Even if you know nothing about guitars, this thread should be pretty easy to understand. If not, picture a rubber duck in your mind rather than a guitar.
I love Höfner basses, especially the 500/1. I love hollowbodied guitars in general, really.
That being said about the Höfner 500/1, I'd been wanting this German beauty for years, and I went for the $349 Ignition (budget copy made made elsewhere under company specs). I'm extremely happy with it, and I don't even feel the urge for a $2,000 German. But there's a common lack of individualism amongst us Höfner fans and owners. Yes, I'm a Beatles fan, but people will pay an extra $300+ for the upper level budget Contemporary model that looks exactly like the German played by Paul McCartney himself, and then still mod the hell out of it.
Here's a big problem. The Contemporary has a block inside that makes it sound extremely un-authentic, like a solid-body bass, and the people who paid a hefty price for this model will turn around and rip on how cheap the Ignition sounds when it matches the German almost perfectly and then spend the rest of their YouTube review drooling on about how it looks just like McCartney's bass.
I don't deny I've done a couple mods, but minimal stuff to make it look nice. What, I've replaced the volume knobs with the German's and filed off some text on the truss rod cover. Other than that I kinda like the contrast of the black switches.
[img][650:445]http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn304/JRM515/h.jpg[/img]
14 May 2010, 5:52 pm
