Hohner "The Jack" Restoration

[Stub Mandrel]

Great to see it coming back to life.

 

These are such nice basses, they were outstanding for their price point when they came out.

[Joe Nation]

Loving that spray booth, might have to get me one of those.

[Hellzero]

Excellent job, congratulations!

[Mediocre Polymath]

6 hours ago, Joe Nation said:

Loving that spray booth, might have to get me one of those.

Trick is to go for the one for tomatoes, it doesn't have any internal shelving. 

 

It's not the sturdiest thing – its ok with the weight of the Hohner, and could probably cope with a body and a neck separately, but it would buckle under the weight of, say, an Ibanez Musician or an Aria SB.

[Mediocre Polymath]

Sigh. So this is what Montana Color call "Fire Engine Red". Oh well, off to buy more paint I guess.

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

Sigh. So this is what Montana Color call "Fire Engine Red". Oh well, off to buy more paint I guess.

Is that the one you’re doing for Barbie?

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

Fire Engine Red

Hmm 🤔.

 

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

Is that the one you’re doing for Barbie?

Ah that’s it, a fire engine driven by Margot Robbie.

[Mediocre Polymath]

1 hour ago, Geek99 said:

Is that the one you’re doing for Barbie?

There's always a moment when you look at the paint drying and think "maybe I can make this work?", but no. I can't pull off a hot pink bass.

[Mediocre Polymath]

Happy update. Got a can of Kobra "Venom Red" from the local DIY store and this is the colour I was hoping for (going for an Audi Quattro sort of a colour scheme).

[Gank Bass]

8 minutes ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

Happy update. Got a can of Kobra "Venom Red" from the local DIY store and this is the colour I was hoping for (going for an Audi Quattro sort of a colour scheme).

Will the bassist be required to stand too close to the back of the singer whilst blinking aggressively? 🤭

[Geek99]

2 hours ago, ezbass said:

Hmm 🤔.

 

Ah that’s it, a fire engine driven by Margot Robbie.

I’ll be back in a few minutes …

[BassBus]

18 hours ago, Gank Bass said:

Will the bassist be required to stand too close to the back of the singer whilst blinking aggressively? 🤭

No indication.

[tauzero]

On 28/07/2025 at 18:15, Mediocre Polymath said:

Here's the finished channel, and the maple inlay piece I shaped to fit inside it. This was scrap rock maple from an old guitar build, painstakingly shaped and measured out, not – as it unfortunately looks – the stick from an ice-lolly that I fished out of a bin. 

 

Not a tongue depressor?

[Mediocre Polymath]

Right. The paint has mostly cured now, and I've taken the masking tape off to reveal the final look. I still need to do the clearcoat, but the only thing that will change from this look is the level of shiny-ness. 

 

I decided that I was going to lean into the description "poor man's Status" that was often applied to these basses when they were new. 

 

 

It looks a little wonky on the front because the pickup routs are slightly wonky. You can't tell once the pickup surrounds are in place though.

 

 

If you look closely you can see a thin (like, less than 0.5 mm) line of barbie pink on the edge of the masked off area. I'm not sure whether to keep that visible as a little in joke to myself, or to knock it back with a little bit of red sharpie.

[Hellzero]

I would keep that barbie pink "line" as it's mixing in quite nicely.

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

Right. The paint has mostly cured now, and I've taken the masking tape off to reveal the final look. I still need to do the clearcoat, but the only thing that will change from this look is the level of shiny-ness. 

 

I decided that I was going to lean into the description "poor man's Status" that was often applied to these basses when they were new. 

 

 

It looks a little wonky on the front because the pickup routs are slightly wonky. You can't tell once the pickup surrounds are in place though.

 

 

If you look closely you can see a thin (like, less than 0.5 mm) line of barbie pink on the edge of the masked off area. I'm not sure whether to keep that visible as a little in joke to myself, or to knock it back with a little bit of red sharpie.

Sharpie 

[itu]

In the black area where neck meets the body, you could round the neck end concave instead of convex. 

[Richard R]

I would keep the line.

It looks neat and intentional. If anyone asked how you did such a thin line you don’t have to tell them the truth 😉

 

 

[alittlebitrobot]

Yeah, another vote for keeping the thin pink line. This is coming together so nicely.

[Richard R]

2 hours ago, alittlebitrobot said:

The thin pink line

Sounds like a BBC3 drama.

[Mediocre Polymath]

I've now got to summon the courage to do the waterslide decal on the body. I was always crap at these when I made airfix models as a kid. Used to get my older brother to do them most of the time. That said... I've not tried to apply one since I was about 10 years old, so perhaps I've gotten better at it. 

I took some pictures and reproduced the original logo in Affinity Designer. I got them printed up as decals (along with the logo I used for my own designs) by a company called Rothko & Frost. I had intended to just exactly reproduce the logo that was on there originally, but – as an editor – I can't countenance such wonky typesetting. 

I'll also try to put it on straighter than the original decal. I've noticed from looking at pictures of these basses online that the decals are noticeably wonky on about half of them.

Edited 5 hours ago by Mediocre Polymath

[Jackroadkill]

If it's not too late, you can use warm water with a drop of washing up liquid in it to make the decal slide around on the surface of the paint so that you can position it more easily.

[itu]

It could have been HOHNER It's Back because of your effort. 

[Mediocre Polymath]

14 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

If it's not too late, you can use warm water with a drop of washing up liquid in it to make the decal slide around on the surface of the paint so that you can position it more easily.

Thanks for the tip.  I got a full A4 sheet of logos printed, so I have plenty of material to practice with. I just need to find things to stick decals to. 

 

The logos are mostly the one I use for my home-built guitars, but I did get four of the Hohner logos printed, plus another four in white (because I wasn't sure how the red would come out).

[Stub Mandrel]

54 minutes ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

Thanks for the tip.  I got a full A4 sheet of logos printed, so I have plenty of material to practice with. I just need to find things to stick decals to. 

 

The logos are mostly the one I use for my home-built guitars, but I did get four of the Hohner logos printed, plus another four in white (because I wasn't sure how the red would come out).

 

Cool. White decals are so hard to source.