Vintage Hofner 500/1

[double dave]

Hi!
I am the prowd owner of a Blond Hofner 500/1 which has Gold hardware and gold MOP inlays and edging. It is also a frettless with level fretts which according to Hofner themselves are original. This is compouded by the fact that the 'fretts' are made from maple and bone as well, marking out the tones and semi-tones. According to Hofner who have been emailing back and forth, this bass would have been specially commisioned for someone back in the sixties as A, they don't do gold hardware on the 500/1 this early and B, They don't do gold inlays or edging at all on 500/1's, let alone to mention the frettles combo of steel and wood fretts, altogether making the bass very rare indeed. All of this begs the question- who the hell comissioned it? At the time of Hofners being too expensive for most people to afford the standard models, who would be able to afford a custom built one and why? If Paul Macca was not yet a world wide legend for long enough then it kind of rules out a collector or Macca enthusiast, and anyway, you would think that they would want an exact replica of his bass? Anyway, trying to get infomation out of Hofner is like trying to extract blood from a stone so that is where my knowledge on it ends. Can anybody help me out??

Cheers, Dave

Edited May 27, 2008 by double dave

[MacDaddy]

Can't help you with your query, but that is one lovely looking bass.

[BassBod]

I'm no expert, but the bridge pickup looks like late 60's/70's to me (with the blade magnet) and the neck pickup looks like a Guild humbucker - a bit of custom work by a former owner?

BB

[Happy Jack]

Hmmm. That looks like a home-custom job to me.

Hofner were (and remain) notorious for their appalling record-keeping, in a thoroughly un-Germanic sort of way, and the 'Hofner' company you deal with today has very little connection with the family business of the 50's-70's era. Your bass has so many non-standard features and non-Hofner components that there's virtually no chance it was a commissioned custom-build for a wealthy client.

As BassBod points out, the Type 513 'Blade' pickup is a late-60's or early-70's model and was not used on either of Macca's two 500/1 basses (the 1961 Cavern bass used the Type 510 'Diamond' and the 1963 Violin used the Type 511 'Staple'). The reason it's gold is because it's intended for use on the 5000/1 ... that extra zero is not a typo. The other pickup is definitely a non-Hofner item and must be a retro-fit.

The tuners are also non-Hofner items. Throughout the entire history of the 500/1, only two tuner types were ever used: the 'Button' type in mother-of-toilet-seat and the stainless steel rectangular types used briefly in the late-60's. Yours appear to be a strange cross-breed, being the Button shape but in steel.

The finish on the bass is unusual, to say the least, and the binding is quite different from any other Hofner I've seen. I should point out that I collect vintage Hofner basses (13 so far) so I tend to keep an eye out for them. The supposed "factory fretless" neck looks like a de-fret job to me, and that neck has clearly been fitted with roundwound strings for most of its life. The fret markers are, again, like nothing I've ever seen on a Hofner.

Take a trawl through [url="http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/cont.html"]http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/cont.html[/url] which is easily the best reference source on the web for old Hofners, including the weird ones.

Then ask some questions at [url="http://hofner.co.uk/"]http://hofner.co.uk/[/url] where you'll find most of the UK's real Hofner nuts.

Keep us posted as to what you find.

[PURPOLARIS]

What a great bass, the fact that it's stringless must save you a fortune in new strings too :-P

[double dave]

ha ha! Yeah the strings are very cheap, and readily available! I bought it with, as Happy Jack pointed out, round wound strings on so they came off straight away - not good, although the damage does not seem bad and is not noticeable unless you really look.

I have not seen anything like this either. Thanks very much for your insight happy jack, it seems you are quite knowledgeable on the Hofners. I am willing to accept the custom job suggestion, but if that is the case I would not put it as a 'home' job as it is seamless. If it is a custom job, which is looking more and more likely, then it must be professionally done as the work is to a very high standard. The mop edging on the neck has not been disturbed at all and the ends of the 'frets' are behind this. Have you ever seen edging like that before either jack? I cannot find anything like it on any hofner I've seen so far. there is a thin black line, then bone, then the gold mop, then black, bone, a 4mm (or thereabouts) strip of rosewood, then bone then another black line. It is quite elaborate. Also hofner logo and the floral detail on the head is also in gold and I have so far only seen it in silver, and the pot plate on the body is also in gold, It seems to me that whoever did this if it was a custom job, knew what they were doing as there are to many uniform consistencies to be a home custom.
I also like the colour as well. How common is for them to be so blond? I am a double player really and as such have not got around to reconditioning it yet. Thanks for everyones insights by the way. The more I can get on this the better!

Cheers

[double dave]

Ok, It turns out that it is in fact a 5000/1 and not a 500/1. It is a deluxe model which features gold hardware, pick ups ect. A chap in the know on the Hofner discussion board is under the impression that it is all stock apart from the out of place pick-up in the neck position. .......not a home bodge job. I have been trying to search the net for any similar basses and I have found one which is very similar apart from it is fretted. Here are a couple links for anyone who is interested.

[url="http://hofner.co.uk/index.php?PHPSESSID=8fd40cab4dcf8efe9059127dc2d0f6c0&topic=1270.0"]http://hofner.co.uk/index.php?PHPSESSID=8f...mp;topic=1270.0[/url]

[url="http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/vintagehofner/basses/bas24.html"]http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/vintagehofn...sses/bas24.html[/url]

Result!!