Hofner Guitars

Hi, welcome to the Official Hofner Guitar MySpace site. Here you'll find details of our guitar range and news on new models & artists. First some history: Master violin maker Karl Hofner founded his own stringed and fretted instrument company in Germany in 1887. With a reputation for quality, craftsmanship and innovation Hofner soon became the largest manufacturer in Germany. During the 50's Hofner introduced a new range of archtop acoustic guitars. Some of the first Hofner electro-acoustic jazz guitars with floating pickups were produced during this time. In 1954 the first Hofner electric guitars with built in pickups were introduced. These 'Club' guitars looked solid but were in fact hollow and followed the design of the archtop models, the first 'solid' electric guitars were launched in Germany in 1956 and evolved through a series of designs including single cutaway, twin cutaway and offset body styles with one, two or three pickups and many introduced early tremolo systems and complex tone shaping controls & electric circuits. During this time of innovation and change of the music scene in America and Europe Hofner produced some of it's most well known guitars including the Senator, President, Verythin, Committee and Golden Hofner. These guitars found fame in the hands of many top European guitarists and helped form the sound of European Rock'n'Roll and Beat Group music. In 1956 at the Frankfurtfurt Music Fair Walter Hofner introduced a violin shaped semi-acoustic bass guitar and over the years the design of this bass has changed very little. Picked up in Hamburg by Paul McCartney in 1961 the violin bass is perhaps the most iconic of all Hofner's guitars, a bass that continues to be as popular now as in the 60's, a model that is still in production and is one of a very select group of guitars which have never been out of production and can trace a direct line back to the 50's.



The Hofner story does not stop in the 60's however, during the 70's and 80's Hofner continued to be one of the largest manufacturers of stringed instruments in Germany. The electric guitar range continued to be produced and the Galaxie and Colorama models were still to be seen in the hands of many guitar heroes. New jazz and semi-acoustic models were introduced during this period and helped pushed forward sound innovations for Europen made guitars. Indeed many of these models, the Nightingale for example, have influenced the current range of jazz and electric guitars crafted by Hofner today. After changes of ownership during the 90's the company is now once again family owned, at the leading edge of European guitar design and innovation and is still the largest manufacturer of stringed instruments in Germany. The new range of Hofner guitars and basses draws from all the history and tradition of the Hofner company and combines modern cutting edge design and technology with a love of craftsmanship and a desire to make the best possible instruments available today.