Hofner bridge

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Sun May 07, 2006 1:09 pm

My buddy Mike recently found a Hofner bass copy, but somewhere along the line it picked up a replacement bridge. He tried a similar design, but found the action became unplayable.
The question is this: what is the height of a Hofner wooden bridge from the base to the saddle top?
Here's a pic of the subject:

fran4001 · Post by **fran4001** » Sun May 07, 2006 1:50 pm

Kevin, I've got 2 Hoffies here, a V62 and a Cavern, and they're both almost the same, within a 1/16 inch. If I understand you correctly, the total height of both my bridge assemblies, from bottom of the bottom half to the top of the nickel string saddle is 7/8" with the thumbwheels fully down. Hofner has made several different heights of both the parts in an effort to make them most playable depending on the final neck angle from the factory, which believe it or not varies widely from sample to sample. The art of handmaking! For instance, my V62 has a thinner bottom half, and a taller top half. My Cavern is just the opposite. If I'm off the mark let me know. I'll measure anything you need. Keep in mind, I've owned a dozen Hofners, which peaked at the 4 I had a few years back, and NO 2 were alike!

325_fan · Post by **325_fan** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:06 am

You're right on. I have two Hoffies; 1968 Beatle Bass, and a 2002 Club Reissue. Both bridges are of different heights. I wish the neck angle on the Club was different. I can't get the bridge down low enough without the strings hitting the pickups and I can't lower the pickups any more. The old 501 needs a neck reset.

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Mon May 08, 2006 2:36 am

The bridge heights did vary over the years depending on how the basses were constructed. My 1957 500/1 has a bridge that's a good bit different than my 1970 500/1....

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Mon May 08, 2006 5:10 am

Thanks, guys! It's the overall height he's concerned about. The replacement bridge is all metal & possibly only the top half of an assembly, since the threaded rods going through the thumbwheels rest on the body & dig into the wood.
Like I said, he tried a similar bridge (from a guitar I believe), but the action is a mile high & the intonation now is so far off it's quite unplayable.
I suppose that you could sand down the wooden pieces to make it the correct height.

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Mon May 08, 2006 6:50 am

Yes, many people have shaved the bridge pedestal down on their Hofners to get a lower action.

I'll admit that the action on my '70 500/1 is higher than I'd like, but it is typical of a Hofner bass of the period with a small-ish neck, and the bass intonates fine...the neck angle is okay too. It's a case of it being the nature of the beast IMO.

Hofner Beatle Basses are NOT an engineering marvel by any stretch of the imagination, and I'd keep the lightest-gauge lowest tension strings on one that I could find. My '57 has great action, but that's because it has a super-fat neck, a very substantial chunk of wood.

fran4001 · Post by **fran4001** » Mon May 08, 2006 10:00 am

Ditto the light strings! Thomastik or Pyramid at the heaviest, in my opinion. Not that a neck reset is the end of the world, but still a nice thing to avoid. So many Hofners left the factory (and still do) with less than optimum neck angle, that even with the truss rod cranked, with heavy stiff strings, it's just gonna pull the tuners toward the body until you're shaving half your bridge away.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Mon May 08, 2006 2:31 pm

My blue sunburst limited edition Hofner 500/1 has one of those "eight mile high" bridges. Rather than modding the original bridge, I opted to buy an after-market clone, and I plan on cutting the top piece of it down enough so that I can get lower action.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Tue May 09, 2006 2:25 pm

kcole4001 · Post by **kcole4001** » Wed May 10, 2006 4:54 am

I think that's going to be the solution here also.
Thanks again, everyone!