Product: Hofner H571 Archtop
Price Paid: US $600 used
Submitted
05/01/2001
at
04:20pm
by
Frank Mele
Features
:
10
This is a 1950 Hofner, Made in Bavaria Germany. This is a straight acoustic archtop with no cutaway and no electronics. Solid and beefy 11 piece neck with maple, walnut and ebony woods. Ornate headstock with ebony face and vine inlay. Neck is straight as a one arm salute and the action is incredibly low. Fingerboard is Brazilian Rosewood with ebony block inlays and 3 piece bowtie pearl position markers. All these old Hofners have floating 24 fret fingerboards (They don't touch the vibrating SOLID GERMAN SPRUCE tops). The binding is thick white binding with herringbone purfling around top and back - simply incredible. The finish is natural with a beautifully aged spruce top and the now nearly impossible to get SOLID BRAZILIAN ROSEWOOD sides and back. Flamey reddish brown and deep (almost black) brown striped look. The f holes are incredibly bound with thick purfling. W/B/W fingerboard binding. Check out a guitar by the luthier BOZO to see some of this old world type craftsmanship in instrument appointments. This guitar is the size of an old Gibson L4. It came with the original contour shaped Hofner case. This guitar has enough "mother of toilet seat" to decorate an airport men's room. Beautiful tortoise shell pickguard.
Sound
:
10
This guitar sings!! It is the loudest and brightest guitar I have ever played for its size and shape. The 25.5" scale is great. Look, have you ever played an original Selmer Macaferri O hole? Ok go try a Dupont, Dell Arte' or Favino copy. This guitar has the sound they are all trying to recreate. The woods are over a half century old. The wood is as tight as ever. These guitars were made with really old world quality violin type aged natural woods. Not the flash kiln dried over production methods used today. I mike this guitar for Gypsy Jazz tunes. The sound is PERFECT for what I use it for.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
51 years later this guitar is a work of art. The joints are tight, the neck is straight, the action is low and the look of the authentic Brazilian rosewood is unbelievable for an instrument this old. I am sure that whoever decided to laminate the neck with strips of ebony wood must have known that it was mother nature's way of having a natural truss rod. The golden patina of the solid spruce top is also great.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
This guitar has already demonstrated its durability. Its been around longer than most of us ahve been alive! Talk about building high mileage low maintenance guitars, when Hofner closed I bet Mercedes Benz picked up the entire group of laborers.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Look Hofner guitars are now being made again.
I doubt if any of the modern Hofner luthiers have ever had the experience of building or repairing something like this guitar. This instrument will only be brought to a private local luthier for repair.
Overall Rating
:
10
For what I paid for this guitar it is a 10. I own private luthier's instruments. See my review of the Victor Baker Model 18 Special. This guitar is irreplaceable. I love to hold it and feel the jazz history it has in my hands. I love that bright loud gypsy sound on certain tunes. This guitar has it all for a fraction of the price of an old Selmer which couldn't have been built any better.
