Hofner Colorama Series 164 Model White Vinyl 1962
Hofner 164, white vinyl, made in Germany 1962-3. First things first: this is wrapped in a croc-skin style white vinyl from factory. Why? Because it was the sixties, friend! It looks awesome and is surprisingly agreeable from a tactile perspective, and has aged pretty nicely. The Colorama series changed a bunch of times throughout it's life from 1958-1965, and this is a 'version three' example from 1962-3. It's lightweight with a comfy moderate and agreeable rounded neck and sturdy hardware, and all up it's an easy, fun little thing to play. The staple style pickups sound great: full and fat, with an open top end, creamy mids and naturally short sustain; they're not the same as a gold-foil but have a similar swagger in some ways. The tailpiece is been hard-tail-ified and the bridge has been replaced with an Ibanez example and moved to facilitate accurate intonation; both pretty practical changes that make life easy. I love the weird knobs too, they're so cool. Weird and wonderful, or as they say in Deutschland: seltsam und wunderbar.
Model: Hofner Colorama Series 164 model
Made: Germany, 1962-3
Serial: none
Finish: white vinyl
Body: solid maple, species unverified
Neck: maple, ebonized maple fretboard, 24.75" scale, 12" radius, moderate C shape
Weight: 3.380kg
Mods: bridge replaced and moved, tailpiece switched to hardtail and trem arm hole plugged
Pickups: Hofner Staple single coil x2
Accessories: non-original hard case
Cosmetic condition notes: minor finish wear. The headstock has bald patches, scuffs and dimples on the end and both edges. scratches on the front near the logo and scuffs around the posts, as well as scuffs on the back. The is clean and smooth in the hands, scuffs, surface scratches and dimples on the back and some play wear on the board only. The back has scuffs on the horns, dimples in the bottom corner and some scuffs in the elbow area and on the back cover. The sides have scuffs around the whole body, rub wear around the rear strap pin and dimples on the horns. The front has scuffs around the bridge, tailpiece and pickups, a fade mark from where the bridge used to be, minor rub wear around the whole body and play wear on the guard and horns.
Overall: good condition (7/10)
Playing condition notes: action is low, neck is straight, intonation is good, truss rod works. All electronics tested and working properly. Wearing fresh 10/52 Moonshiners strings.
Fret Life: 8/10, minor wear only