Hofner HAC-400CE

The Hofner HAC400CE is a new classical acoustic/electric cutaway made in Bejing China. It has a solid spruce top with mahogany back and sides, mahogany neck, rosewood finger board and bridge. The guitar has a high gloss finish, with black binding with white accent stripe on the top and bottom of the body and black binding on the sides of the neck. The top is stained a coffee color and the back and sides are stained a dark rosewood color. The guitar is a 650 mm scale length with 19 frets. The electronics include an undersaddle Belcat piezo pickup and Belcat EQ-9050 5 band active equalizer with volume and presence control knobs. The output jack is in the strap button. The saddle and nut are made of plastic. The bridge has some inlay on the string tiebar. The neck is 50 mm wide at the nut and the finger board is flat with no radius. The neck has no truss rod, as with most classical guitars. The top has light fan bracing, with just 4 braces, 2 on each side of the saddle. It has 2 heavier side to side braces, one ahead of and one behind the soundhole. The guitar comes with a phone jack cable.

The guitar has a good sound, both plugged in and acoustic. It has a better, richer tone than other nylon string guitars we tried out in this price range.

The guitar came set up with 5/32" clearance from the bottom of both the bass and treble E nylon strings to the top of the 12th fret. The neck has .02" of relief at the 8th fret. The setup falls within specs for classical guitars. The intonation goes sharp at the 12th fret on all 6 strings. The top of the saddle had a plastic casting ridge on the top and the wound strings popped as the guitar was tuned. The saddle had to be sanded smooth and polished. The plastic nut had very deep string slots. The 3rd string slot was too narrow and the string would'nt slide freely through it. We carefully widened the nut slot for the 3rd string with a needle file and filed off the extra nut height above all the strings. The finish on the guitar looks very nice. The top is slightly mottled but looks good. It is bookmatched spruce. The fretting on the guitar is good.

Time will tell how the guitar holds up. It seems to have a good quality finish. This was bought as a practice guitar and should give good service. It is easy to play and sounds good.

Have not dealt with the dealer or factory on warranty issues. The guitar came with no warranty registration or owners manual.

Have been playing several years. This is one of 5 guitars we own. Bought the guitar for the nylon string tone, with the electronics being a plus. We compared it to other lower priced yamaha, fender, epiphone, and other brands of nylon string guitars and thought it had better tone.