Hofner 175

I kept it in my closet for about 17 years, then I woke up and HAD to bring it back to life: an ivory-white 175 Hofner Tele ('74-'79) with some damage done - two of the original tuners replaced by no-names, electronics and bridge pick-up in miserable condition, first to third fret pretty worn-down from years of playing only the same open chords (G, C, A, D), pickguard broken, the beautiful shiny finish crushed on the edges ... At least the first owner must have had a love-hate relationship with this gem. Anyway, the Hofner bridge plate (incl. the VERY smart "roller" bridge system) and the quality of the neck strenghtened my faith in this project. So I decided to work it out in two phases: first, I wanted to bring this guitar back to function - which I did by now. Second, I want to restore it by regaining at least the original looks.
For now, I built in a Hagstrom-P90 (neck; warm and fuzzy) and a Seymour Duncan Quarterpound single-coil (bridge; loud and edgy). I put on Kluson Tuners (new drill-holes). My girlfriend shaped a new pickguard (quite an effort!).
For phase two, I intend to bring back in the original metal-cased neck pick-up, and therefore shape a second pickguard with the appropriate pick-up hole. Also, I know where to get the original tuners and wonder if I really spend the money on 'em ... for now, I like the looks and the grip of the Klusons.

As mentioned before, this is mostly a one-trick guitar. But this trick it does very convincingly. Most of all, I have to balance the tone-difference between the (low noise-)pick-ups, maybe with an equalizer, before going into the amp (Fender Blues Reverb). It already seems that the P90-sound in neck-position turns out to be too unprofiled, can??t wait to reconnect the original PU. Because of its gainy features, the Quarterpound fills the right space in the setting. All in all, I love the twangy-bluesy-bitchy sounds it makes.

This guitar was very well built, except for one (invisible) flaw in the cutting/casing for the bridge pick-up. It is displaced, so that one of the five main bridge-plate screws above it never had any wood to be drilled into. Everything else - hardware, fingerboard, finish, wood - is very, very solid and well-crafted. It??s a Hofner, and it fits my L-size-Hands perfectly. PS: the finish looks even nicer after I sanded it to a matte ivory (to get out the scratches and dongs).

I prefer not to think about what happened to this guitar before, but except the worn-down frets this one will definitely survive the next 30 years in full force. I??m sure I can depend on it in any situation - live, studio or home.

Wish I put this guitar together again much earlier.

This is a German made guitar, and it took a while until I figured the model out. I have seen identical model in one Mudhoney video, as well Franz Ferdinand's second or third video from their latest album. The guitar's been manufactured between 1963 and 1966. Afterwards model became to that Tele-style model mentioned in previous review.

It's a solidbody, apparently abachi (whatever kind of wood that is) and covered with red snakeskin texture vinyl! Maple neck is very thick and nice with ebony fingerboard with huge abalone fret inlays. Body is shaped like kind of Strato-style only more groovy surf's up shape. Also little thinner than stratocaster body.

The guitar has three minihumbuckers, solo/rhythm switch, and selector for each/all pickups. There's a jag/jazz style tone control for each pickup and master volume.

The bridge is kind of Jaguar/Jazzmaster type tremolo, but more ruggedly built. Unfortunately tremolo bar was missing from my model when I bought it. The bridge doesn't have adjustable saddle so intonation is quite hard to set correct... Bridge has a clamp which enables damping strings at bridge (although rubber is missing from clamp so it now suits for strange sitar-like sounds instead of damping...). Tuners are original and should be changed. It's just hard to find replacement tuners that would fit the style of the guitar.

This guitar is very versatile for rock/blues/funk style. Maybe not right choice for country though... Neck pickup has very warm and bluesy sound and for some reason it boosts the level a bit. Middle pickup has similar kind of sound, only less bass than neck pu. Brigde pickup has very nice midrangy sound and interestingly enough when all pu's are selected sound becomes thinner and cleaner than in any individual setting. But gives nice funk sound, so eventually it's a nice feature if it's been planned that way.

Acoustically this guitar sounds better than my early 90's Gibson SG. I'd think that part of the sound comes from that fat maple neck.

Only bad thing about the guitar is that it can't handle loads of distortion as it starts to feedback constantly... And it would be nice to be able set the height of pickups as well.

This guitar being from mid 60's, pickguard has become a little "curly", vinyl has started to come loose on the seams and my friend had to do some fixing to the neck after the truss rod had come detached.

But still I do love this guitar.

I have played couple of gigs with this guitar, only to get nasty looks from my band mates. It doesn't hold it's tune that well with original tuners. Also the fact that it's impossible to adjust intonation doesn't help really.

I've used the guitar in studio though, and played one song through in almost perfect tune...

The crucial thing about the guitar is the 4-way pickup selector. It used to be broke before I bought the guitar and the salesman was lucky enough to find a replacement in old stock of one music store in rural parts of Finland. At the moment the switch is broken again and remains functional thanks to a duct tape custom repair job... I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to find a replacement ever again. I've never contacted Hofner but I'm quite sure that they don't have those selectors in stock anymore.

