Höfner HCT-500/2-SB Club-Bass

i bought this bass after i have use Icon(Ignition series) Hofner Club bass. Now I think that it was not a step up. Bass came fully unsetaped(but setup card was with marks), a "bow" neck, pickups very high( strings lays on it. I spent my evening hour to make bass playable) what I have done
1. Change terrible thin stock strings to La Bella Black Nylon ( for my taste)
2 setup truss rod("bullet" was fully unscrewed)
3. Take file and make zero fret not so hi( before it between bottom of srings and 1-st fret was about 3 mm!!)
4 Pickups were screwed crookedly.I put a wooden toothpick with superglue to holes and rescrewed frames correctly
Now it sounds normally similar like solid body bass with little semiacoustic obertones ( remember about sustain block in contemporary series basses!)
Overall it looks better than sounds. I also have Icon (Ignition) series Beatle Bass (bought also on Thomann) Comparing pickups (German made?? on HTC and noname on Icon (Ignition) a have not seen any diffirence
Buy or Not to Buy?
If you need image bass, 60's vibes sparkling on stage or you want a bass to put on wall of your room and you have free five hundred euro-its really OK(don't forget to change pot's knobs to Hofner Cup Style and paint switches to creme white))))
If you want sound closer to original German made Hofners and you don't hesistate of pickups look and "no white binding" heck , buy Icon Club Bass ang enjoy this. IMHO you dont loose any quality

I already own other Höfners, old and new, so I'm a bit of a Höfner fan. This one had some issues though, and it wasn't quite as nice out of the box as other Höfners I've purchased in recent years.

I should probably also mention that I'm a luthier. I make a living repairing/building guitars which means I have the experience to fix the issues mentioned below. Most guitar bass players don't have these skills or the right tools to fix these problems. Then you would basically have the choice between returning the instrument for a refund, or to pay a guitar workshop to make it playable.

Positives:

-It looks absolutely gorgeous! Flawless finish. The color looks very classy, much nicer than on the brighter, cheaper Ignition series.

-Wonderful tone! My personal favorite is with both pickups in the "off" position (which by Höfner's logic means they're both actually switched on...) and solo the neck pickup using the volume knobs.

-The semi-hollow construcion seems to improve the sustain ever so slightly and works better with a loud band than vintage Höfners (in my experience anyway).

Negatives:

-The setup out of the box was appalling. The bass was set up with the action (measured at the 12th fret) around 3,5 mm at all strings. It was practically unplayable.

-When the action was lowered to a more normal action (from 2 mm at the treble side to around 2,5 mm at the bass side) I got severe fret buzz at several frets. It turned out that several frets weren't seated properly. I hammered them down, but still got some fret buzz. I had to level, crown and polish the frets to make this bass playable with normal action. This really isn't acceptable in this price range. Unfortunately this isn't exactly uncommon either. I see this with more and more guitars/basses these days. If I didn't have the experience to fix this myself, I would have returned it for a refund. It was THAT bad.

-The zero fret was also a bit on the high side for my liking. But again: This isn't a specific issue with Höfners, but something I see with zero-fret instruments from other manufacturers too. Filing a zero fret to a nice, playable height can be slightly more challenging than filing a standard nut, so this is something to be aware of.

Finally, I have to say that Höfner would probably sell a lot more of these basses if they had started using standard bass tuners. With the tiny "guitar" tuners Höfner use, your choice of strings will be extremely limited. If these basses could be used with standard roundwound strings, they would be a LOT more versatile, and probably a lot more popular too.

After sorting out the issues mentioned above the bass plays and sounds great. But out of the box it wasn't really playable, unless you like a very high action.

I hope this was a case of poor luck, and that Höfner's quality control hasn't gone downhill. Other Höfners I've purchased in recent years were far better out of the box.

Fantastic Hofner build quality.

Personally, because I now play Jazz standards, I prefer the fully hollow versions without the sustain centre block (better for pop and rock), so I have now bought a second hand, made in Germany, Hofner.

But what I want to record in this review is how absolutely fantastic Thomann are. Excellent customer service, excellent systems and procedures, excellent communication, fast and excellent shipping.

I always try to buy from them first if I can, MUCH better than any of the online music shops here on Brexit Island.

Wonderful organisation

Noel Price
U.K.

Les éléments de cette basse sont fabriqués en Allemagne et en Chine, et l'assemblage en Chine. Et il faut avouer avouer que la lutherie est particulièrement bien faite et réussie. L'ergonomie du manche est top, le frettage impeccable, les micros bien équilibrés. Les mécaniques Wilkinson peuvent sembler un peu fragiles au premier abord mais il n'en est rien, elles tiennent la route ! Une barre de sustain parcours le corps de la basse, ce qui la rend plus lourde que les Höfner d'origine fabriquées en Allemagne. Le son s'en ressent également, il est plus moderne. A noter aussi la présence d'un fret 0, comme au bon vieux temps.

Les points négatifs:

Les cordes : dès les premières notes, on panique car on est loin du son Höfner. Les cordes montées sur la basse en sont à l'origine. C'est clinquant, brillant, bref, pas du tout ce qu'on espère de cette basse. Il suffit juste de les remplacer par des cordes "Höfner H1133 B Beatle Bass" et là, ça change tout ! On a enfin un vrai son rond, limite contrebasse, feutré mais précis.

La panneau sélecteur : c'est vrai qu'il fait "cheap". Déjà, rien que visuellement, les boutons de volume ne sont pas les mêmes que sur les allemandes. Puis ca craque lorsque vous switchez entre les micros. Dans un premier temps, ca peut largement faire l'affaire, mais si vous exigez un peu plus de cette basse, il vous faudra "upgader" ce panneau pour un "Höfner switchpanel HA2B-PC". Le prix n'est pas donné (environ 100€ …) mais ca contribue quand même à la qualité du son.


C'est un bon rapport qualité/prix qui ravira les amoureux du son Beatles.