SOLD - Hofner 500/1 late 1970s all original £850

[Rabbie]

An all original Hofner 500/1 violin bass. This is definitely a 1970s model, I think late '70s because of the metal tuning pegs, 70s pickups, black control knobs, darker sunburst colour, "Hofner" logo on the scratch plate.
As you may know, in those times, Hofner made no effort at all with serial numbers and the only way of dating an old Hofner is by educated guess of the sum of its parts.
I spotted this bass lurking on eBay sold by a guy fairly local to me. It had been lying in his living room for years because he was a Beatles fan, but he didn't play it. I'm passing on the savings on this one, because I just purchased a wonderful new double bass and I need to patch up the bank account.
Structurally, the bass is sound, see photo for one small dent on the back neck and a slightly unglued nut, none of which is structural and none of which affects playability. The neck seems straight to me (see photo), but I'm certainly no luthier, and I can see there is a truss rod, though I don't know anything about the Hofner workmanship of the 1970s.
There is a bit of rust on the neck pickup but that's just part of the Mojo, not worth doing anything about in my view.
All the electronics are working well.
There are no body cracks.
Being a 40-year old bass, there are plenty little marks but again that's character.
it has new Pyramids gold strings on it, the standard for Hofner basses. That's the only thing I have done for the bass because it had horrible old round wounds when I got it.
Sounds: FANTASTIC! Powerful thumpy Hofner and plays effortlessly. I really love the 70s pickups: they are bassy man! I have never touched the action of this bass and some may want it lower. I suspect it has not been touched since it left the factory back in the days when flares were cool. I have periodic Hofner "phases" when I need to do a few gigs on the electric, and I have used it to good results this summer. The action is never really low on Hofners, yet they play like butter, it is just the way they are built. In saying that, I have played newer Hofners with the action set slightly lower, but I found them harder to play (I am a DB payer after all). Hence, I have not felt the need to tinker with the action at all, but you may want to if you are handy with the luthier tools. Personally, I feel it plays great just now..
It has its own original case which is terrible, but it's part of the deal: DO NOT use that case for transportation, most of the latches are not in great working order and it is too thin for modern standards. So, I will include in the price a brand new Hofner gig bag, which I just bought at the start of the summer to take it to the gigs.
The price of this basses is NUTS; one of these normally sets you back around £1.500 when you buy from a vintage instrument shop. I suppose they can justify that as they have luthiers on site and they have shop premises to pay for, but I like being on Basschat and having honestly told you about the bass, I feel that this is a fair price to pay for a superb 40 year-old bass that has probably had a very boring 40 years unplayed moved about in a living room, then a handful of summer gigs with me.
Please contact me with any query, although this is all I know about this thing.
Thank you (and sorry for the very long pitch...)

Edited September 17, 2017 by Rabbie