Hofner
Höfner 172 Red Vinyl from 1963
€0
From the beginning of the 60's, rock was in full swing and flooded the whole of Europe.
One of the most legendary groups of this period is none other than the Beatles.
From 1962/1963, Beatlemania began and the public, seeing them play on Höfner, was quick to want theirs.
Thus, demand was so high that Hofner was suddenly no longer able to maintain production if they had had to continue using their traditional paint and varnish process, which made the production process long and time-consuming.
So, they introduced a new covering for guitar, much quicker to produce: it's time for imitation leather covering.
It was a quick fix that only lasted until the company was able to address the very high production demand. Which makes guitars from this era all the more rare.
Being dated the 38th week of 1963, this Höfner 172 was produced in the midst of Beatlemania. She is a witness to this era when the whole world began to live to the sound of the Beatles, The Rolling Stones but also Roy Orbison, The Shadows and Johnny Hallyday, to name but a few.
A vestige of that era, this guitar is entirely original, and has been perfectly tuned.
It should be noted that the models from this era mostly have potentiometers directly attached to the pickguard and not a 500/1 type plate, which makes this example all the more rare.
We could assume that this configuration was requested by the buyer in order to have the same control characteristics of Paul McCartney with his famous 500/1 bass or that it was simply offered by the brand itself.
Which makes an already rare model an even more unique guitar!
Extract from page no. 4 of the 1967 Höfner catalog.
Technical characteristics :
- Neck: Maple
- Fingerboard: Rosewood
- Width at nut: 42.5 mm
- Radius: 7.25''
- Frets: 22 frets
- Scale: 25.5" (648mm)
- Profile: C
- Pickguard: Black 2 ply
- Hardware: Chrome / Individual tuners with tulip buttons / Vibrato
- Pickups: 2x Höfner Mini Humbucker (38th week of 1963)
- Controls: 2x Volume / Switch: Rhythm-Solo / Switch: Bass On-Off / Switch: Treble On-Off
- Country of manufacture: Germany
- Year: 1963
- Finish: Red Vinyl (snake skin imitation )
- Decorations: Double mother-of-pearl dots on each key marker and white plastic edging along the entire edge of the guitar body
With a typical sound of the 60's, this guitar will successfully delight blues, rock, and pop guitarists.
Delivered in a contemporary cover.
