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	#111 Rodebald Hoyer Jazzstar.


	60 years old and looking good! A nice example of Rodebald Hoyer's hand carved, solid Spruce top Jazzstar. It is distinguished by its unusual headstock design (see below) and by its elegant sunburst finish - most Jazzstars were finished in Natural.


	The colours have come to life - it was dull with age and dirt when I acquired it. It had clearly not been played for a very long while.


	The Jazzstar is one of Rod's top models with a 17" x 3" cutaway body and full-scale neck without a truss rod. He is renown for the use of superior woods and this straight grain, hand carved Spruce top is typical. It really comes through in its exceptional tone.



	It is all original with a good strong 50's style neck so it has that old style feel about it. Robust with a highish action - Nice!


	The colours are magnificent - lots of rich shades in the sunburst. Jazzstars feature this faux-tortoiseshell binding which looks very opulent, even Nouveaux.


	The neck it fitted to the body by a Stauffer Screw, as favoured by most of the Czech/Bavarian luthiers of the period for their top of the range models. It has the advantage of allowing the neck angle to be set up to the players preference. But once set up, it is best left alone.


	The 5-piece stripy neck also suggests nouveaux influences in its design. Rod's trademark cutaway, rounding-off the corner with layers of binding.


	Deeply figured Rosewood fingerboard, still with original frets.


	Early 60's Jazzstars would normally have a symmetrical headstock with one, central red stripe. This has the asymmetrical shape with four red stripes. Four black stripes were used occasionally on other models but I have not yet seen pics of any other Rodebalds with four red stripes. I have to say I like it a lot!


	The tuners are original but I had to completely restore them and replace the buttons (with the correct NOS 60's buttons). Still can't believe I found them!


	This has the feel of a 50's neck. Its big, robust, and totally right for this guitar. It has a good vintage feel.


	Hand-formed laminated backs but with solid sides. All very strong.


	Straight as a die and perfectly central (thanks to the Stauffer) but it took quite a while to set it up so accurately. The nice new Joseph Teller bridge helps to create superb tone and string clarity. I always use them on vintage archtops.


	Some marks, of course, but overall in excellent condition.

	All joints and binding just like new and really solid.




	RODEBALD HOYER Rodebald Hoyer (Rod) was born in Schoenbach (1909) in the German speaking part of what is now called the Czechoslovakia. He worked alone with his father Anton and was later joined by Arthur Lang, as Anton's student. The family were not related to Arnold Hoyer, the better known guitar makers. Schoenbach was a centre for stringed instrument making but after WW11, the German speaking peoples were expelled from the Czech Republic and the luthier community migrated to Bavaria. Rodebald set up his own workshop when his father died, concentrating mainly on archtops. Initially, all his guitars were carved from solid woods but later a few laminate models were introduced. Throughout, however, he continued to use solid sides rather than to use laminates and always made his own neck blanks which he carved himself. Some guitars are labelled but most are not. This guitar is pure vintage. It is a hand-carved top, solid sides and laminated back German archtop of the early 60's. Exactly what you would expect. It has a robust full scale neck, comfortable, not too thick and with a full relief so has a med/high action but adjustable, just the way these guitars always were. Perfect for punching out big chords all night long! Musically, it is superb. It has a powerful, rich, majestic voice with a balanced tone and excellent projection. This guitar has a very sophisticated sound. As the finish on a good wine gives rise to new and delicate flavours so, with this guitar, a series of sophisticated sub notes, overtones and choral sounds emerge and fade on its long, long sustain. Amazing for such a full bodied guitar. Very musical - and very rewarding to play acoustically. At 60 years old, it is in very good condition. Cosmetically, it looks amazing, a few marks on the tops but excellent elsewhere. I have tried it with my favourite pickup for this type of archtop (a Shadow AZ49) and it sounds wonderful.

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