Pink Shocking Hohner ST Lead

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Can we show a guitar just because of its colour? Well I guess we can - to be honest I wouldn't have looked at this Hohner ST Lead if not for its pink shocking so 1980s (the guitar is actually from the late 80s, early 90s). 

When you google this guitar, you mostly find questions of people who want to know more about it - and sometimes that it's a good professional instrument with a graphite neck, and how difficult it is to find replacement parts for it, since Hohner almost completely backed off from the guitar field...

This one is a lefty, and we never show enough!

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Hohner/Bartell Black Widow Fretless Bass

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OK, this is my eBay tip of the week and the auction finishes in two days - unless someone snaps it up on Buy It Now. I must admit I was sorely tempted to "hit that BIN" myself, especially at this price (starting bid: $459.00 / Buy It Now: $539.00).

For the uninitiated, this is an early 1970s Hohner-branded Bartell semi-solid fretless bass and was designed by Paul Barth, a former employee of Rickenbacker, Magnatone and National. It is a close relation of the Acoustic Corporation Black Widow (one of the guitars listed in my 500 Guitars book and which we also looked at here, some examples of which were built in Japan whilst others were built by Mosrite in the USA). We also looked at another Hohner-branded fretless bass - this time in natural finish - here.

For more information see the Acoustic Black Widow Fanpage.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Hohner Hollywood Bass VI / Baritone guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This post is for Biliby who emailed me waxing lyrical about a Jazzmaster/Strat hybrid guitar he'd found called the Hohner JT-60 - see pics of that one here.

The above-pictured guitar, however, is a custom shop version designed to function as a Bass VI. However, the guitar scale makes the strings a little floppy at the regular bass tuning and so it's more realistic to use it tuned to G. Not quite as low as a bass (c'mon, only three notes out), but lower than most baritone guitars. This was actually my own guitar, but I sold it several years ago when I was having my great guitar clear out. It was quite sad; I needed money to pay the bills, and ended up selling virtually my whole guitar collection. However, I soon built up another collection.

The guitar was manufactured in the Far East, but finished and set-up in Wales in the UK. I believe the guitar is a Trevor Wilkinson design (hey, he gets everywhere) and features Wilkinson pickups and Wilkinson tremolo. The tremolo on the bass was fantastic - twang-tastic, even! I used this guitar on a few recordings in both bass and baritone roles. The string spacing also allowed EBow usage which sounded great. It was a very nice guitar, but not one that got played a whole lot.

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Hohner Revelation RTX in marblish finish

guitarz.blogspot.com

I've stated here a few times that I don't like strats, and not shredding either, so of course superstrats are not particularly my cup of tea. However, this early 90s Hohner Revelation RTX caught my eye, first because of its bizarre finish I guess, but also because its shape reaches a strange mix of elegance and extreme pointiness that you usually find in Japanese early 70s guitars such as the Tokai Hummingbird...

Unfortunatly I couldn't find much information about the Revelation, Hohner is more known for its current ergonomic and headless guitars and basses (and great harmonicas, I have a few of them), but beside the shape I like the H|S blade pickups, the 4 + 2 headstock, and the Wilkinson trem bridge.

bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Hohner EGS "Blackhawk"

guitarz.blogspot.com:
This is Hohner's take on the ergonomic guitar, the Hohner EGS "Blackhawk". Personally I would have described it as minimalist rather than ergonomic. Where is the right forearm support, a la Ovation Breadwinner or Klein guitar?

The treble-side horn is actually an "Ergo-Wing" made from anodized high-grade aluminium. The Ergo-Wing is "adjustable, and can be rotated into two different wing radius positions that comfortably fit on the guitarist's legs for different playing positions".

The guitar features Schaller M6 locking tuning machine heads and security locking pins, a trio of EMG pickups (two S-1 singlecoils and an EMG-85 humbucker) and also has a piezo pickup built-in to the Shadow tremolo system.

I think if I was buying a guitar that retailed in the USA for $3,659.99, I'd want much more tasteful pickups than EMGs. In fact, their very presence makes me wonder what's wrong with the body. Does it not have any resonance, tone or vibe of its own that a decent set of pickups would enhance?

Finally, the seller claims that this is the ONLY Hohner EGS to have been brought into the UK. That's a bold claim. How does he know?

G L Wilson

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Hohner "The Prinz" Tele

What was once a budget "copy" guitar has now become a desirable and much sought after instrument. Much like Paul McCartney's Hofner violin bass which was styled after a Gibson instrument, this Hohner "The Prinz" guitar - styled after the Fender Telecaster - has become desirable mainly through celebrity useage, being Prince's guitar of choice alongside several other more flamboyantly-styled instruments.

By all accounts these are excellent guitars, and although based on the Fender Telecaster, many of the accoutrements are Hohner's own: the sandwiched maple body, the binding, the walnut (?) central stripe, the tortoiseshell pickguard and similar plate surrounding the bridge...

The seller tells us that this is an "original issue with Telecaster headstock not to be confused with the later and lesser value TE series", although it can't be one of the very first as the "Prinz" appellation was given to this guitar after Prince had been using one for quite a while. In a way, it was a case of Hohner cashing in. As far as I am aware Prince never officially endorsed any Hohner guitar models.

Acoustic Corporation Black Widow Guitars

This is a follow-up to Tuesday's post about a certain Hollowbody Fretless bass. What I hadn't realised from the original eBay listing was that where it said "Acoustic" was that was a brand name and not a description! (I thought it was a reference to the bass being a hollowbody!). The Acoustic in question was Acoustic Control Corporation who - while they were better known for their solid state amplifier range - produced a range of guitars known as the Black Widow. These were originally designed and built by Paul Barth and his Bartell company in the USA, but production moved several times, to the Matsumoko factory in Japan, back to Mosrite in the USA and then finally to the Hohner company. So, now the eBay listing makes sense!

For the full story and lots more pictures, see the Acoustic Black Widow Fan Page. Pictured above is probably the most famous guitarist to have played an Acoustic Black Widow, supposedly in the studio only. Does anyone have any idea on which recordings Jimi Hendrix may have played this guitar?

Disclaimer: I'm not sure where this photo originally came from and cannot make out the small print in the bottom right hand corner. Apologies in advance if I am using your picture without permission.

Hollowbody Fretless Bass

Here's quite an attactive looking hollowbody fretless bass on eBay. It's looks like it's seen some use and has a fair few knocks and dings but I think these add to its charm.

The seller doesn't know what brand the bass is and thinks it might be a Mosrite or Hohner from the 1960s. Well, fretless basses were virtually unheard of before Jaco Pastorius popularised them in the 1970s, so I think he's got the wrong decade there, and I also believe that this bass is a USA-made Bartell (a company allegedly set-up by ex-Rickenbacker employee Paul Barth) as I have found a very similar bass also for sale on eBay (pictured below).

H.S. Andersen Houston Guitar, a.k.a. The Beatles Apple

Despite its "also known as" tag of The Beatles Apple, this H.S. Andreson "Houston" Guitar has nothing whatsoever to do with The Beatles. Its nickname is derived from its body shape, which has been likened to The Beatles' Apple logo as seen on their record labels. (Personally, I think one green apple looks much like another and wouldn't have made The Beatles connection at all). Still, it's an interesting design, and one that I haven't seen before.

According to the seller, H.S. Andersen were responsible for building the original skunk-striped Telecaster style guitar as used by Prince. It was originally called the H.S. Andersen Madcat, but was licensed to Hohner and eventually became the (much sought after) Te Prinz model.