Hofner 457/S/E1

The Vintage Showroom Pages on www.hofner.com say:


457/S/E2

Back and sides from flamed maple, spruce top, binding around top, back, F-holes and fingerboard, two ??57 classic pickups, two volume and two tone controls, toggle switch for pickup selection, dot inlays, mother of pearl headstock inlays, produced 1954 - 1993, 457/b 1961 - 1970

I bought this new in 1987 when looking for a semi accoustic to get that rock/blues sound so beautifully demonstrated by Bill Nelson of
Be Bop Deluxe and in the more latterly rock arena - The Cult- although that was an overdriven Gretcsh White Falcony, and Bill Nelson, a vintage Gibson 355. I liked the look of it hanging on the back wall of a local dealer and asked to hear it. I was totally amazed, as was the sales guy, as it had been placed there on a sale or return basis by a passing Hofner rep - the dealer didn't stock Hofners and knew nothing about them!

Although others here use it for Jazz, I was enthralled by its willingness to be overdriven, by virtue of its clean unfussy, bright tone from the otherwise, lightweight Humbuckers. No muddy tones from them. But they contrast enormously from bridge to neck; the neck being suitably bluesy and the bridge, bright sharp-defined and gritty. You won't get much from turning the tone pots up and down the scale, and the volume is best at 9/10 only, but they will fill your speakers! OK, there is tons of feedback at ultra high volume, but it is so controllable and is actually a wonderful extra tool in your gigbag! And it still has the added benefit of doubling as an accoustic, with a lovely bright resonant ring. Overall, plugged or unpluged, this guitar makes its presence felt with a beautiful resonant tone that matches its good looks. A real statement of intent!

What can I say...? It is beautifuuly crafted without a blemmish and even has Schaller heads. It is lightweight (it wouldn't take a Bigsby Trem unit for instance!)and the bridge is an ebony construction by the look of it and the saddles small clips of fretwire set in a series of grooves. The saddles are therfore limited in adjustment, but in 20 years I have never had to even think about adjusting anything! I did however have to have an expert adjust it for my needs at it's 'first service' but then, I don't play Jazz... It does make you sound as if you could though when run cleanly through a sympathetic amp!

Overall, it reminds me of a beautifully, crafted piece of furniture! And it smells lovely and fragrent still!

As I said, nothing has needed to be adjusted since, but I do respect it. It has never been gigged but been to jams a few times and everyone has asked to have it left to them should anything happen to me!!!

I have it housed in a beautiful third party case and is handled lovingly. I don't think it would last too long just slung into the back of a van with all the other gear at the end of the night! But then, you probably wouldn't do that with a Martin or Ovation either would you???

Could it be used without a backup??? Well, if you care about it you won't use it to the point of recklessness, so possibly yes. It has quite a robust action, so the neck is as stout as a ships mast. It is a bigg Archtop, so don't drop it or stand things on it as its hollow inside!

Never had a problem and was setup in its 'first service' by the dealers expert to my spec.

The action is just right for chord work but I like it lower for lead and so it has to be a contrast. In the end, you use accordingly and if you need to go over the top rock noodle-doodling, switch guitars. My '74 Strat can't get anywhere near the sounds/accoustic dynamics of this, neither can my Yamaha SG2000s - its in a class of its own. Oh by the way, isn't a million miles away from the Gretsch White Falcon sound either with the right amp/EQ settings...!

I did think about changing the pickups at the begining to make it sound like a Gibo 335 and discussed this with the dealer, but you know I was 30 then and having lived with it a good few years and mellowed accordingly (!) I am glad I didn't as this doesn't deserve been buggered about with - its what it is a Hofner and a classic at that.

I only have to look at the Hofner website and start wondering what many of the other semi's and Archtops sound like and start mentally counting my savings and flirting with the idea of buying another Hofner model - currently I am having the Gibson ES335 pangs again, and have shortlisted 2 alternatives - a Verithin CT and a Yamaha SA2200. I could get both of these for the price of a new ES 335 dot... The Yamaha IS AS GOOD as the ES, so I could have the best of both worlds... except for the badge! If my 457 was lost/damaged, I would first vomit then cry like a baby...

This is the promised follow-up to the review below. Please read it first so this makes more sense and I don't have to repeat myself.

I have since confirmed the top is indeed solid spruce. To my general embarrassment, though, I now realise I was given erroneous information regarding the frets/binding: it has indeed had a re-fret, and jumbo frets apparently were never the norm for those old Hofners. As for replacing missing items: scratchplate, one non-original knob (volume), tuning buttons, I am at the mercy of a shop in Leeds, which is apparently an excellent resource, but not at all inexpensive. As observed below, this guitar is predictably lacking in any interesting features. I have managed to get quite used to the cartoonishly fat neck. It now feels very comfortable. While it enhances the comfort of excessive chord work, single note speed is certainly reduced. I will penalise it this time for being so clunky, but it does have lots of jazz character.

Jazz. Only jazz. Nothing but jazz. The range of tone is: jazz. The end. No matter WHAT you do with the knobs on your guitar OR amplifier, you get jazz. As that goes, though, I remain pleased with what it offers. I should clarify that, within the jazz realm, this box is most suitable for finger-style chord-melody arrangements, a la George Van Eps. To some extent, a Joe Pass-inspired pick and fingers combination will work. I will reduce my previous valuation by a couple of points, because now I am no longer giddy with excitement and can be more objective.

