OffsetGuitars.com

Hey, maybe that should better read "Musicmaster", but there's also a very well made vibrato, once you are successful in getting the stiff lever swinging again.


1964 Colorama I, Mod. 163, short scale, everything working , but the hardware is giving me headaches. Original bridge is gone, the replacement's radius is too flat, so it tends to fret out with good but not great action setup. Placement isn't perfect too, so all the adjustment range is needed, (which is more than a new abr1 does offer). What would you look for in this situation? I'm not yet ready to shell out 80€ for a repro of the original floating bridge.
And how to deal with a shrunken pickguard? I got me those nice nickel screws, as the holes are countersunk originally, and I didn't like the round heads' size and coating. But now things are looking very skewed, as the screws are being pulled sideways. Oversize threads, which head? Any suggestions welcome. (photo's a bit distorted. both types of screws are the same diameter really.)

Nice guitar.

Ii you don't want to spend € 80,- on a repro bridge and you have acces to a drill press, you can moddify a std. Jm/jag bridge.
I did this a couple of times in the past as these can/could be found for € 10/15.
In some cases they are a drop in for the TOM posts (with some slight modification)
of when they dont fit, I used to cut of the bridge legs of the Jm/Jag bridge and drilled holes in the bridge plate that fit the TOM posts.
(Former? forum member mynameisjonas used this trick a lot on his guitars) He posted about it, not sure if you can find the thread back.)

These old Höfners have a radius of about 7.25.
The original bridgeon these guitars is a lot like the Jm/Jag stock bridge.

Another trick is to file down the E and e saddles + the A and G saddles of the TOM bridge to correspondent with the neck radius.
You can find a lot of clips on how to do this on youtube.

Thanks a lot!
So post distance is basically the same with TOM and Fender, but insert size and threads probably are not, right?

Indeed.
I used to cut of the legs of the Jm/Jag bridge.
Then I drilled new holes that correspondent with the TOM posts.
Thus the modified Jm/jag bridge just slides over the TOM posts.

I searched for a pictures of this, but I couldn't find one.
But you get the idea.

ohm-men wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 26, 2021 2:08 pm

Indeed.
I used to cut of the legs of the Jm/Jag bridge.
Then I drilled new holes that correspondent with the TOM posts.
Thus the modified Jm/jag bridge just slides over the TOM posts.

I searched for a pictures of this, but I couldn't find one.
But you get the idea.

Yup, Heres a pick of my take on the mod.

Nice guitar! On Höfners, all screws are metric, so there's that. Is that pickup working? Asking because 8/10 of these are ded.
I've got a handful of old Höfners and most of them needed a rewind. If you're looking for a vintage replacement bridge I might be able to hook you up with a contact that might have it. PM me in that case.
All the best with that restauration! Love the chunky necks of those 60s era Höfners

yes, I'm lucky with the PU and very happy with the sound.
will think a while about your offer, but think i'll keep the one on there, it's not terrible, vibrato cover is Chrome instead of nickel too, and I didn't have the post inserts out yet (shouldn't be a big deal but you never know).
Here it caused a headache: non-metic thread screwed very tightly into the wood; 1mm too narrow for the ABR


Höfner pickguard now is back to roundhead screws.
Thanks all!