Grateful Dead Music Forum

I Craigslist-scored a lefty Hohner Professional HP Bass the other night. It's a straight P-Bass knockoff, with a non-Fender looking 4-in-line headstock.

Hoping someone on the board knows something about it. I found an untranslated page last night on a German gear board that seemed to say it was produced in Korea in the 90's, and mentioned Cort.

Pretty dirty, with some rust on the hardware (even the pickup poles), but it plays pretty nice and the neck looked nice and flat... when I plugged it in after getting to the practice spot, it had no sound (lol). But when I sprayed it with contact cleaner last night at home, and plugged in it instantly yielded rich, beautiful tone! Gave the fretboard a rub down with lemon oil, and I anticipate putting some flatwounds on it... might replace all the electronics eventually, but no emergency.

Maybe the best $100 I ever spent!

Hohner has made some great instruments. I've seen some guitars from back in the 70s that were very cool. I had one of their 5 string headless Steinberger knockoffs back in the late 80s for a bit. Sort of bummed to have sold it.

Hohners are generally good quality stuff. As far as I know and remember they are all made in Asia, Korea mostly (at the same factories that everybody else out sources to) and then brands.

Generally though... It is held/ thought that Hohner tends to have better QC than many of the others.