The action is truly terrible. I've tried to lower it, but with 12-guage strings, it is as low as it will go without facing another re-fret. This doesn't affect those George Van Eps moments, but it really puts a dent in my ability to puncuate pieces with single note flurries in the manner of, say, Johnny Smith.

The bridge is just plain comical, but I don't feel like I should mess with such an old character of an instrument.

Nothing new to add here. How long can such a primitive pickup last, I wonder. Yet it soldiers on.

Strap buttons: I forgot to mention last time that they are completely useless (they pop out instantly). It's sit down or nothing.

Too bad about the horrible neck re-fit.

This is a funny category for any guitar, let alone this one.

I've been playing since I was a little kid. I got a guitar for Christmas in 1976. I've owned all kinds of gear. Gibsons mostly. Though I miss their balance and functionality, this guitar is easily much more resonant and full of character. Idiosyncratic, grouchy, colourful, unforgiving, and good time character.

I've just acquired this really neat old instrument, and thought I would review my initial take on it here, and then follow it up later with an update down the road. Fascinating of me, n'est-ce pas?

This example was signed April 25, 1957. It's a beautiful sunburst (or brunette, as they apparently used to be called), Venetian cutaway (hence the "S" in the model name), single Fuma neck pick-up (hence the E1) version of Hofner's middle-of-the-range archtop from that period. It is more or less equivalent to the President (which was the name given by Selmer to the version marketed in the U.K.). The body is about 3" deep, and has a laminated maple back and sides. The top is spruce, and is probably laminated, though the binding around the f-holes and the high quality and resonance of the unplugged tone have so far left me unable to determine this with any certainty. Early 457's did have solid tops, but I've heard conflicting reports about which year saw that practice discontinue. This German-made instrument also features a 5-piece neck that is fat enough for a cricketer to wallop a 6, and is maple with two stripes of mahogany running all the way to the top of the headstock. The bridge is of the floating, wooden, intonation-be-damned variety. The finger board and headstock are bedizened with rather, um, loud inlays. We're talking bio-luminescence here. "Mother of toilet seat," is what the Hofner collectors seem to dub it. There are two (tone and volume, obviously) potentiometers also set against an agonisingly close-to-circular plate of mother of toilet seat which is, alas, a noticeably different shade from that on the rest of the guitar. Cute, really. British Beat Boom aside, this is a jazz guitar, with jazzy (albeit slightly unusual, and therefore interesting) appointments. My rating reflects only its suitability to jazz (this would be quite low otherwise).

Of course, there is no way to avoid subjectivity here, but relative to the needs of the traditional jazz guitarist, the tone of the instrument is spot on. Woody (as it were), airy, smokey, pianistic, thumpy: whichever of these nebulous terms means something to you, it's there. This guitar has tremendous character. Having owned and played a wide range of guitars (my previous favourites for jazz were always Gibsons), I am at once pleased and frustrated that this guitar has the most natural jazz tone. Unplugged it has incredible midrange volume and tone. And, through every amp I've run it so far, the tone does not get stuck in the mud like so many other jazz guitars when the tone is rolled off. The feedback tendency is commensurate with any hollow guitar I've owned or played, and the Fuma pickup is very low-powered and susceptible to single-coil hum. Feedback is not a problem for jazz volumes, though, and I wouldn't trade the tone of this pickup for humbucker, I shouldn't think. It's just too defined. Too perfectly suited to traditional jazz. I've yet to have the opportunity to try much rockabilly or what have you with it. Again, this rating comments only on the instruments natural jazz tone, which requires no effort to muster, as it permeates all settings. A one trick pony? Almost. Sorry about the high rating, but if the Gibson 175 I plunked was an 8, this just IS a 10.

The guitar is 46 years old. Yes, it has some minor flaws and nicks, and is from the stone age. The potentiometers have been replaced (yes, I have the original ones), so don't make noise and aren't loose. Much of the time, Hofner used to bind the necks first and then pound the fretwire straight through the binding. So it looks like it has been re-fretted, but, in fact, hasn't. They are jumbo frets, by the way. The neck appears to have been re-set once. Not uncommon for those old Hofners, apparently. A simple joint, though, so it's not difficult (although the individual who did this one obviously did not get an A+ for neatness. Again, the rating is a relative one.

It is 10 years older than I am, and is holding up better by all accounts. I'll wager that it will outlive me, you, and YOUR guitar. It is a rare treat to play something that has been alive so long, and whose few minor dings or flaws serve not to diminish it, but to add to its character.

Obviously I haven't dealt with Hofner. I'm pleased, though, that they do offer some interesting historical information online.

There is, presently, a 457 for sale online for 23 times the amount of cash I parted with for mine. Imagine my delight.

As a Canadian, it pleases me greatly to own a decidedly non-American guitar from the jazz-era--a guitar from a company that was quite popular in Canada and the U.K. thanks to the protectionist anti-American tariffs of the day. It allows me to play a piece of Canadian and English history made by a quirky and highly underrated German company. Two thumbs up.

So, as I sit and play largely American music, I can gesture appropriately during the rests, whilst I think anti-American thoughts and play my non-American guitar.

Prrrfect.