October 2013. The height of my guitar obsession.
I already had a few hanging on my wall. And it's not like I'm particularly gifted playing them, I just love to look at some of them. And I have a thing for Hohner guitars. Hohner went through a period of making really nice guitars with unique details. And the quality during this period is pretty decent. For the most part...
I spotted this little darling on Gumtree and snapped it up for, if my memory serves, around £50. The first picture is on my kitchen floor and the first good look I had of it. I have to say, that first impression was not good. It was in a sorry state.
The flying bridge (not a Floyd Rose, this is a rip-off and a bad one at that) had collapsed into itself and I knew getting a replacement to fit in the void would be close to impossible. I would need to be creative.
A Hohner Professional HGV. When I bought it a quick google search came up with a few hits, but try searching now. It's a very rare guitar. Not especially valuable, but very rare. Oh, HGV stands, rather imaginatively for - Hohner Guitar V.
One thing that confused me on the images I did find in my google search research, was that the other examples had two sets of pickups. Mine seemed to have just the one. And then I took a closer look. You can clearly see here where the bodies are buried.
This white(ish) cover is not standard. It's a piece of thin ply painted with what feels like Dulux matt emulsion.
The remaining pickup is a sorry looking thing. The plastic is cracked and perished, and the metal coil tops are corroded. This would need replacing. £50 was starting to look expensive.
Seeing how much wasn't standard on the surface I knew that I could not trust that the electrics were all original. I began to take pics to document them in case I needed to put them back how they were.
I removed the neck and now you can check out this custom paint job. This is some random green crap out of a rattle spray can. And the pickup cavity is clearly trying to eject whatever has been stuffed inside. It all might look bad in these pictures but I assure you it was worse than it appears.
A very light gouge with a screwdriver and it burst open like a rotten potato. You can see where I had begun to sand it and seen the edge of the filler.
And here is forensic evidence that this custom paint job was done by a neanderthal with a rattlecan and car filler. The filling is fibreglass based and is still wet. It also stank. Joy.
Fortunately it almost all came out in one lump.
My plan was to convert this from a floating bridge guitar to a hardtail. I, at the time, was very short on advanced woodworking tools (oh wow I would love another crack at this project now!) and luthier skills (still short on those!). With this in mind, I decided the best course of action, with the highest chance of a decent outcome, would be to fill the bridge cavity and work from there. The first thing was to strip off this disgusting paint. I started with a sander, this was very slow going though.
And then I hit it with paint stripper.
It melted away like nazi faces watching the Ark. I could literally wipe it off with a cloth.
A lot of sanding later I revealed what is a decent, if not premium, piece of maple. A lot of guitars in this era were made from all kinds of random types of wood. A friend of mine has one made from plywood, its a lovely guitar though!
There is still a greenish tinge and a few dings.
The screw holes would not be a problem as they would be covered.
It really is a lovely piece of timber.
The back shows a knot or two. They are not as visible on the front.
Having sanded the body down to a finish I felt happy with I turned to the cavity. I sourced a piece of maple and cut it to size and shape.
I also took a router to the cavity to give it more of a regular shape to make fitting the block easier.
I spent literally days sanding this block into the right shape. Sanding maple is tough. The dust is like talcum powder and it is hard as rock.
There was a hidden surprise in the block. It wouldn't matter though as it didn't reach the surface.
My plan was to keep sanding, little by little, till it slotted perfectly into the cavity with no crack around. I needed good solid contact with the surrounding wood to maintain good tone.
On and on I sanded.
Day after day.
It was sooo close. So close I could almost just push it in and it would be done. All the hard work would be rewarded with a perfect fit. Soon after this picture, I'd almost got it stuck and decided this was enough. So I loaded the cavity up with wood glue, laid it on a foam mat outside my back door (it was freezing outside) and gave it a tap with a rubber mallet. It was almost there. Just a little more. Another tap. Nearly. So close. One... More... Tap...
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I could have cried. I thought I had killed it.
I carried on anyway, clamping the block in the void first, then sanding the edge off that so the wing could be glued back on. I drilled through the pickup cavity into the broken part and glued a strong dowel in place. I clamped it up and, disgusted with myself, left it to dry.
And it came out pretty good. The knot in the repair block was visible as I had forgotten that I would be sanding the top off that block down to the level of the flaw. But it wasn't coming out now!
The crack is visible, especially here at the back, and you can certainly feel it. If I did it again now I am sure I could have done it so it was almost invisible. But it's done, and I kind of like it the way it is.
And so I carried on. One corner of this pickup cavity had collapsed. I used a two-part wood filler to rebuild it. I had also given the guitar its final finish of linseed oil and wax.
It turned out better than the bridge hole job!
Here is the hardtail bridge screwed into place ready to mark the holes to drill through to the back. I have no idea how I managed this accurately with the tools I had at the time. Luck played a major part I think.
The wood doesn't quite match and the grain runs the wrong way, but it still looks good. I may one day make a cover that goes around the pickups and the bridge that hides the repaired hole. Maybe.
The pickup screw hole repaired very nicely.
A pair of Entwistle HDN pickups look superb in this. New wiring too.
The holes for the guitar strings. So lucky.
The cover that it came with is just a holder till I could work something else out.
I bought some scratch guard material. This is laminated with a white layer in between two black layers. It didn't look great so I scrapped it. Again, with the tools I have now I could have made this work.
Wiring guitars is pretty simple. Google a guide is the way I went.
A three-way selector switch, plus both the volume and tone are push-pull knobs, don't ask me what they do. This was another attempt at a cover. I hated this too.
In the end, I decided to make one from very nice quality plywood to try to match the guitar. Made a mockup with cheap hardwood ply which is what you see here. I ordered some very fine, maple topped, plywood that cost a fair amount. That arrived and has been waiting for me to finish it ever since. It still sits here next to my desk and one day I will make a pickguard cover that will finally finish this guitar.
One day.
