shoulderpet

Hi all I am currently down to just one bass and whilst I love the playability of my Hofner Club bass tonally it is no longer a good fit for the kind of stuff I am playing, I am reluctant to move it on as although the truss rod is working I don't think it has all that much (if any) adjustment left on it. Now understandably I am really wanting a new bass, something I can get a brighter more aggressive tone from but me and my wife are planning to move very soon so money is super tight, this means I will need to buy something very inexpensive for now, I quite like the look of the Squier affinity jazz bass but at 240.00 I feel Squier is kind of getting demolished by other brands in terms of price to quality. Which of the uber cheap brands are worth buying? I see there is Fazley which offers a jazz bass with a roasted maple neck for under 150.00 quid, Gear4music offer the LA Series basses which are another contender, any others I should look out for? Thanks

I'm going to add my slightly contrary input on this, I played my friends Epiphone Thunderbird for a gig, it was the cheapest version, was pretty comfortable to play, on the large side but comfy to play, sounded amazing, it had this lovely dark growl to it. Anyway I brought a Vintage pro from either Andertons or Gear4music(can't remember which) and it looked lovely but after a couple days once the new bass glow had worn off I wasn't really wowed by it, the tone was brighter than the cheaper Epiphone, was lacking that dark low mid growl that the cheaper Epiphone had, ended up returning it.

I do wish my Hofner had the bridge pickup in the middle position, the bridge pickup is useable and useful but a middle position pickup would be good as it is as you say useable on its own

The shape is similar but that's it, the Gibson is solid body whereas the Hofner is hollow in an attempt to get closer to the tone of a double bass, the pickups are very different also and the Hofner has a wooden bridge also to try and get closer to an upright tone, the EB1 on the other hand sounds nothing like en upright so I think inspired by is possibly more true than copied

No, not saying I would never spend more than that but I would be acknowledging mentally that I was being ripped off. The prices are getting crazy now, I mean look at the Fender gold foil jazz bass, 1300.00 for an MIM bass with horrendous quality control problems that offers pretty much nothing that justifies the price, bbot bridge, passive electronics, one pickup, big plastic pickguard.

Also I noticed that people are generally using flatwounds with there Hofners, I have used flats many times in the past but I am currently using rounds and they sound pretty good on the Hofner, nice gnarly,meaty tone to it. The Killers bass player uses a Hofner with rounds on the song Joy ride https://youtu.be/v3s8Aympo-4

I just use the Daddario clip lock straps, work just as well as strap locks imo without having to make any modifications

I found this video which may be of interest, this guy replaced the Chinese control panel in his contemporary Hofner for a German Hofner control panel, even on a YouTube video you can hear that the German panel sounds better https://youtu.be/93s9ogv_m1U

You will probably be fine as long as you are careful with them, I also had a set of Ernie Ball flats (100-45) on a short scale Mustang and they were fine on that

I actually had the Ernie Ball 95-40s on a short scale Jaguar bass, they worked fine YMMV but worked fine for me

About to give the Labellas another try, my hands really do not like stuff strings and the Rotos and Daddario are both a little bit stiff for me which leaves the Labellas as the next obvious choice, fingers crossed I can make them work this time.

Just got my CT Hofner back from having the frets dressed, enjoying playing this bass again, these basses are so much fun to play

To be honest the machine heads are the only things that need to be upgraded, the other parts are good and the pickups are the same as is used in the German Hofners. With regards to the fret levelling it's annoying to have to do it but I don't think I have ever had a bass that didn't need some kind of fretwork. I haven't played an Ignition bass but the CT series feel like quality instruments when you play them, I would think that the ignition series is probably decent for the money but probably much cheaper feeling. The German Hofners are really, really nice instruments, expensive but if you can afford them then they are worth the extra money.

Yes you must have been lucky, I brought a set and the E string sounded like a bass drum, a dull thud with no discernible pitch, contacted the seller as I thought I must have got a duff E string, they sent me another and it was exactly the same.

I tried these and they were probably the worst strings I have ever brought, Labella and TI's are leagues better imo

I will have to have a look and see if mine has designed in Germany on the headstock but looking at the pictures in your other thread it all looks spot on, right shape,control panel,truss rod cover, has the zero fret, the striped nut, binding,tuners look correct, even the strings look correct (the cheapo stock strings on Hofner hct basses have that same dark green silk so I don't think for a second that there is any question that this bass is an authentic Hofner contemporary bass and certainly not an ignition as they don't have the binding.

Also, it is worth swapping out the tuners on the contemporary Hofners, projectguitarparts sells various Hofner tuners, I replaced mine with a set of the rugby ball shaped tuners

Yep, there is something special about a Hofner with flats and once you get used to them they play effortlessly, you made the right decision with the lighter gauge as Labellas always feel a bit heavier than the numbers the gauge provides. The German Hofners are pricey but they are lovely basses, if you can afford it then it is totally worth it imo, tonally they go slightly deeper than the contemporary models (but that might just be down to the Pyramid flats that they ship with)

These are great strings, be careful fitting them though as they get very skinny at the tuner end so there is potential to stab yourself accidentally with them or to snap them if you are overzealous fitting them. Daddario tapewounds also work well Another thing to note is that you will need medium scale strings due to the tailpiece.

Wow, wtf, how long before Fender renames the American basses as the premium range or similar and prices them at 3k and prices the MIMs at 2k ? I wouldn't be surprised if it happened