Tidings

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BMMIS
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Tidings

Post by BMMIS » Mon Oct 03, 2022 11:49 am

Tidings are a flock of magpies...
they are also news or information; declaring tidings to be a flock of magpies is information or news to those that didn't already know.
So I guess the subject is correct on different levels....
anyhoo, I signed up here today and this is my first post to introduce myself.
I am not a life long player, in fact in the scheme of things I am relatively new to playing guitar, which I do pretty badly at the best of times.
I do possess an offset though.
It just happens to be a really cool number gifted to me on my birthday, so naturally I gravitated here.
I was already aware of the site having trawled through looking for a specific guitar.
It was such hard work, not being a member I didn't have the search facility so it took 3 days to scrawl through around 5-600 subject posts just to see if they related to this specific guitar I had in mind. I found one reference to it and decided to give up.
Had I known there was a search facility as a member I would have joined straight away and saved myself a lot of effort.
The upside of course is that I did spend a lot of the time getting into reading old posts and laughing at some of the discourse.

So , my offset. I have a Hofner HE 179.
It seems to be full of mystery and conjecture as to how many, when , where and why it didn't go into production.
For the most part I don't really give a hoot, I love it anyway (although the lack of information is interesting). It's my fave guitar, known affectionately as Uggs.
The story is this; I showed a picture of one to my daughter quite some time ago who responded with "Ewww.... that's ugly!"
Fast forward some time and she presented me with one for my birthday. I have no idea where she managed to track one down from or even how.
These are meant to be pretty rare beasts. So I was shocked, stunned and rather overwhelmed when I opened up Uggs. I was so taken back I ended up pacing around the house much to the amusement of those present.
I anticipate this will be part of the family until at least my demise, possibly longer. I will never sell it.
I do have another Hoff, it's a VT. I feel a little bad for it now I don't play it. I tend to suffer from anthropomorphism with my guitars. I project feelings on to them even though they are inanimate objects, I just don't want to hurt their feelings.....
oh well, enough of my ramblings. I tend to waffle on somewhat too, in real life and in places like this.
If you are still here reading this then thank you for your persistence, unfortunately there are no refunds on your time.
Hopefully I may engage with some of you readers in the future.

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CathyKlysmik
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Re: Tidings

Post by CathyKlysmik » Tue Oct 04, 2022 4:32 am

Hello! I'm new too! I love those old Hofners! I have one too, it's a stratocaster with a vinyl croc skin finishing. And the best part - a jazzmaster style tremolo! The neck pickup doesnt work anymore. I'll do her up after I'm done with my jazzmaster! ✌

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DeathJag
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Re: Tidings

Post by DeathJag » Tue Oct 04, 2022 7:17 am

Welcome! Awesome story but photos are needed, preferably of the pacing moment haha!

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Re: Tidings

Post by BMMIS » Wed Nov 16, 2022 4:57 am

Oh my gosh,
I didn't realise anyone had responded. I do apologise for my tardy response time, I only noticed I had replies when I engaged in a websearch for the Hofner 179 and my post came up as one of the hits. I thought one received e-mails when replies are posted....? that usually happens when other sites have garnered a response.
Anyhoo, thank you both for replying. Alas I do not have any photographic evidence of my pacing, much as it would add to the merriment of others mocking my bizarre reaction... I had enough of that from family members when they feign surprise just to pace around somewhat.
I'm not sure what went on there, nothing ever surprises me enough to garner some kind of flawed psychological reaction... until now that is.

since then I have had some interesting escapades with Uggs.
The strings were set somewhat high so I dropped them and found they buzzed a little. I contacted a local luthier to arrange a bit of professional care, unfortunately they were somewhat lacking in communication, the initial contact took nearly 2 weeks for a response, in which they suggested the end of October for taking Uggs and dealing with any presenting issues. I replied in the affirmative asking for an exact location of their base so that I could drop Uggs off (it's about an hour away) I still haven't received a response yet.
I decided to deal with the issues myself. I made a hardwood neck shim which rectified the buzzing and made the strings live at a comfortable distance from the fretboard. so I saved some dollar there.
Whilst it was apart I took a look under the pickguard and found someone had taken out the original pups and installed some cheap Korean ones instead. The wiring was pretty bad, whoever had done it obviously hadn't much experience in wiring; they had earthed the bridge with a bit of wire wrapped around the volume pot and then connected it by wrapping the other end around the adjustomatic leg post (externally, I initially thought the pick guard was cracked until I realised it was a bit of wire).
So I pulled out the offending pick ups. I decided to follow the rumour and get a set of Fralins (which I am awaiting delivery). I don't believe Hofner put them in their equipment initially, especially when they make their own humbuckers anyway, but that is the rumour, so I figured I'd put them in seeing as that is what people seem to believe. I'll probably be the only one with genuine fralins in my 179...
Meantime I have stuck in a set of Ironstone buckers. They don't make these anymore. I bought them a number of years ago for a different project that hasn't been finished yet. They were the last set of Ironstone buckers sold, so you really can't have any even if you wanted them. They are around 15K so really quite heavy. They put me in mind of that Gretsch sound, kind of gritty growly and gnarly when hit hard. I tend to keep the volume down on the guitar and up the master volume to compensate.
The pickup select switch exploded in my hand one day. I went to several places for a replacement but couldn't find the right one. I managed to buy a Fender one which is L shaped. It was too fat to fit in the cavity, so I ended up taking both switches apart and replacing the insulators on the fender switch with the ones from the Hofner switch. I had to drill them out a little so that the plastic tubes from the fender one would fit through the insulator plates, nonetheless it worked perfectly, and the switch just fits into the cavity.
The Ironstone buckers came with a pickup surround. I initially put the surrounds on without screwing them to the pickguard (the adjustment screws held it in place adequately) but the bridge surround ended up being too high and the strings were hitting the corner of it. It was a choice, either higher strings or no surround, so I pulled off the surround on the bridge pup and left the neck one on.
I like the sound but I don't like the look. I prefer shiny pup covers, although I do tend to play for a while with the pups set too high so that the strings scratch those lovely wear lines in the cover tops. Black plastic is just not a look that works for me (even though it does work against the black of the tobacco burst). I also adjust all the screws in humbuckers so that the screwdriver cuts face the same direction along the length of the string, I just don't like them all at different angles.
Welcome to you too kathyklysmic, it's nice to be new, especially when one gets to my age, new at anything is a novelty!

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