Hofner Vice President

The features are all mentioned above by the previous lucky owner ha ha...
Mine is a 2003 and has the dot inlays, not the blocks as mentioned above.
Again hand made in germany by Klaus someone. It has a SOLID CARVED top,(AAA-spruce) sorry i,m still really enjoying that fact as a jazz player.
It has the two wonderful sounding kent Armstrong pick ups.
Mine is in Natural finish.. this is pure luck as i,m not a big fan of the sunburst on any guitar, and this natural finish is Natural, not the horrible yellow stain that most other company's claim to be natural.
I love the shape of this guitar, Its deep but slightly smaller (Not GB-10 smaller) than a full size jazz box, giving you a full wonderful tone without being to in the way when seated and standing, in fact i would say ideal.
The neck is perfect sorry i don't wanna gush but I'm just so happy... :)It's got just the right amount of meat in my opinion, slim but not too slim, thick but not too thick, for me too thick is Gibson L4, martin CF-1 too thin is well you know what I'm saying
The other thing i like is the hardware is in chrome so no cheap looking tuner's, tail pieces and pup's in 6 months,,although i've never owned a Hof before so I don't know if they use cheap coatings or not.
The body has beautiful contour lines from the carved top and back really nice but typical of solid carved tops I've just had budget laminated toped jazz boxes before which are basically flat..
It has a cut away and you can play chords as mentioned above much higher up the neck than most if not all other boxes due to the 24 fret length.
Im not an expert i don't know if the frets are jumbo but there not thin, the neck feels fast and comfortable.

I play Jazz mostly bob and swing,,, im heavily influenced by Benson, Montgomery, Martino, you know the gang...
I used to have a Samick JZ4 full bodied box and a early 80's Sheraton which i part x changed for the Hof.
I fell for the old "Laminate top jazz guitar thats half the price of a carved top and sounds just as good" when i bought my Jz4... absolute rubbish my friends any carved top player will laugh and go back to playing his lovely tone rich acoustically rich beautiful instrument.
I took the opportunity to go down to denmark street with the hope of finding the best cheapest carved top, after having nothing but problems with the dead sounding laminate Jz4, don't get me stared on Aria fa71's or what ever there called. I played a 76 gibson 175 (not impressed at ??2,500), a mid 90's L4 (horrible dead sound and thick neck, again in the thousands), late 70's Martins, Gb-10 Ibanez, (tiny body laminate dead sound) Martin CF-1 (horrible thick neck but amazing tone) anything i could get my hands for real experience of different jazz guitars which i didn't have.
Well I ended up in macari's and walking through a ran my fingers across the strings of the guitars hanging on the wall. Suddenly something caught my ear. A rich, woody, natural, resonant and sustain rich sound from a nice looking archtop came floating back.. it literally was the best (apart from the martin) sound i'd heard all day. Although admittedly i was disappointed with the selection I'de seen in the other shops so its not like i could compare it to lots of other jazz guitars...
I had to laugh though when i pulled it down and it said Hofner.. I was generally under the impression that they weren't that good and perhaps not having the street cred of other house hold and 'boutique names. The other problem of course was the price tag ??1,600 was way out of my budget so i went home empty handed but with a lot more experience in archtops and laminates than i had before.
Anyway my luck, one came up on ebay it was expensive but the guy said he would take my 80's Sheriton in px, so i gave him ??600 and the Sheri was probably ??300 (really nice example) and the deal was done.....yipi!!!!
Now worth the Jz4 feed back issues were a %100 pain in the **** I was concerned that this would be even worse with the solid top as the resonance and sustain on this thing is incredible,,However to my double luck it doesn't feed back nearly as much as most laminate tops. Due to it having a slightly smaller body and slightly thicker top and perhaps a bass brace on the underside it will allow you to solo with a drummer in a small room,,,,,Fantastic how it has such a lovely warm natural sustain and do this is well simply magnificent.

O:k I,m gonna give this guitar a 10 on all levels simply because of the price I paid, for the tone the looks the quality of materials etc
Although, the nut wasn't cut deep enough for 12 flatwound's so had to get them routed a bit more.
The action of the strings was too high so had to get them lowered.
The 'Floating pick guard' this is not screwed down at any point to the top it is held in by two pins one going into the neck and the other into the bridge,,,good idea since its a solid carved top doesn't put wholes in it.. but i play a bit with my thumb and it kept falling off whilst on stage ha ha, so I removed it and the guitar now looks even better. I don't need it anyway because the top is in no danger of being scratched by my pick cause its two far away and I'm not a gypsy jazz guitarist.
You could affix it better if you want but like I say, I prefer it without let them see all the beautiful wood.

This is a solidly built guitar it feels very sturdy. The pots and selector seem good quality although maybe too early to tell not a cheap feel to the selector if you know what i mean German like quality as mentioned in the above review.