One music store in London has replacement necks from the 60's though, if I ever might need one.

Took me long to figure out the model of this guitar, all I knew was "Hofner Genuine". So far haven't got any specs whatsoever about it, it doesn't even have a serialnumber on it. Anyway, I finally got in contact with Hofner, and they told it was Hofner 175, propably from around 1976-1979. Made in Germany, of course. Funny thing is, sounds like it's very different looking from the review of the same model below? And I've never seen one like this anywhere, never before.

The guitar has a Tele-shaped solidbody, a bit bigger in every direction, with basic black-red-yellow sunburst finish. Like I said, no further specs about materials, the fretboard is of some dark wood. Darker than rosewood anyway, Ebony maybe? The body is kind of bright sounding, and not very beautifully grained. The backside of the neck and the headstock are painted black, with golden details. It had two single-coil pickups (model?), the bridge-one has been broken for as long as I've owned the guitar. I replaced it with a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker. The original singles were so large the HB went nicely directly in place. The neck pickup is very dark and hot, it drains even the humbucker when switching both on. It has a 3-way switch and master volume/tone controls. It has a metal L-shaped saddle and a "0-fret", interesting solution... The bridge is a hard-tail, with individuallly adjustable tailpieces, which come off when a string is dismounted. Not so practical... Also replaced the tuners long ago, they were a bit loose.

This guitar definitely suits all the styles of music I play. Which include hard-/stonerrock, heavy metal shit and hardcore-punk stuff. Like I said, I've replaced the bridge p/u with a h/b. But with that setup, through my (endless) effectpedal chain into my Carlsbro Top50 -combo, it just kicks your balls off. Not much variety, but it's definitely not intended for heavy metal stuff or such. It's a one-thing guitar, and it does that job well. Too bad I never got to test the original bridge pickup, the neck pickup is beatiful, but would require it's own volume control for switching between the two p/u:s.
Can't really rate the sound, modified it too much to say anything about it... :(

The finishing in the guitar is perfect! Everything is tightly on place, neck doesn't bend or move. Intonation is perfect, when setup properly, of course. The neck is wide, but round, not like the 2x4's in Jacksons, etc.. Fits perfectly in my hand, good for playing solos and licks around the neck. Strings are easy to setup low enough to get a good feel for playing, but without getting a buzz from the frets. The only problem is with the neck p/u, it's so hot that it jumps in your face when you switch it on. And it's as low as it gets, but it's still too near to the strings. So had to compromise a bit, but still got a good feel for palying. Like I said, separate volume controls for pickups... I rate this category high, because this is the reason I still play it -live, studio, rehearsals and at home.

Jaa... Learned to play with this guitar, have been playing it for over ten years, in very different conditions and situations. Before me it's had several owners, and it's over thirty years of age. Still going strong and working hard. In case the electronics are OK, it should last for years still. Of course I use a backup guitar on a gig, but I'd never go to a gig without a backup, with any guitar that is. Strings break, and shit happens... :P

Yeah, poor. Been trying to contact Hofner for years for details about the guitar -no response. Last week I finally after several bombings with e-mails got a little info-mail with the model number and a probable year it was made. They just asked me to wait for a section on their web-pages containing info about Vintage-Hofners... Hmm. Customer Support?

Yes, I've been playing for 13 years or so. And most of that time I've played with this Hofner guitar. It's still the best guitar I've ever played. Nowadays I also own one handmade strato-clone (with SD Hot Rails on the bridge position w/split switch) and two unlabeled LP-clones (both with special p/u configurations, and no idea about manufacturers?). So, the lack of versatility this guitar has to offer I can cover with a variety of other guitars. I like this one for the playability of it, not for it's features. Got it from my uncle, the condition was to learn to play one song. Learned it, got this, saved it! He thought he could end the poor things days and maybe smash it onstage... Graaulll! Probably the best deal I've ever made!

This is a late 1960's Hofner 175 originally in red but I had it repainted in high gloss black.
There are 3 vintage pick-ups, which all have theire own seperate tone pot. There is tremolo-bar with ball bearings (very cool). Neck is a little thick compared to new guitars but has got some beautiful two-tone abbalone inlays.
Body is probably african mahogany, neck is rosewood.

Sound is of course vintage, but clean sound is truely amazing - so rich and colourful. Distorted isn't as bad as most vintage guitars, but this guitar isn't ment to be played that way anyway.

This being a vintage guitar I cannot say anything about the factory settings.
The neck is on the thick side yet very playable.
Easy action though I like it high for slide-playing.
Finish of the neck and body are truely beautiful.
Everything still works fine after 40 years of use(but no abuse).

As I mentioned earlier everything's in good shape. Looks like it will go on for at least 40 more years. What can I say hand made in Germany...

Unfortunately Hofner doesn't manufactor guitars anymor.

I've been playing for a few years and this is the pearl of my humble collection. I also have a customshop Jackson for HARD rock, a Les Paul Classic,a Gibson Working Man and a Fender US strat Texas Special.
As long as you use it for its original purpose this guitar is flawles.