|
1980's
Hofner President Special.
I acquired this lovely President from someone
living in Bubenreuth, within a mile of the old Hofner
factory. He had lived in the village all
his life and had worked for Hofner at one time.
His
parents owned a small music shop in Bubenreuth and, so he
told me, the Sales Manager from Hofner would
occasionally drop in with a mystery guitar and ask if they
wanted it. Apparently the mystery guitars
were ones which did not fit the standard catalogue of the
time. These mainly were prototypes.
This
guitar, from the 80's, was essentially the
standard President of the day but finished in this gorgeous
Cinnamon cellulose. As this is a
colour that Hofner introduced about 20 years later, I can
only assume it was an early colour experiment that was not
put into production at that time.
.
It measures 16"
lower bout by 3¼ " (80
mms)
deep but with those very distinctive
f-holes that lets you know its a late 80's model.
The top is laminated Spruce and the back and sides are
nicely flamed laminated Maple. The
neck is Hofners single-piece Hard Rock Maple with a half
heel
Satisfying
the jazz player's desire for simplicity without
ornamentation, it has single dot markers on a Brazilian
Rosewood fingerboard and 25½"
scale.
The pickups are type 513 blades with conventional controls.
This is a jazz
players dream .... sweet but punchy, the twin 513s rank as
Hofners best in my opinion
Recently cleaned
and polished and rebuilt it is in outstanding original condition,
except for the addition of a new handmade pickguard.
The original Hofner tortoiseshell pickguard had become very
fragile.
Overall,
this is a great archtop - very jazzy, with a nice slim neck and
a wide tonal spectrum! Hardly any discernable
play-wear, set up just right, you won't be
able to put this one down .............. !
|
