Help - vintage Hofner (?)

ICBM

Offset said:

On that topic - what sort of strings would be appropriate to fit to this guitar?

I would use some sort of medium-heavy ones, either nickel, Monel or flatwound - not bronze roundwound, even though it's an acoustic, those bring out the brashness. Personally I would use 12-gauge flatwounds of some sort.

It doesn't have an adjustable truss rod, but as far as I know there's a steel reinforcing bar, and the neck is very thick so it will be able to cope - it was designed for those sorts of gauges or even heavier.

ICBM

Offset said:

@ICBM - if you do happen to have a matching tuner peg, I'm sure it will be gratefully received.

Found it - close, but not quite. It's a slightly smaller key, but much worse... it's a treble side one, and they're not reversible.

Sorry!

BillDL

Unfortunately the plastic buttons on the Hofner Senator tuners I had in a plastic bag in a box for many years have turned to Parmesan.  I was hopeful but when I turned one it just came right off and the rest are likely to do the same with the slightest movement.

Offset

@ICBM and @BillDL - many thanks for looking, appreciated.

ICBM

BillDL said:

Unfortunately the plastic buttons on the Hofner Senator tuners I had in a plastic bag in a box for many years have turned to Parmesan.  I was hopeful but when I turned one it just came right off and the rest are likely to do the same with the slightest movement.

To be honest I would probably replace the whole set, for exactly that reason - even if the other five appear to be ok now, they won’t last. The good news is that decent vintage-style machineheads in a huge variety of styles and screw placements are now available, which they weren’t years ago - it wasn’t uncommon to see guitars like this butchered with Schaller M6s or similar, if one head got damaged*. It should be possible to find some that are a drop-in fit and look reasonably similar to the originals.

(*Also a result of the erroneous belief that if a guitar won’t stay in tune, the machineheads are faulty - it’s almost never the cause.)