Hofner spares?

BeardyAndy

A buddy of mine sent me a violin bass in kit form from China and it’s been sitting in its box for at least a year because it’s missing a pickup mount ring, UK searches are coming up empty. Any tips?

Worst case I figured I could make one out of an old pick guard, it just seems a lot of work for a £1 part!

ICBM

What are the pickup dimensions? I have a few random sized pickup surrounds.

BeardyAndy

The one's from Thomann are 66 x 32 x 14.5 mm and they look pretty standard, I'll measure when I get home.

Musical_Mystery_Tour

For twenty quid, this might be worth getting just for that bit. The pickups are probably identical to the ones in the kit.

Alternatively, you could make a new surround yourself. Paul McCartney's original Hofner ended up with a busted pick up surround in '63 and so that was initially fixed with some black tape, but in '64 it went to Sound City for a repair and service and amongst the mods they did were to make a pickup surround which housed both pick ups fairly close together and moved them both near the neck, they also changed the control knobs on this bass too as well as respraying it. So if you did that pickup mod, it would have a genuine Beatles vibe.

BeardyAndy

Musical_Mystery_Tour said:

For twenty quid, this might be worth getting just for that bit. The pickups are probably identical to the ones in the kit.

Alternatively, you could make a new surround yourself. Paul McCartney's original Hofner ended up with a busted pick up surround in '63 and so that was initially fixed with some black tape, but in '64 it went to Sound City for a repair and service and amongst the mods they did were to make a pickup surround which housed both pick ups fairly close together and moved them both near the bridge, they also changed the control knobs on this bass too as well as respraying it. So if you did that pickup mod, it would have a genuine Beatles vibe.

Yeah, they look like the fellas. Could be worth an email, they might have something that'd been returned faulty? Thanks.

BeardyAndy

@ICBM 68x29mm I make it on the callipers.

ICBM

I've got this, but it's not quite big enough, unless you'd be willing to take the chance on filing it out slightly - the aperture is 66mm x 28mm.

BeardyAndy

@ICBM That's pretty close, thank you. I've started making one out of some old 3ply pickguard material doubled up, I'll see how that pans out over the weekend but if not I'll send you a stamped addressed envelope!