Hofner Galaxy

My first Electric Guitar. Bought in a second-hand shop about 1967 ish. I was wowed by the features and it looked sufficiently similar to a strat and seemed the best I could afford at the time. Mine was a red one (probably the most common) and they all had loads of controls including a flip-up string damper (similar to the Fender Jaguar).

It never sounded very good to me. I used all sorts of amplifiers in those days , mostly Selmer Valve amps and could never get it sounding like I thought it should. I designed and built some add on circuitry (stomp-boxes in todays terms) which helped a bit. Sound was always thin and wiry but alsough somehow muddy.

Absolutely Lousy to play - in hindsight , when I first had it I thought it was great until I tried other peoples guitars and most of them were better. I used to use a very high action otherwise the fret buzz was terrible - but at least it tought me to play - anything else was easy after the Galaxy.

Built like a Tank (Tiger? being German). Indestructable and heavy.

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I part-exchanged it for a brilliant white (very rare original colour) 1963 Fender Jaguar (which I still own) and wow - the action the playability the sound - I suddenly realised what I had been missing. The only thing about the Jaguar is that it tought me to play just about anything and started me playing guitars which I still do some 40 years later.

I own a '63 galaxy maple neck,rosewood fingerboard.The neck is fairly deep & narrow with 9.5" radius, very comfortable.Tuners individual enclosed in heavy duty turned brass covers. The body looks like mahogany with 3 ply veneer in frnt & back.Originally 3 pickups with individual tone controls & on/off swithces, master volume and a rythim/ solo mute switch. A solid lump of brass or a bridge and a tremolo.I paid (or rather my dad) paid #33 for this in 1975.

Individual woody sound. Middle pickup a bit thin but combined with bridge gives a bright powerful tone. treble on its own can wine like a strat. Bass on its own full & mellow. Bass+treble very thin -out of phase?. Sustian not great but overall a wide range of tones suitable for most stuff

pickups unadjustable other than polepieces. Original red finish very hard but had cracked in places letting dirt in like an old bar od soap. fingerboard inlays not inlaid very accuratley.

I giged with this guitar & it never let me down dispite being abused. strap buttons creak I'm still playing it 30 years later

never used or needed

the galaxie was the first proper guitar i bought. Later on I had a Rickenbacker 320 and a 70's Strat. I used two brown cloth AC30s, one with top boost.. all that went a long time ago, but I kept the Hofner and after many years off started playing again. i've since customised /renovated the Hofner & its still going strong. I now play through a Line 6 spider 112 for my own amusement (though not the wife & kids)

Hi I just read Peter Rophone's review and burst out into laughing, because so much of what he said is true, but I want to give you my opinion as well. I like these old weird Hofners despite all their deficits. The Name Galaxy is used for the Hofner 175 model as well as for the 176 model. I will tell you about both. Both models have 3 Pickups, mostly Hofner Humbuckers but there are also models with Hofner single coils. You can control each Pickup individually, on the 176 model both tone and sound,on the 175 model only tone is individual. There are also models with active electronics, there is a rhythm / solo switch, always a tremolo, mostly abachi body but I also own a mahogany one.Different finishes-red,sunburst,white, lightblue ans these funny white or red leather imitations. There are more features than you will ever need - so definitely a 10 !!

There are so many variations, so the sound is also very different. But one thing is for sure, they are not made for Heavy Metal. They sound ugly then. But try a clear undistorted sound and they give you a lot of different sounds. Not too much sustain - due to the body material and the thickness ( rather thin) of the body. I think the 175 models sound better, due to the simpler electronics more material is left and they have a non adjustable bridge which is more solid than the adjustable one. You can get very nice blues sounds out of a slightly overdriven amp. Really good. Believe me.

If the guitar is set up well, it will allow for a nice action. It's the same on any guitar - should a string buzz, you will have to get the frets properly adjusted. Mine have always been ok though! I have never seen a twisted neck on a Galaxy ( and I have seen quite a lot!)- I thinks that is a sign for quality!
They have a deficit when it comes to string damping with the palm of your hand. The bridge is normally equipped with a string damper which is always in your way. Take it off and it gets better on the 176 models but you still need to get used to the bridge. If you take it away on the 175 model with the non-adjustable bridge it gets perfect. So my favourite is the 175 model. The finish on these guitars is always perfect.

