New bass day! Hofner 500/1 ct

[shoulderpet]

15 minutes ago, luckman67 said:

The LaBella's & TI's are without question a better brand of flatwound strings. I must have found a decent pack of the Hofner HCT flatwounds as they don't sound to bad, on my 500/1 so I'm greatfull for that. Next May my bass is 60 years old so as a birthday present maybe a set of LaBella's would be in order 😃 

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.

[luckman67]

It's horrible when that happens I had a bad set of Roto's once, & it really put me in a bad mood thinking why me.

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[shoulderpet]

On 18/02/2023 at 01:31, Wonky2 said:

Yep the machine heads are particular crud.

i specifically paid more for the ct model than the basic ignition series but in all honesty the bass needed that much work and still require upgrades such as machine heads etc so I’m left wondering what the difference would have been if I’d have gone with the cheaper option….

dontbget me wrong, I’m happy with it but it does make you think….

 

I had to do a full fret levelling and recrown/polish before I could get it set up nice….

 

with all that in mind, I would wonder how much more refund a German model would be ? 

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.

 

 

[shoulderpet]

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

 

[shoulderpet]

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

[shoulderpet]

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

Edited March 24, 2023 by shoulderpet

[luckman67]

This Monday the 20th I bought a secondhand Hofner HCT 500/1 in black from PMT for £399. There was nothing written on the back of the headstock but there, was a label inside the control cavity, that began with an F indicating it was made around 2005 to 2008. The neck is unbound like the '63 500/1 bass & it's not a bad bass but honestly for me personally, I prefer the German made model but as it' a backup to my '64 then it's not so bad. There is a Hofner Gold Label 62 Artist Bass in Black so maybe over time, I may buy the parts to turn my HCT into a poor man's Artist Bass.

[luckman67]

This is the video that has me thinking about, upgrading the parts over time. Hence why I took the pickguard off mine.