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NBD What have I got?! Hohner content…


donslow
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Following on from this thread

I picked said bass up from said work mate and have decided it’s a keeper…

it needs a good clean up but seems to play and sound pretty good at the minute

problem is, I can’t find ANY info on it ANYWHERE and it has no serial or markings anywhere

i found this for sale on eBay which is the closest I’ve seen to it as it has same bridge, looks to be same pickups but has no through body stringing option like the one I have

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284053035803?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338353466&toolid=20006&4236=&gbraid=0AAAAADtppYcrlmk7rWflojJT4ks9Ff7Ri%26customid%3Ds%3AGS%3Bgc%3AEAIaIQobChMIteKwt-7k8QIVB-ztCh2TWgcOEAQYByABEgJn7vD_BwE%3Bpt%3A1%3Bchoc%3A2&customid=s%3AGS%3Bgc%3AEAIaIQobChMIteKwt-7k8QIVB-ztCh2TWgcOEAQYByABEgJn7vD_BwE%3Bpt%3A1%3Bchoc%3A1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIteKwt-7k8QIVB-ztCh2TWgcOEAQYByABEgJn7vD_BwE

Could what I have be as old as the eBay example?!

 

Can any of the basschat genius’ help out?!

just for my own information in nothing else, any idea(s) on the what’s, when’s, where’s, how olds etc

thanks in advance all

some more pictures…

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Yes, your bass could be as old as the one on Ebay, in fact given that the body/hardware are near-identical, you can be confident it's pretty much exactly the same age. You have to take into account that the Ebay seller is making stuff up in order to flog his bodged/unplayable bitsa to some unsuspecting mug for far more than the unmatched parts are worth.

Your bass remains exactly what I said it was - a Korean-made 80s-ish Jazz variant - and very nice it is too! Will look great after a bit of tlc. :)

The Ebay bass, on the other hand, has had its 21-fret neck replaced with a 20-fret, so there's no way it'll intonate properly without moving the bridge to compensate for the lost fret. Look how far the saddles are cranked back:

s-l1600.jpg

That aside, it's very odd that the body isn't drilled for string-through, as this type of bridge is string-through only. I can only assume the ball ends are hooked in the base plate holes. Can't imagine why it was made like that.

As far as ID for your bass is concerned, it's surprisingly common to find instruments with no serial numbers or other means of ID. I will have a dig around & see if I can find any info about yours, - maybe examples of the same bass sold under different brands will be worth looking for.

I should add - have a read through this thread, and look at the listings linked there. Should give you an idea of why I'm quite confident what your bass is. :)

 

 

Edited by Bassassin
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@Bassassin your a true gent, thankyou

 

have been doing as much searching as I can and have found out that this is possibly a HG425 or HG450 as a model name/number which were produced between ‘78 and about ‘83 but Japanese rather than Korean, although that is mostly speculation on picture-less stuff I have stumbled across

 

Realistically, would you still guesstimate around the same value you suggested previously?

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1 hour ago, donslow said:

@Bassassin your a true gent, thankyou

 

have been doing as much searching as I can and have found out that this is possibly a HG425 or HG450 as a model name/number which were produced between ‘78 and about ‘83 but Japanese rather than Korean, although that is mostly speculation on picture-less stuff I have stumbled across

 

Realistically, would you still guesstimate around the same value you suggested previously?

Yes, I stand by everything I've said.

They're absolutely not Japanese. Anyone who claims they are either does not know what they are talking about or is being wilfully disingenuous in order to gouge a profit.

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I have posted on the other thread as I had one of these from new, and my brother still has it. Definitely Cort Korea.

In the late 80s Hohner had a reputation for excellent instruments are bargain prices, way above a lot of the crap around at the time.

The strings don't originally go through the body.

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This is one of the mid-80s basses.

Quite early many of their guitars and basses had 'Arbor Series' added to the headstock.

I think this was to differentiate with the more up market models, such as the headless 'licensed by Steinberger' basses.

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Looks like Hohner had 3 distinct ranges - Professional, Arbor & Rockwood. Rockwood & Arbor do seem interhangeable so oner may have superceded the other. Professional was indeed the Steinberger licensed stuff & high-spec copies. A mate has a Hohner Pro Telecaster and it's gorgeous.

9 hours ago, donslow said:

 

@Stub Mandrel so there’s every chance that the through body routing was an aftermarket addition?! Thankyou also, again, the advice and help is hugely appreciated

Zooming in on your rear-view pic, it's very neatly done but I don't think it looks factory. So yes, I think it's a very sensible mod.

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Thanks again guys (and gals?!)

 

a lot of what has been mentioned here makes a lot of sense the more I look into it. starting to get a much clearer picture now, I did read somewhere they started adding “arbor series” to the headstock in the late 80’s (around ‘88 I believe) in which period they started making the headstocks more Fender shaped but then I’ve seen examples with the same headstock as mine with the arbor decal on it (like the one attached to the linked post above)

oddly, there seems to be so much conflicting information amongst the very little you do find so once again, thanks to all the clever folk here that have shared what they know

i emailed hohner to see if they could help and surprisingly they emailed back within a couple of hours asking for pictures, will be interested in what they think

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3 hours ago, Bassassin said:

Zooming in on your rear-view pic, it's very neatly done but I don't think it looks factory. So yes, I think it's a very sensible mod.

@Bassassin It is very neat and tidy, there’s also a brass (looks brass anyway) plate installed into the rear route, I guess so as not to slowly drag the ball ends through the wood so it’s been well thought out

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2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

More data on the string anchor arrangement incoming.

Well colour me intrigued….

I took a peek under the saddles but couldn’t see anything obvious that screams “THE BALL ENDS GO HERE!!!”

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Well that confirms the date

Agree thanks to the great minds of basschat lurkers 

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

although it goes back further than we all expected, I think

Also agree yet mildly surprised

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I have an Arbor Les Paul that’s a bit too heavy for my back but every time I go to sell it it goes back in the case after a few days play and back under the bed. The neck is lovely so it always get put back on the keeper list. It’s better than it should be as guitars go. 

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On 19/07/2021 at 15:02, donslow said:

So….

once again, thanks for all the comments, have just heard back from hohner

they seem to think…

A1B65460-9388-451F-AD0F-D1C385F8C9CF.thumb.jpeg.57aa48033eb776af2ab68523cd9a4641.jpeg

I think the basschat massive were more help than the people who know ha ha

We were! However it probably does fall within the date ranges, although I can confidently say not those starting with 7. It's well known amongst the Made In Japanerati that Hohner was Japanese-made up until the early 80s, exclusively by Moridaira. At a guess manufacture went to Cort in Korea around 1982 or 3.

I'd say Hohner's response tells us they have no specific record of your bass, and don't hold any model or manufacturing records at all prior to '85, other than they started selling imported Hohner-branded instruments in 1975.

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@Bassassin I suspect your right and Thankyou again for the input, has been a massive help

 

shes all clean, freshly strung, sounding glorious…now if I can just get ANY movement on the truss rod that’d help with setting her up properly! not sure if it’s  rusted or knackered

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