Hohner HS-35

I realy don't know much of this guitars history. It is an ES-335 copy, no idea what year. Nice tabacco sunburst with very good grain. Cream binding, tortise pickguard, gold hardware, rosewood fingerboard with dot inlays. Two humbuckers, the original 58 Gibson style in the neck position and a Lawrence blade style at the bridge. 2 volume, 2 tone controls and a 3-way P/U switch (which is backwards). Cheap tune-O -matic copy bridge, and stopbar.

When I first got it, it was dirty, with some corrosion on the bridge, P/U and pickguard screws and tuners. After cleaning and replacing the strings, I was amazed at the sound. Fat and Jazzy from the neck pickup, and crisp at the bridge. I run it through a Boss CE-2 chorus and a DOD Supra distortion into a Fender Frontman 25R. Sounds real good clean or distorted, from a soft fuzz to heavy feedback with ringing harmonics. Good sustain. A bit of buzz using the Lawrence rail at the bridge, but you can't hear it once you start playing. I play mostly bluesy rock, and this guitar does it all except when you need that distinct Strat single coil tone.

Very nice wood work for a copy. The bookmatching on both the top and back looks better than most 335's I have seen. Nice shine to the finish even after all the neglect it has seen. I adjusted the action pretty low without much fret buzz. When I first changed the strings, the nut just fell off, so I glued it back in place. The saddles are well worn and need to be replaced. Tried to install new graphite saddles, but the adjusting screw size and pitch was some oddball metric size and I ended up using the original saddles. I will eventualy replace the bridge with a better (USA) tune-O-matic copy.
The tuners were loose and go out of tune often, even after tightening. The neck is rock solid and straight, but there are some deep grain lines in some parts of the rosewood fretboard. Frets are worn flat in many spots, it is obvious this guitar has been played a lot. The fat C shaped neck is a little thicker than I would like, but it suits the guitar fine.

This guitar has taken a beating, with only a couple of small dents on the back of the neck to show for it. It has never seen a case, and when I got it, it looked like it had been forgotten in the back yard all winter. The tuners and bridge need to be upgraded, and I replaced the strap buttons with straplocks because despite being a semi-hollowbody, it weighs a ton. I play in a friendly jam every Friday night, and it has never been a problem other than going out of tune every few songs. New tuners should solve that problem soon. For a free guitar, not only can I not complain, but I think I got a hell of a deal.

Tried to find out more about the guitar from Hohner's website, but there isn't much there about their guitars. No e-mail address, only a P.O. box. No phone #.

It was a gift from my brother in law, as he was moving to Florida, and had just won an Epiphone Dot 335 at a local Blues Festival. He said it had been given to him years before. No idea of the year. If anyone knows how to date one, please contact me. I play blues and rock, with a little punk/metal mixed in. I have a Takamini Jasmine acoustic for the quieter times. I am looking to buy a strat in the next year or two, but a friend is trying to convince me to build a Carvin T-bolt instead. we'll see.. If I do, I will raise the action on the Hohner so I can play slide on it. If lost or stolen, I would probably get the strat and slap in a humbucker at the bridge, but I would miss this guitar's tone. I prefer the thinner Strat necks to this fat C shape, as it causes my hand to cramp faster. I wish it had a tremelo, but then I would never get it tuned with these tuners! Overall, the best damn free guitar you could ever want.

Semi Hollow es 335 stlye, 2 humbuckers, 2 volume 2 tone, toggle switch, brown sunburst, rosewood finger board, dot inlays, nice cream colored binding all around, tune-o-matic type bridge, 2 f holes, thru body neck, not a cheesy bolt on , you this style guitar shoudl have a thru the body type neck.

In the bridge positin, believe it or not it will lay down with the rest of them, in fact it blows the doors off a Dean and a Charvel i have/had, I compared this side by each with a Epiphone dot and a Ibanez Artstar 20(Epi was $100 more, ibanex$150 and had a bolt on neck) and this thing made them sound very weak, no comparasion, by far a better guitar than either of those. Flip it into the neck pickup and roll the tone back to 2 or 3 and it's big phat jazzy city, It's no ES 175, but it's not completly hollow or $2000. I have a friend who is a proffesional jazz player who was thinging about getting one as a back up to his 175, good bang for the buck. I play through a laney linebacker and get some good metal sounding tones out of it, very versatile axe.

Fit and finish are pretty good, binding has a few cosmetic flaws and the pick guard screw kept losening so i took it off, looks better with out. Bends more than 2 steps occasionally thhroug it out of tune with Ernie Ball heavy tops, lighter strings arn't a problem. Havn't tried flat or half rounds yet.

Will use on a gig without hesitation., get a good case, i bought a guild for $100 more and it's well worth it.

didn't use, came with a warranty card but as usual i didn't fill it out.

You want a semi hollow body and don't want a second mortage, buy one, i may change pickups just because i like to mess with stuff, if it were stolen i would hunt the bastard down and make his life a living hell for all eternity, collect the insurance money and buy somthing else only because; some many guitars, so little time. Hopefully it won't get stolen.