The Guitar Gallery Forums - The Guitar Legacy of Matsumoku

Okay, now that the auction's over & I'm not pointing it out to potential competitors (I didn't win), is there any evidence that Uncle Matt made guitars for Hohner at some point?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2384&item=2522000987&rd=1

The body is idiosincratic (sp?)--not that a lot of Matsumoku guitars weren't, in their own way--but the bridge, neck construction & body/neck...er, non-joint, all look quite familiar to my eye.

Someone else (joannajetson in another post in this forum I think) just posed pretty much the same questoin regarding Hohner. Who made 'em? I've seen a couple of Hohner Teles that look very close to the later Aria Copies. Close enough to make me wonder anyway.

Umm... I have reliable evidence that the 70's MIJ Hohners were made by Terada. Same for Alvarez, Sigma, and Epiphone acoustics.

Terada did a great job on that Tele anyway. I,m not much on Teles but I loved playing that Hohner. It was hauntingly close to an Aria Tele I had at the time and in retrospect should have bought it when it was offered to me. It eventually was dismantled in the next-door basement frankenstein shop and never again had two original parts fastened together at one time.

I've had several of both Japanese and Korean Hohners that I've been extremely happy with. Two Korean 335 copies; the SE35 and HS 35. In comparison to a Samick / Epi DOT I had at the same time, I judged the Hohners to be *slightly* better. The Hohners were factory equipped with Kent Armstrong pickups, and the Epi Dot had the newer Gibson 57 LP style pickups. (Truth be known, they were all probably assembled by Samick.) Of the older (70's) Hohner LP copies I've had, I would judge them right on par with the Ventura, Univox and even Ibanez models that I've owned.

Hohner has also designed / built / contracted some other interesting guitars over the years.

I keep a Hohner G3T 'Steinberger' copy right by the computer at all times. It's handy because the small size and lack of a headstock makes it easy to sit in a chair with arms and play. It's made from a solid stick of California maple, and I think it's a slightly better guitar than the newer Steinberger 'Spirit' guitars sold through Musicyo.com. (Appearently I'm not the only one that feels that way, as I often see an older Hohner / Stienberger sell on eBay for as much as a new 'Spirit'.)

No heatstock means no crashing the comp monitor too! It has also educated me to the advantages of the Steinberger tremolo system. While I don't have the patience for a Floyd Rose, once the Stienberger is set up, you can whammy like a madman; and come right back to pitch. Then it has a locking mechanism, so that bend-one-hammer-another, steel guitar mimick licks don't sound out of tune. Downsides: The EMG 'select' pickups

Had the SE-400 archtop model too... it was pretty slick for most electric styles, but having a tuno-matic bridge kept it from having a true 'jazz box'
floating bridge tone.

Had a Hohner 'The Blond' model; kind of an EVH 'Wolfgang' rip-off, with a Wilkinsen trem. It was just ok. Too neck heavy for me. I liked the trem though.

Have yet to own one of their 'Revelation' series guitars that were designed by a group of big-name hired guns. Or a Steinberger insipired 'The Jack'. I'd like to try each of those!

Overall, of the Hohners I've had; dating from late 60's to late 90's, I've been very happy, but I know this about Hohner; you have to judge them on a model-by-model basis, because they contracted some really cheap / junky guitars over the last few decades. And I suspect they have contracted with many different trading companies / factories.

Ok, I got my whole 'Hohner rant' out of my system all in one shot