Unknown Hopf Guitar???

[jamesscreaton]

Can anyone help identity this Hopf guitar?
(click on Photobucket link below for more pictures)
My dad seems to think that the 'jack in' has been moved from the side to the front and he's not sure if the switch is original either? i have only ever seen 1 guitar smiler at but this one the head is completely different as is the pick-up and the cutaway is bigger on my guitar, but that is all i know? any other information would be very greatly appreciated.

[VintAxe]

Hi jamesscreaton.

Your Hopf guitar appears in an early 1960's Lindberg catalog that I own. Lindberg was a German musical instrument distributor focusing a lot of attention on student instruments but offering professional grade instruments as well.

From the picture it is clear your dad is right, the input jack has been moved from the side to the front. It is also clear that the knob and pick up on your guitar are not original.

There is no model name associated with your instrument and it is the budget offering in the solid body section at DM 150. Just for comparison the Framus Hollywood is DM 190.

[jamesscreaton]

Thanks that's very informative
he presumed it was a basic/ student one because it was owned by the band he was in when he joined.
any chance of a scan of the page it's on?

[Mgeek]

Never seen one before, but I like it...very nice

Similar looks to the early Vox Clubmans...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v118/ ... anIILH.jpg

[Mgeek]

[JohnRoberts]

Hi JamesCreation

Every now and then I search on the internet for one of these, because I have exactly the same guitar! Mine is an identical model to yours. I too have a scratch plate mounted jack (I think the hole in the body is too small for a standard 1/4" jack) and the pickup is different. I have the same pickup shown in your link to the similar guitar - I believe this is the correct pickup.

The switch is original, I believe it is an inline resistor that is 'shorted' but I'll have to check. The scratch plate, wooden bridge and everything else is identical. Mine has white piping around the body which yours appears to be missing.

I contacted Dieter Hopf about the guitar and sent him photographs - he replied that it is a late 1950's model although he couldn't remember the name nor model number, and it was the first solid bodied guitar to be produced by Hopf, possibly the first to come out of Germany. He said the 'Telstar' range followed this one.

Mine plays like a dream and I am amazed by the neck, which is as straight as a die yet doesn't appear to have a truss rod. The 'zero fret' also allows a very low action. Because of the wooden parts I find the guitar 'sings' like none other I have, it's a very lush sound, made even better for the fact it cost me the grand sum of £6...

I have one question though - would you like to sell it?

Kind regards - John

[VintAxe]

Well fellas, here's another example of the "original" pickup. Since we now have two examples with the same pickup I think we can be confident that jamesscreaton's guitar in the first post has a replacement pup.

Any chance we can see a photo of your Hopf John? What finish does it have?

[JohnRoberts]

Yup - that's *exactly* the same guitar as I have although the finish wasn't a plain red, it was a 'sunburst' red and silver the same as JamesCreation's finish. Mine, apart from the socket moved to the scratch plate, incidently in the same position as JamesCreation's guitar, has all the same fixtures and fittings as shown in your catalogue photo.

Notice, however, the use of the word 'had.' Unfortunately the guitar suffered an accident many many years ago (I've had it over 30 years) and the top of the neck was broken. This was repaired at the school where I was, very well done and still holding firm, but not knowing the value of the guitar at the time (remember it was only £6 from a junk shop) some entrepreneur decided to strip the finish off and give the guitar a natural stained finish, unfortunately losing the decal but nicely replacing this with the name inlaid in the body. The machine heads were also replaced for Schaller ones because they were busted up when I bought the guitar, but the other parts are original. It wouldn't take much to restore the guitar to it's original finish with replacement parts, now I have found photographs of an original, although of course it will be a 'rebuild' job as opposed to JamesCreation's 'original', albeit he has the wrong pickup. It would of course be possible to create one true unrestored original from the two guitars, transferring my pickup and white piping to the other guitar...

I'll try and find a recent photograph of the guitar and post it here, unfortunately despite intensive searching I haven't been able to locate any photographs of the guitar prior to its 'accident' but I have a lot of photographic negatives that might contain one.

What a find!

[JohnRoberts]

... And my apologies to jamesscreaton whose name I continually appeared to get wrong!