Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I do to J.W. He actually passed on the Rick when it was first presented to him. The bass was made in early 1964. He didn't take it until 1965 when they played the Hollywood Bowl. Probably because the Rick had good intonation, and the Hofner didn't. Those basses are often hard to intonate. He's also said that the Rick recorded better too.
I've read that early on John and George didn't like the Hofner bass much and wanted Paul to get something like a Gibson EB-0. McCartney didn't do it and the rest is history. But what if he had? Gibson would be making Beatle EB-0 basses and who knows what would have become of Hofner.

Knowing Paul he was probably afraid that Ric was gonna make some money after and endorsement of him using a Ric bass. So he didn't take the Ric until he realized that they did not want and endorsement.
The Ric being better in recording is probably because it masked his use of that pick better than the Hofner did besides the obvious better tuning contributions. I have often wondered why Paul played bass with a pick and guitar with his fingers. The Hofner would have benifited greatly from finger picking in tone.
Paul is very asute on the business end of things and the Hofner is almost unique to him. Probably why its symbol is now used on the Lexus series that he did the commericals for. It almost universally seen as a Paul bass.
I have and EBO and its a pretty good bass. Again knowing Paul it was probably a cost issue with him as the Hofner was cheaper. That and Stu already had a Hofner that he had played and perhaps liked.
It is known that he asked Stu to sell or give him the Hofner but Stu refused. Its other advantage was that it is lighter than the EBO.
In a way Gibson could still have had the McCartney contract on basses in a way as they were the first to put in production a Violin bass. It was a deep maghogny color. Jack Bruce used one a lot with Cream.
Randy the Epiphone Viola is a pretty nice Violin bass. But other than the Contemporary its the most expensive none main line Hofner like model. Its also the most unlike Hofner model Violin bass now in production. Its also heavier than any other Violin bass in production.
The sides of these Violin basses are made of plywood and the Epi Viola's is thicker. Thats what makes the greater weight. The three knobs in the control panel instead of the proper switches is hard to get past to.
I agree with you the Contemporary is the nicest looking none top of the line German made Violin bass out there. Its hard not to get GAS for it LOL.. But its just not worth that much money.
If you like a little heavier bass with a thicker neck go for the Rogue. If you want a thinner neck, lighter weight and either black or brown burst more like the Hofner get the Turser.
The Rogue actually looks better in person that it does on the screen and the pic's in the musician's friend catalog. Unlike the Icon that looks better in the pic's than in person.
None of them look as good as the Contemporary except the real thing. But with a few mods they can be made to look really nice though.

I played my old Hofner with a pick because of the tight string spacing. I was never comfortable playing it with my fingers. Some people are, but for me it was a pick bass all the way. Thanks for all the input on the copies, since I've never played any except the Viola bass, which felt like the Hofner quite a bit to me.

I've got the Rogue, and was amazed at how good the intonation was for a short scale bass. I can get a very nice sound with the neck pickup.
I've been a finger player for years, but am trying to get good at pick (felt pick mainly) as that gives me the attack and sound I prefer.

How are the pick ups on the Rogue? It looks like the Rogue, Turser, Brice, and the Epi Viola bass have the same type pick ups. With a little work and some patience, you can get the intonation pretty good on those type basses.

They're all mini humbuckers Randy. Basically the same pickups that have taken over from P90's in them. You see em in a lot of new guitars that had P90's in them.
They are fairly strong pickups and do cancel hum as their name emplies. As you said and I'll reinforce I have no problems with the intonation of these basses either.
I probably just got used to playing (finger picking) these things with my old Violin bass. So much so that its to the opposite extreme for me from you. That is when I try to play say a Fender bass. I find myself hitting thin air when I try for the next string when finger picking more times than I'd like to admit. But the string spacing must be the same on my EBO and bigger hollow body bass as I have no problem with them either.
The Viola is not a bad bass at all. Its just heavier than the Rogue and Turser verisions and has the more unHofner looking control panel of the group. Add to that to the fact that it more expensive than any of them by a 100 to 200 more dollars made it a none choice to me.
Once you get into the four or five hundred dollar range then you might as well look at the Contemporary. As it looks so much better than the Viola.
So its not that the Viola is a bad bass its not. Its just that the Rogue and Turser are just as good and a lot cheaper. Once you deciede that the Contemporary is too much then your into the best bang for the buck catagory.
I think right now that the Rogue and Turser are that best bang right now unless the Contemporary comes down. If they do then look out Rogue and Turser.

