Hohner "The Jack" Restoration

[Mediocre Polymath]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

 

Cool. White decals are so hard to source.

Yeah, I figure I can post them out in the unlikely event that another BC'er is working on a similar project.

[Geek99]

@Mediocre Polymath I think white might work better - can you do a “dry” side by side photo of black and white ? 

Edited August 24 by Geek99

[Stub Mandrel]

10 hours ago, Geek99 said:

@Mediocre Polymath I think white might work better - can you do a “dry” side by dude photo of black and white ? 

 

I can do coloured or black decals,  on transparent or white backgrounds, but not white on clear.

 

 

[Mediocre Polymath]

Decal applied. Not perfectly 100% straight, but certainly much closer than the one that was on there originally.

[Mediocre Polymath]

I'm currently brushing on many many coats of water-based polyurethane lacquer. I had two-thirds of a tin of Mann's Extra Tough that I needed to use up, and I don't like using spray cans more than I have to. This also has the advantage of being innocuous enough in terms of smells that I can use it indoors when it rains.

Once I've gotten a good thick layer on, I'll sand it down to a smooth finish. It sounds like an odd way of doing things, but it's worked for me on the last seven or eight instruments I've made.

[Mediocre Polymath]

While I'm sitting around, periodically applying more coats to this polyurethane toffee apple, I figure I may as well sort out a few of the remaining issues with the instrument. The big thing to sort out is the damaged front pickup. 

 

These basses have a slightly unusual pickup arrangement (for a bass, at least) where the guitar-humbucker-sized soapbars are mounted to pickup rings. The pickups were originally held in place with what my (American-born carpenter) wife identified as No. 2 machine screws. These are anchored into brass threaded inserts that are cast into the tabs on the sides of the pickups.

 

On the back pickup these are still intact and have the appropriate hardware still. On the front pickup the treble side tab has snapped off. I can only assume this happened during the process of fitting the midi pickup system, as I can't see how this fairly sturdy tab could have broken other than if it was dropped onto a hard surface. 

 

 

The previous owner attempted a fix using self-tapping M3 machine screws and a lot of epoxy. They tapped out the surviving bass insert to 3 mm and cut a thread through the oddly rubbery plastic of the makeshift tab they'd glued on. That home-made tab seems to have failed pretty quickly though, and it was broken when it reached me. 

 

I have some M2 machine screws and associated threaded inserts to hand, so I'm thinking I'll just cut away both the epoxy tab and the surviving (but retapped) tab and replace them with a single piece of wood or plastic across the bottom of the pickup with M2 threaded inserts. Like so.

 

 

The pickup rout is flat on the bottom, so I don't need the gap between the tabs. 

 

As an interesting aside. The hardware used on this bass is almost all imperial, despite it being a German-designed instrument made in Korea. I'm guessing they were bound by the terms of the Steinberger license to reproduce the hardware exactly, including the No. 2 machine screws for the pickup mountings and the No. 6 woodscrews that are used to mount the bridge and headpiece.

 

[Jackroadkill]

How about sticking a 3d printed base under it?

[Mediocre Polymath]

7 minutes ago, Jackroadkill said:

How about sticking a 3d printed base under it?

My wife suggested that, then clapped her hands and said "so I need a 3D printer, you see".

 

She recently changed jobs and is missing her old gigantic workshop with its CNC machines, panel saws and room of 3D printers. I think that would probably be the smart idea, but I'd prefer to get this done in less time than it takes to decide on a model of 3D printer, buy one, make up the STL for the part, print it, etc.

Edited 9 hours ago by Mediocre Polymath

[Jackroadkill]

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:812666

 

If you'd like the base plate from this lot, I'll print you one.

Edited 9 hours ago by Jackroadkill

[Jackroadkill]

PS - can also do you a pickup ring with a thumb rest designed for the Steinberger Spirit, which I think might well fit your Hohner.

 

https://makerworld.com/en/models/1434657-steinberger-spirit-humbucker-with-thumb-rest?from=search

Edited 9 hours ago by Jackroadkill

[Mediocre Polymath]

Thanks for the very generous offer. Let me quickly measure the actual parts and see how they compare.

 

I'm a floating-thumb player, but the existing pickup surrounds are all manky, scratched and cracked in places. It would be great to replace them if possible (I looked but couldn't find the right kind of low-profile flat-base surrounds).

[Jackroadkill]

If they're standard guitar humbucker rings I should be able to find some.  Let me know how you get on.

[Mediocre Polymath]

So, the measurements of the pickup is the following. 

 

Length: 70 mm

Width: 38 mm

Length to the ends of mounting tabs: 84 mm

Width of the mounting tabs: ~13 mm

Distance (center to center) of mounting holes ~78.5 mm

 

Does that match up with the dimensions of the thingiverse parts?

 

Incidentally, from playing around with a magnet I think these are reverse-precision bass pickups cast in epoxy soapbars.  

[Jackroadkill]

7 minutes ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

So, the measurements of the pickup is the following. 

 

Length: 70 mm

Width: 38 mm

Length to the ends of mounting tabs: 84 mm

Width of the mounting tabs: ~13 mm

Distance (center to center) of mounting holes ~78.5 mm

 

Does that match up with the dimensions of the thingiverse parts?

 

Incidentally, from playing around with a magnet I think these are reverse-precision bass pickups cast in epoxy soapbars.  

 

I'll see what I can do.

[Richard R]

2 hours ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

My wife suggested that, then clapped her hands and said "so I need a 3D printer, you see".

 

She recently changed jobs and is missing her old gigantic workshop with its CNC machines, panel saws and room of 3D printers.

 

Buy your wife whatever 3D printer she wants.  Then you'll both be happy. 

 

[Mediocre Polymath]

1 hour ago, Richard R said:

 

Buy your wife whatever 3D printer she wants.  Then you'll both be happy. 

 

That's the long term plan, but for her buying things is apparently a very intensive process, fraught with second guessing and indecision. Possibilities have to researched, options examined, costs scrutinized.

 

I, on the other hand, tend to go "ooh shiny" and get my card out.

 

 

[Richard R]

Clearly she is a top-level craftswoman who takes care and thinks things through to purchase the right tools for the job.

 

 

Whereas you are just another male bass player, like the rest of us. 😁

[prowla]

On 23/08/2025 at 19:30, itu said:

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

I could've been "HORNER - The Twxx".

[Mediocre Polymath]

22 minutes ago, prowla said:

I could've been "HORNER - The Twxx".

I tried out a whole bunch of options – "Hohner The {my name}", "Hohner The John/Dave/Steve" – but chickened out and went with the original.

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, Richard R said:

Clearly she is a top-level craftswoman who takes care and thinks things through to purchase the right tools for the job.

 

 

Whereas you are just another male bass player, like the rest of us. 😁

Well, @Richard R did say “just another” but at least he didn’t call you a guitard 

[Geek99]

1 hour ago, prowla said:

I could've been "HORNER - The Twxx".

Twix?

[prowla]

1 hour ago, Mediocre Polymath said:

I tried out a whole bunch of options – "Hohner The {my name}", "Hohner The John/Dave/Steve" – but chickened out and went with the original.

Probably the right choice!