Hofner Shorty Opinions

tampadragon

Hi all

What are your opinions on these guitars?

I've seen a few videos of them and quite like the look of them, I'd be taking it to work with me some days to use with a Vox amplug during my half hour lunch, but also, because it's cheap and small footprint, I can leave it on a stand in the corner of the lounge, within arms reach of the sofa, and grab 5 minutes with it when the new-born decides he's happy to sleep!

Cheers

Bob

Babyfrank

I've had one for a few years and love it... It lives in the bedroom and is the first guitar I'll pick up, saves me getting the others out of cases etc. Very small and portable, I used to take or to work for lunchtime jamming.

Stock pickup is quite high output and sounds decent. I even used one at a band practice when it was the only thing to hand and it sounded and played fine

Only downside for me was that you really need to use a strap; playing sitting down is a problem with this model the same as it is with most small bodied travel guitars

Cheers
BF

nickp

just to be awkward.  I bought one for holiday use.  horrible.  tried a few times, balance is painfully bad, and setup is naff.  sold it on fleabay as soon as I could.

I'm going to get a cheap tele copy and bolt/unbolt the neck to use as a travel guitar.

if you are going to buy one I suggest getting one s/h which means that you can sell without losing money - IIRC I paid £70 quid or so for mine.

Maybe it is like Marmite as Babyfrank's opinion is the dead opposite of mine!

tampadragon

Hmm,

Two opposite opinions, both with valid reasons, I think I will have to see about 2nd Hand, though they are as little as £85 new if you shop around, so not a massive amount of money anyway.

I've not seen many of these crop up second hand to be honest. There are a couple on Ebay, but they seem to approach the same prices as new ones!

I'll keep an eye on classifieds and setup a saved search on ebay, and if a nice one comes up might just take a punt on it!

Rocker

I tried one and the on strap balance was very poor, much worse than a SG. If one was available at a cheap price, it *could* be made into a half decent guitar.

paulk

I bought one earlier this year to take on trips/holidays - that and a pocket pod is my travel gear. It's well enough built and works for what it's supposed to do so in that sense I'm happy with it. That said it did need a thorough set-up and some tweaking out of the box (but that's something you should be doing anyway, no?) and the balance IS poor, especially sitting. The solution to that is to wear it with a shortish strap, then it's fine. You might look naff but you'll sound fine.

Elwood

I had one for traveling with. Well built but very unbalanced. I sold it.

There are ways to get around the neck dive but I was never very comfortable with any if them.

andy1839

paulk said:

I bought one earlier this year to take on trips/holidays - that and a pocket pod is my travel gear. It's well enough built and works for what it's supposed to do so in that sense I'm happy with it. That said it did need a thorough set-up and some tweaking out of the box (but that's something you should be doing anyway, no?) and the balance IS poor, especially sitting. The solution to that is to wear it with a shortish strap, then it's fine. You might look naff but you'll sound fine.

.

This. Exactly my experience with this guitar. However the setup included removing the bridge completely, filling the post holes and re drilling and re-siting the bridge. It was way off centre.

Saying that, I did pick it up for £30, and the pocket pod for £35. Ideal for hotels.

fretfinder

I had one briefly. The action was terribly high because of string pull and the bridge wouldn't go any lower, so it had to go. The hohner/steinberger that I also had briefly was a much better guitar IMHO, albeit more expensive.