Well, after having the Hofner Club for a few weeks, I'm ready to go back to the Rogue. I just had to have the real thing after seeing the Icon. I swear I should have my head examined sometime. LOL
Don't get me wrong, the German made Hofner is really nice, but I can't see the price difference for such a one trick pony.
There is a really nice looking Rogue on Ebay now, posed with a stuffed bear that has a superior looking finish on it. Much less yellow than the one I had.
Also, MF has a limited amount of new Rogue BB's listed at $219. I wonder if MF is going to stop selling the Rogue due to the sales of the Hofner Icon series?
If I get another Rogue, I think I may paint the ends of the p/g and control plate black like the German Hofner. Then paint the control switches white, slap some banjo tuners on it, and maybe some teacups.
My only complaint with the Rogue pickups where that they only needed to be slightly turned and you had full volume. I noticed the German Hofner pups are the same way. The other issue with the Rogue pups are they are real loose, and rock back and forth if you raise them a little.
Overall it basically has the same vibe as the Hofner without spending a fortune.
Look for my Hofner 500/2 Club on Ebay soon.

Don't feel bad Bob! I bought my Hofner back in 1979. As I remember, I paid around $850 to $900 with case. It wasn't worth it to me. The pick ups were those bar magnet ones that they used in the late 60's. They weren't bad, just not that good IMO. So I sold it and lost quite a bit of money too.. That's why I don't want to spent the money on the Contemp. bass now. After getting over my GAS over it, I'd still like to have a violin bass with flats to go with my Ricks. But I'm not paying $900 for it. And the German ones are even more ridiculously over priced to me. I'm more likely to go with one of the many much cheaper versions out there. After all that's why Macca bought it in the first place. It was cheap, about $80 in US money in 1961. Correct me if I'm wrong about that. I'm not sure.

I'm look at a black Brice right now. For the price and the color, that might be the way I go.

I'm with you Bob I did all the mods that you are talking about and more to mine. I've had a quite a few folks to ask me if they bought one would I do theirs up like mine.
Of course the German made Hofner guys will give us H*&@ for saying it about their Hofners but I think its just sour grapes on their part for getting taken for so much money.
If the Contemporary ever comes down to five hundred or so I'd still get one. The finish is gorgeous on it. But just not eight hundred worth of gorgeous LOL..
Even if I bought one I'd have a lot of the same mods to make to.

There's was a Turser on E-Bay with all the Hofner mods done to it. It even had the Hofner logo on the headstock. The seller was not passing it off as a real Hofner though, just a good copy. The seller wouldn't say it was a Turser for sure, but it sure looked like one to me. It would be nice it the Contemporary would come down some, not likely though. If anything it will go up in price in time.

I would not count on it staying high in price. It might either go away or get cheaper. It probably cost Hofner more to ship these things than it does to make them and they already have the production started.
They are making a ton of money on these things per unit. But if they are not moving large amounts of units. Then going down in price is not gonna hurt them that much per unit but it would be made up massively in numbers of the units that were then sold if they were a little cheaper. After all you can only charge what the market will bear or not do any business.
If it dramatically increased their sales then why not go down? The higher price is really all that stands between them and the other makers of these things like Turser, Rogue, Brice, Eastwood, and on, and on.
If they got these other's market shares that would be lots of units moved. Ultimately thats the name of the asian game
Obviously what scares them a lot more is having a unit simular to the german models at a cheaper price. But a cheaper Contemporary is not gonna hurt their german bass sales much if any as the die hard german made hopefuls are still gonna buy them. Not only that but the die hards are the only ones buying the german units to begin with.
Think about it the guys like you and I are not gonna buy a german one any way unless its used. This thread would not have gained all the hits that it has unless potential buyers were not interested in a cheaper asian unit but willing to accept some differences like the Contemporary has in it but not as bad as the Icon.
Fender sells its Squir, mexican standard, and japanese Strats that look for all the world like a real american Strat until you play it.
But everyone who keeps playing guitar wants to get and american made Strat eventually. They might brag on their mexi Strat like we will our asia Contemporary and present asia models but they will still want the american or german equivalent.
Its not gonna happen but the same would apply to Ric if they made and asia model Ric users might start with the asian model but they would always aspire to the american model.
Right now though Ric is the best bang for the buck american made instrument that exist today. Very good for us.
But now that Hofner is playing the asian game they might as well play it to win. Since they have started they is no reason why they shouldn't lower the cost per unit on the Contemporary and win the whole shooting match. They could put the others out of business if they did.
If want one right now though get that Turser if the price is right for you. Does it have a case with it? I have a case for all three of my asia models. I don't think any instrument is gonna be in as good of a condition with out a case.
My buddy and I were at a local music store one day that was advertizing gig bags for sale. They had this really beat up Strat with a sign on it that read "this is what your guitar will look like with out a gig bag".
The salesman came over to my buddy and said wanna buy one of these while they are on sale? My buddy stood there for a minute like he always does before answering any question and then told the guy. That sign is wrong, It should say this is what your guitar will look like with a gig bag.

