holes
means that it is hardly acoustic at all.
On the other hand, it is brilliant for negating feedback
so, all round, quite a machine.
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