Hofner Colorama Custom

2002 Model. Made in China. Designed in Germany. 2 Hofner mini-humbucker pickups. Grover tuners. 22 frets. Rosewood fingerboard. Neck through. Solid asian mahogany. 4 position pot switch. Transparent Blue finish. Standard stop tailpiece. Flat neck. Nice inlay work on the headstock. Is a bit neck heavy like most double cutaways. Nice weight to it though. Came with a cool gigbag with a plastic handle stiched into it. It was a big hit at my luthiers. Germany engineering..gotta love it! The only real cheap thing on this guitar was the plastic pickguard. I took it off anyway. Took some auto touchup piant and dabbed some siver screws and put them in the two holes. You can hardly see them. Sweet....

I was surprised when I ran it through it's paces live. Neck pickup is full sounding. Bridge pickup had more tone and power than I thought it would for being a mini. It's wired a bit weird but once you get use to it it's kinda cool. The only trick is in the adjustment of the pickups height. I had to lower the neck quite a bit and raise the bridge to get a good balance volume and tone wise between them. The guitar is not overly noisey and is great for everything except the real heavy metal stuff. I have ran it thru a tube setup and a processor rig and it did great on both. This guitar reminds me of a cross between a tele and a SG with the 4 sound options.

The only thing wrong with this one from the factory was the nut slots were a bit high and the tone pot was a scratchey. Both easy fixes. The fingerboard was dry... a little orange oil took care of that. I got it second hand so I have no idea how the factory setup was. This one had no runs or finish problems of any kind. Only weird thing is the 4 tiny screws to adjust the pick height on the side of the plastic ring. Not that ez at first to set but once you get the hang it's ok. Tip: Do not take the tiny screws out. They are a bear to get back in the holes. You just need to back them out a few turns to move the pickup up or down.

Built like a tank! Paint will chip ez so be careful banging it around. I have gigged with this without a backup on tight stages. Hardware is better than most made in China. Whomever they contracted to build these did a great job. Price vs. value. Can't go wrong with these axes!

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I have been playing for over 30 years. My other axes are strats. I would replace it if lost or stolen. Yes they are a bit odd looking but a real nice find out there for a gigging guitar on the cheap. No need to change out anything. A little setup work and away you go!