If you are going to do any traveling,even for local gigs I think a case is a must. As for the Hofners coming down, they might go on sale for a cheaper price from time to time. But Hofner is betting that players who want that type of bass, that can't afford the German units, will pay a little more a bass with the Hofner name. I won't, because I've owned one in the past, but there are those that will and that's their choice. Whether enough actually do or not to justify the price, remains to be seen. I do believe though that there are very nice Beatle bass clones that play and sound as good as the Hofners for much less. And that's the direction I've chosen to go in.

Your right Randy every guitar deserves a case. I keep mine in the cases even in the house when they're not being used. No wall hangers from me LOL.. It would be alright if you wanna take pic's of them or show them to guests as conversation pieces or something. But most of the time they stay in the case when they are not in use.
As for the looks. I have even seen some Beatle fans that were fooled by the other Violin basses when properly modded. They is nothing really off too bad about the looks except for the lenght of the body itself and its hard to notice from more than a few feet away.
As far as the power of the pickups I can give you a little bit more of a personal insight into that now. We had a band practise out here last night. I was not playing bass, I was on guitar.
My buddy who was playing bass used a lot of my basses and his bass at practise. His favorite out of all of them is my Rogue. He however played three others first. When he got around to plugging in with Rogue I noticied a big Volume Increase.
He had to turn it down on the bass volume control pots quite a bit. I didn't think about it any more until after practise when he bought it up and mentioned it again.
He said that he was very surprized that the Rogue was so much louder even than the EBO. As you know and EBO has a huge humbucker on it. So yes the Mini Humbuckers used on these things are pretty strong.
I might have been wrong if it were just myself. But he was playing the things and knew what the exact volume levels that he was using were.
Next time we'll take my Turser out there and see if its pickups are as strong as the Rogue's. They might be the same volume and they might not. Some folks say these things are made in the same factory. But I can tell you for sure that are not. The Rogue is made in Korea while the Turser is made in China.
But it is possible that many of the parts are outsourced to different locations. So the mini humbuckers could be the same or they might just be in the same covers. The Hofner Chinese basses might even be the same pickups with different covers.
Such things are pretty easy to do. I have several Strats and I'm fond of Lace Sensor pickups. I have some in cases with fake pole pieces and others with flat covers and some even in different colors.
Other examples would be my Tenny Highlo's come in the same cover case as Filtertrons and Ric Toasters and Highgains come in the same cover case.
My buddy who was playing bass, dad was the manager of a factory in China for two years thats owned by local merchant. Thats how I know that it costs more to ship products to here that it does to make them over there.
Companies like Hofner and Vox are paying next to nothing for the orignal products. Then paying the freight and making a killing off of selling them. I'm sure that Hofner is not paying any more to produce these basses than Turser, Rogue or any of the others. Its just the Hofner name thats being payed for.
As you said weather or not they will actually sell a lot of the Contemporary series is not for certain yet. But I do know that a lot of folk's lust have cooled off for the Icon for sure after some have been actually seen.
Right now a sunburst Turser is a lot better looking bass without all the finish flaws and the necks are straight.
But the Contemporary has it beat by quite a bit in looks. It just remains to be seen now if Hofner is savy enough to lower the price to around 550 or so and sell a bunch of them or not?

Have you guys seen that more and more used Icon series are starting to pop up on EBay?

If Hofner lowers the price of the Contemporary to $550 I'll buy one.