These guitars have withstood years of live playing. So no problem on that side. The only problem with these guitars are the pickups. They are very often defective. So pay attention when you buy one. This is due to the soldering wire which was used in the old days. It contained acid, and the wire of the pickups often breaks due to corrosion.

Hofner are perfect, friendly, helpful and very competent. Over the years they have made some of the best guitars in the world. Should you have a problem don't hesitate to contact them.

I like the look of these guitars and would definitely buy another if I had none of these. Needs getting used to and doesn't suit all styles - but which guitar does ?? Give it a try !

Its two decades since I owned this guitar. Mercifully, it was stolen and its evil spell over me was broken. I say evil because, in spite of the horrors you'll read below, I couldn't help but like it. Only when I bought another guitar did I realise how much it had held back my playing and sound. But while I owned it, I was happy enough.

The reason I'm posting this now is that I just saw an online ad in a UK music shop offering one for 449 UK pounds and describing it as 'vintage and collectable'. This was about an hour ago. In the meantime I've mainly been on the floor beneath my desk, gibbering with hysterical laughter.

I feel like I need to warn the world. If you're into guitar collecting or just crazy about that sixties look then this is a nice guitar, providing you pick it up for at least a quarter of the price that I refer to above. But don't believe there's anything 'vintage' about it as a musical instrument. When I think what four hundred and fifty quid can buy you in a guitar these days, I shiver with horror at the prospect of some poor sap buying this and expecting a quality, characterful instrument they can actaully play.

The Hofner Galaxy was made by the shedload in the sixties and lots were bought in the UK. As far as I know they were considered a reasonable, above bargain basement level instrument.

The Galaxy is a cheap electric six string double cutaway, vaguely fender like. Body quite thin - ie insubstantial, not stylishly slim. Three nondescript cheap looking generic 'sixties looking' pick ups with partial chrome covers. Each pick up has its own slider switch to switch on and off. Volume and tone I think. Probably some other buttons/switches - going from memory here because I haven't owned one for nearly twenty years. Black scratchplate. Unbelievably cheap, nasty bridge and the world's most weedy tremelo system. Mine was red and I think that and sunburst are the most common colours. Six a side tuners with pearloid knobs on a vaguely strat type head. Dark wood fingerboard (not sure which) with double block inlay fret markers. Basically everything is cheap and doesn't work particularly well.

In spite of all the above it has a real charm about the way it looks, which is why I'm giving it 5 out of 10 for features instead of 1.

I played this guitar for about six years. Basically I was obsessed with anything 'sixties' and was totally charmed by its looks. Unfortunately it sounds weak. It didn't do sixties chiming chords, it didn't do steve cropper scratch, it didn't suit distortion, clean, bright or country twang. It is capable of a run-for-hills, genuinely unpleasant ear splitting edgy treble. On just the neck pickup I could get a half decent middle of the road cheap guitar tone. Overall I would sum up the sound by saying - weak and lacking in just about every area.

In the playing side - not particularly pleasant to play, diffficult to set up well, didn't hold tuning and the tremelo was rubbish

Just for balance I would say I've played worse made and worse sounding guitars. If you want and love that weak sixties cheap guitar sound then this might do it for you.

It was probably nearly twenty years old when I bought it. However lots and lots of things didn't really work very well that looked like they probably didn't work very well when it was new.

It wasn't really possible to set it up that well. There was a lot of string rattle on the low E which it seemed impossible to get rid of without a silly action that destroyed intonation. Daft as it sounds, eventually I gave up and just left the bottom E off, playing it as a five string. I did this for years, persuading myself it contributed to my individual style and sound. I must have been mad.

There was something kind of indestructible about it. Largely, I think, because it started life not working properly and couldn't really get much worse

Pretty and mysteriously charming but no fun to play and sounds weak. I wouldn't replace it but if somebody gave me one I wouldn't throw it away.

If it had sounded good and felt nice to play I'd have been in heaven.

About me - been playing for 25 years, currently play Egmond sixties semiacoustic (cheap and nasty but somehow just sounds great), Burns Marvin, Shergold Custom Masquerader, Burns Flyte Bass, Ibanez Rickenbacker copy bass(fantastic!), Vox Standard bass.