we all know how Fenders are made, but watch how differently they do things in Germany with Hofner basses
It surprised me how much is done by hand and more so that the pickups are installed AFTER the stings are put on!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCOycca1 ... ce=message
Ted

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

Amazing - nearly unbelievable !

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A-man

Hard to believe they can make any money. They still have to ship it to a dealer and put up with us pickyass buyers.

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'10 American Deluxe HSS Sunset Metallic
'10 JA-90 Thinline Telecaster
'15 Music Man JP-15 Blueberry Burst
'07 Les Paul Standard Faded LCPG #82
'14 Carvin ST300
'12 Carvin CS424S
'66 Guild Starfire IV w/Bigsby
'14 Warmouth Partscaster Daphne Blue

Wow, thanks so much for sharing this video Ted.

I really enjoyed that video. Thank you!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Thanks for the video, that was very insightful!

And SK, don't antagonise me by showing me your beautiful bass!!!

Cheers guys

Nutter

Enjoyed that!! Thanks!!

One thing you can guarantee about German production. If they do something differently, it's for damn good reason.
They ought rename the place Efficient-land

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No no and no

Thanks for posting,I always wondered about the work that went into these iconic basses. These guys make it look easy but no doubt they've been doing it for years.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

That was cool!!!

SK, what model is that one?

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Chet Feathers

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

Ha, that is such an interesting video. Thanks for posting, Ted.

A very fascinating bit is from about 8.45. I read a couple of years ago in Guitarist magazine that the gentleman we see hand-carving the neck completely by eye and touch has been doing it for decades and does every single Hofner neck himself! Wow! Don't let that man retire!

Given all the big bits of machinary in the process I nearly fell of my chair in surprise when he cut the fret slots and drilled the dot marker holes by hand. Amazing - those are some of the easier bits to mechanise, you'd have thought.

BTW: Hofner make their necks with a laminated sandwich. On the Hofner Club guitar that is maple-beech-maple, and is the only example of beech wood in guitar construction I'm aware of. I wonder what the centre section of the bass neck is - is that beech too, does anyone know?

Cheers - C

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Hi Ceri
It looks like it is beech too have a look here
Ted
http://www.beatlebassdealer.com/Hofner- ... n-Bass.htm

Also take a look at his video of how Rickenbackers are made, again totally different from Fender construction, here, they rout their guitars out from the back, then put a veneer over it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEuqgZzKxC4

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

Cool video Ted, thanks for posting.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

That video really makes me miss working in a shop. When I was in College, the first saw I had to work with was an Altendorf slider (table saw). It's amazing what they can do. The accuracy was the best you could buy.

One thing I was surprised with was the hand-sawing of the fret grooves. I had the privilege of visiting the Dobro shop in the early 90's (one of their relatives was in my class) , and I'll never forget the contraption they built for doing that.

There was a hand-built wooden cradle underneath that held the neck secure in place. Then there was a picture-frame-like wooden box that had all of the blades (looked like hack-saw blades) attached in the fret positions. There were guides on the nut and heel sides. And they would simply slide the frame on the guides and it would cut perfect positions of the frets and exact depth in 5-seconds. You could actually cut it in one swipe, but the company was particular about having as little tear-out as possible in the fretboard. So a light touch was still customary.

Cool vid. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

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By the way, the shapers with big blades still scare the Hell outta me. Even after all of these years. I don't envy the guys taking on those stations.

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