Tell me about this Hohner bass..

rawk100

I know nowt about bass guitars so when my mate turned up with this Hohner bass, and started asking me questions, i couldn't really help. He wanted to know how old it was, were many made, if its worth much, etc, etc? All i can say is that its got "Made in Japan" stamped on the next plate. Does anybody have any info  i can pass onto him.....thanks?

https://i.postimg.cc/pXTN8YQ2/20230120-160528.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/7PX8fQ2s/20230120-160630.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/MpMh36rN/20230120-160536.jpg

ICBM

Late-70s generic Japanese P-Bass copy - it's from the Moridaira factory according to this, which is about the equivalent Tele copy...

https://claescaster.com/2014/06/16/hohner-made-in-japan/

It is at least definitely solid wood and not ply - you can tell from the sunburst not covering the arm and belly cuts. Probably not worth a huge amount, I would guess in the low hundreds, but these old Japanese instruments are usually quite decent.

Needs to lose the Gibson reflector knobs! It should have knurled metal ones.

Funkfingers

A friend of mine had one of those Telecaster copies mentioned by ICBM. Stripping away the remains of its white poly finish revealed a spread of mahogany pieces with front and rear facings that resembled maple or, possibly, sycamore. (One construction method to suit all possible finishes.) This made the instrument a bit weighty but this was compensated for by the excellent neck profile.

IIRC, somebody had already hacked into the body to create a neck position humbucker cavity. In the cavity sat a mid-Seventies DiMarzio PAF model humbucker - by itself, probably worth what my friend paid for the whole guitar.

BillDL

I'm sure I am right in saying that Alan Entwistle (https://entwistlepickups.com/) was tasked with doing an overhaul of Hohner guitars several decades ago and he did a good job of it, having had a lot of experience in a design and advisory capacity for various other brands.  I am not sure when that was though.  It may have been after that bass was made.

fretmeister

There's a couple of really knowledgeable Japanese bass fans on Basschat.

They might be able to give you a good indication of value.

rawk100

Thanks for the comments and info, it needs a set-up and new strings but it actually plays OK. Everything works although some of the hardware is a bit corroded in places.