Maude

The pins can be any diameter as I will be drilling the locating holes. Length, again fairly unimportant as I will probably just drill the headstock plate I have made and fix to that, so won't need to drill the headstock wood. About 4 or 5mm long would be fine as I'll probably wick a tiny amount of CA down the hole from the back and trim flush with a razor. Thank you for any help/file you can give @Dad3353. 🙂👍

It's not falling off is it. 😁 I love it, how will you fix the strap, carabiner type hooks?

Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits

I undestand (kind of) what you're saying and it's interesting learning how these things are done, until now I knew nothing about the process, and still know very little. Which is why I'm letting @Dad3353do what he feels is best. Thanks for the input though as it's all interesting. 🙂

I Think We're Alone Now - Tommy James & The Shondells

@Dad3353, I would like to pay you for this, but from reading your posts on here I doubt you'll let me. If they are to be free then that is most generous of you. You don't need to wait for a smile though, it's already there. When things like this happen on this forum I love it and it proves there's far more good folk out there willing to help out in whatever way they can, than there are ne'erdowells as seems to be general concensus. This does more for me than just make me smile. 😊 While I agree with @BigRedXthat the sides could possibly taper slightly and the badge not be as tall as the blue one in the image, I have not wanted to be picky as I don't know what's involved in changing it, and it might not need changing anyway as they will be painted. I can easily sand the top down a touch with some wet'n'dry and a block to keep it flat if need be, maybe round the edges ever so slightly. As to the tapered sides, when spray painting something this small and intricate the paint will have a tendency to flow towards the bottom and also not sit as thick on any sharp edges. The result of this would be for the sides to appear tapered and the edges slightly rounded, as if worn with age. The way I'm looking at it is it might not look totally genuine, as it isn't, but it will look a lot better than a decal.

My guess is it got walked on. I've seen them do it when they've delivered to work. 'The big green parcel machine', Tuffnells used to deliver a lot of our stuff and the driver would be in the back walking on parcels to get to the ones he wanted. The vans have got 'The people who care' on them as well.

One thing to consider though is that, if yours is all original, they make quite good money. While hunting around for parts I've seen them for sale up to four figures, whether any have sold for anywhere near that is another matter. I'd guess a decent one would get £6-700 though judging by the listings. Mine was too far gone to make finding all the original parts economical, hence why I'm doing what I am.

Any idea what strings you'll use to get a reasonable tension. I don't what scale length yours is but imagine putting a capo on the 5th fret (to get your scale length) and then down tuning so that it becomes B E A D G at the capo, the strings will be very loose. Won't they? 🤔 I'm intrigued to see how it works though. 🙂👍

Thanks for those @Happy Jack, I've seen a few similar but they're all way too big. I need about 45mm, those are all 110mm. The best of seen are these at 48mm but still not right. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hofner-guitar-sticker-headstock-neck-decal-PREMIUM-QUALITY-26-/373406594886?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292 @Silvia Bluejay, as far as I'm aware, VAT on items under £135 will be collected at point of sale so there shouldn't be any extra fees to pay as the courier won't be dealing with the VAT on my behalf. We'll see soon as I've accidently bought a £2 item from china, I filtered the ebay results to UK only and bought something, only realised when the delivery date was in a months time. One thing I have noticed though is that even if sending a gift from the EU into the UK, a customs declaration will need to be filled out. How we go about buying these from @Dad3353 is anyone's guess. But there's plenty of other B word threads going on so let's leave it there. 🙂

Cool, as you've seen I've made mine smaller but I might make a full size one to go right to the edge. I just wanted to know that it is like a pickguard. 👍

They probably thought it was a Les Paul neck. 😄 Sorry, that is absolutely shocking. 🙁

Is that a black plate, or something else? I've been trying to work out what they fitted.

You Sir, are an absolute legend. Thank you. Yes I'd paint it, and you're bang on with the colour scheme. The bass is cream with pearl copper scratchplate and headstock plate, a lot of the chrome on the hardware has worn away to reveal the brass underneath, which I've polished up. I'd possibly even paint the badge the same cream as the body and headstock and then the pick out the lettering in gold so as to match perfectly. It's the little details............. .......... that make me a dull lad. 😄

Whilst hunting around the webternet for any badges I came across a Hofner forum where I recognised a moderators name, @Dad3353. 🙂

I don't know what size the original would be but would like one slightly smaller as I've made the face plate smaller to reveal the edge of the painted headstock, as per the resto thread. Have you still got the three holes in yours or have they been filled in over the years? To fit the three original holes it would have to be the exact same size as the original.

Maybe, I don't know you personally 😉

I just re-read your post and saw you said to give you a few days to come up with a file, so I've answered my own question. The badge would need to be about 45mm in length, if it's do-able. Thank you so much for any help as I'm totally a fish out of water with this. 🙂👍

Yes, I think so. Is that something you have on file already, or an image you've found?

I'll put this question here as it's predominantly about 3D printing, but it is for a bass, and I know a fair few don't venture into Off Topic. I'm currently giving an old Hofner a little make over. They had a badge on the headstock and mine is missing. I've had a search on the Internet but cannot find one anywhere. I know nothing about 3d printing and what's involved in getting something from a photo to an actual printed object, presumably it involves CAD or something, which again I know nothing about, so go easy on me. What is the possibility of getting this done, rough idea of costs involved, and does anyone on here do it, or know someone who does? This is the badge and thanks in advance for any help.

Indeed. I never got to know Howerd Jones well. Songwriters are full of of shite! 😉

Whispering Green Grass - Don Estelle and Windsor Davies

Scott Whitley's short scale bass website has some good information on strings. http://www.shortscalebass.co.uk/short-scale-string-choice/

The volume equalisation is a really good feature. I've got basses that are coil tapped and there is indeed a volume jump from single coil to humbucker, and again from parallel humbucker to series humbucker. The Hofner I'm doing at the mo will have two mini humbuckers coil tapped in this way, and then a push/pull volume to put both pickups in series or parallel with each other, so my volumes will be all over the place I reckon. Three of those Sims pickups is going to be mad. 😁👍

A bit more progress. I've made the scratchplate and headstock plate. The scratchplate still needs pickup openings and screw holes drilling, I'm just about the tidy up the neck pocket part of the plate so I can then fit the neck and put an E and G string on to then mark where the pickups will go. Then cut the openings in the plate, then finally drill the fixing holes. The holes in the the plate that came on it aren't as the original so I'll drill them in the right place as per the pictures posted earlier in the thread. I also made the plate fit the curves of the lower bout better as the one I had wasn't great. The headstock plate is certainly different. I honestly don't know if they all, or indeed any, had this. In some close up pictures it definitely looks like a separate plate covering the headstock. I've made one from the scratchplate material to see what it looks like and I really like it. Why don't more basses have this quirky little feature, kind of like a matching colour headstock but it matches the scratchplate. I've made it so it sits in a few mil from the edge so that you can still see the cream paint. The paint was applied a mil over the edge of the headstock to help with this. I don't even think I need to put any fixings in it as the tuner ferrules and string tree will hold it. I might put two screws in if needed, or maybe just a bit of double sided tape to hold it. I'll decide when the time comes. The pictures are a bit yellow looking, indoor lighting and phone camera. In the flesh it's not quite as gold, more of a brownish tinge. The next thing I need, which looks virtually impossible to find is a headstock badge. I could put a sticker on but it's just not the same. Does anyone know about 3D printing and what would be involved in getting one done? This is the badge, and you can also see the headstock plate.