Don't know i doubt i will ever need it. most things can be replaced if they go wrong without too much hassle i guess. there is no warranty anymore so I'm on my own. They stopped making this model in 2004 i suppose it competed too closely in the Presidents market so it became a bit of an expensive habit. You can still by the 'Pres' it has the same hardware etc so should be fine.

I've been playing for four years jazz and a few years before strumming in my bedroom.
I don't have much gear,, a crapped out Sessionette 75 2x10, a Takahuru or something folk guitar from the 70's amazing tone though its like playing a double bass mmmmmmm.
a Takamine fa 60 aucostic and of course my pride and joy the Vice Pres.
It was funny when I first got it I went to college,,,I study jazz now at uni but studied before at a jazz college.. I wasn't amazingly proud about pulling it out in the band and going hey check out my Hofner, you could say a bit embarrassed but when my guitar teacher walked past a room i was practicing in stopped, stuck his head in the door and said "wow thats a nice sound coming out of there what you playing?" I said "my new guitar". He promptly starred at it took it from me and started playing my funny valentine. I knew there and then I'd never get such a good guitar for the money ever, regardless of who made it.. I've had lots of cooing over its beauty and many more on its outstanding tone. Its just down to me now to make it sing to its heart content.
If it were stolen what can i do its irreplaceable, if another one came up for sale could I afford it probably not, so steal it and i will hunt you down like a deranged psychopath,,, you have been warned.. ha ha

This Hofner VP is a 2000 model that I bought as "new/old stock" from a dealer at a guitar show. It is a hand made German instrument with great attention to detail. The top is hand carved AAA solid German Spruce. Ivoroid binding around the top, sides and back, but the F-holes are unbound so you can see the grain of the solid top. The finish is a sunburst that tends toward orange in the middle and shades to brown at the outsides of the top. The back and sides are a laminate topped with an African wood called Anigree that has a grain much like mahogony, but a rippled figure like the most flamey maple. Two Kent Armstrong floating jazz mini humbuckers with volume and tone controls for each. Neck is maple, C-shaped with just enough meat for a good grip. Hofner signature tailpiece and Sperzel tuners with a black, plastic pickguard. I believe the Hofner jazzboxes are the only ones that have 24 frets. The neck joins at the 16th fret and has a deep cutaway. The frets are jumbo and perfectly finished. This is a truly handmade guitar with the luthier's signature inside the f-hole. The fret markers are big rectangles of true mother-of-pearl. The headstock inlay is mother of pearl lillies with silver filagree vines. You can go to http://www.hofnerheaven.com/HHeaven_VicePresident.htm to get a look.

For jazz, the tone of this guitar is fantastic. The solid top is incredibly resonant unplugged, and plugged into a good tube amp or my Roland JC120, the Kent Armstrong pickups reproduce the acoustic sound with such a fat, rich tone that even I sound good. I've heard jazz guitars described as having a "woody" tone, but this goes way beyond that. I sounds like a concert hall even unplugged. My only dislike is that the body is about 1/2" thicker than I would like, but that's probably part of the great sound. One thing you don't think of with a jazzbox, and that's sustain. This thing sustains forever and the thick top (almost 1/4 inch) cuts down on the feedback. Other than the body thickness (about 4") I love everything about this guitar.

I usually set up my own guitars, but I haven't messed with this one at all. One thing I forgot to mention is that the bridge is quite unusual. It's an ebony affair with five slots cut into it. Into the slots, short pieces of fretwire are inserted. These serve as saddles. Intonation was perfect from the factory, but these saddles can be moved across the bridge to change intonation if necessary. The top is not bookmatched, but one solid piece of spruce. The tone knobs work very well and have a wide range of tones to choose from, from bright to rich, but no with no deadness even rolled all the way back. The back and sides are gorgeous and the back even includes a hand inlaid marquetry design. I was used to playing other jazz boxed, like my Guild Starfire II, and a Manhattan, so it was a little work getting used to the 24 fret neck, but that didn't take long, and I enjoy being able to get so much higher on the neck. I can play chords on the 20th fret with ease.

In spite of the solid woods, this guitar is very sturdy. Of course, the finish could be scratched, but I handle it like crystal. Strap buttons are quite solid, hardware is very high quality as are the electronics. The whole thing is built with that German Mercedes-type quality that you can feel and hear.

Haven't had to deal with Hofner. I don't think anything could break.

I've been playing for about 32 years, but only about the last couple of years seriously. I have several guitars, including a Hamer Artist, Tacoma Chief, Fender Tele, Dean Stylist, Ovation Balladeer and Seagull Parlor guitar. I don't think I could replace the tone with anything else but another Hofner, but I might spring for the Jazzica if this one were stolen. I did shop around for jazz guitars, which are pretty rare around North Texas. This one sounded the best. My favorite feature has to be the phenomenal sound, but the 24 fret neck and the beautiful wood have to be close runner-ups for the thing I like best. I think I'll keep it.