Music Ground . . . interesting reading

[dave robinson]

A friend pointed me towards this, I'm sharing it here as I believe there will be one or two 'shaftees' on this sight.

http://www.foreverdoomed.com/forums/vie ... 22&t=16387

[Didier]

And don't forget to read this : http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... 6675871.jp

Didier

[Alan Prudhoe]

If this is the old man's house I think I am in the wrong business

http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/sales/1555000

[Iain Purdon]

Yet another good reason not to spend too much money on the tools of the trade!

[stephen]

That makes fascinating, although not unsurprising reading.

Thankfully, I've never lusted after vintage guitars myself and also, have 'luckily' never had the wherewithal to finance such acquisitions, even if I suffered a bang on the head and suddenly had a desire to own a '57 Strat or '58 Les Paul. I have an even stronger aversion to the current craze for relic'd, new guitars. I wont go there now, as my feelings on this have been aired many times on the letters pages of guitar magazines.............

As far as Music Ground is concerned, maybe their boast of being, 'The Supreme Court of Rock 'n Roll' will come back and bite them on the a**e, when they find themselves in a rather different 'Supreme Court', having to explain themselves!

Makes me think of a sentence that stuck in my mind from Tony Bacon's book, 'The Million Dollar Les Paul'. It went something along the lines of,......"Between 1958 and 1960, Gibson's records show that they made 1,850 Les Paul Standards. Surprisingly, there are only 2,500 still around!" My recollection of the exact figures mentioned, may be not be exact, but I'm sure you'll grasp what was being intimated by the author.

I hope that anyone with more info. regarding this Music Ground story will keep this forum updated.

Stephen.

[dave robinson]

My own concern is for the Hofner McCartney bass that I bought back in 2004 at the cost of £1150. It's the 500/1 1963 model and is absolutely spot on when compared with an original that a friend owns. All the fittings, pickups and finish are identical and the sound is' right', so I actually love it to bits. However, this article suggests that all may not be what we think as regards this bass being a genuine Hofner guitar, as our bass player also bought one from Music Ground and has recently tried to contact Hofner over a problem with his . . . . . . . . he can't find the factory in Germany and Rick Harrison doesn't want to know . . . . . Does anyone know if Hofner Germany still exist?

[Alan Prudhoe]

Any of these contact points any good, Dave.
The site was updated on 20 Dec 2010.

http://www.hofner.com/gab/en/content/44/view/16/

[UlrichS]

Does anyone know if Hofner Germany still exist?

Hi Dave,

try http://www.hofner.com/gab/en/

Good luck,

Ulrich

[stephen]

Amongst the large community of Music Ground customers who may or may not be questioning the veracity of their purchase(s), you may be one of the 'luckier' ones with your Hofner (?) bass. I'm not au fait with either Hofner models or their respective prices, but if you paid £1,150 for an instrument that is as good as you say and you "love it to bits", that doesn't seem like too bad an outcome compared with what others might be feeling now.......

Imagine if you'd bought one that supposedly had a Mcartney 'connection', been charged a hefty premium for that aspect alone and then found that any such provenance was just spurious.

There must be many people now, gingerly dismantling their supposed 50's Stratocasters and wondering if there's a way to check if Abigail Ybarra's 50 year old fingerprints are still detectable on the base of their pickups, or if Tadeo Gomez was actually at work on that day that his pencilled initials on the neck heel claim. If this isn't the case and your 'genuine' vintage guitar is just the contemporary product of a disparate band of skilled, Yorkshire guitar fakers, to say that you're going to feel a tad sick, is probably a massive understatement.................

Maybe we've all been a bit too gullible on this whole vintage guitar business and this Music Ground thing is perhaps, a long overdue 'wake-up' call. By the law of averages, as the years roll by, there should have been less prime pieces available to buy, but for some strange reason, Music Ground seemed to have discovered a never-ending supply and had to open several more shops, just to have the space to display them in!

Old guitars? I'm sure that I remember reading somewhere that Hank was asked his opinion on the subject and his response was, "Just because a guitar is an old one, it doesn't neccessarily mean that it's a good one. They produced 'bad' guitars then, the same as they do now". Couldn't agree more.........

Stephen.

[dave robinson]

Thanks guys, I had already found the Hofner site, but there was speculation that Music Ground set these up which is what triggered the alarm bells.
Our two Hofner bass guitars were purchased brand new, not as vintage instruments and we've been delighted with them , the cloud on the horizon regarding their authenticity has been cast by this article. Both our instruments look and feel like the real thing and at £1150 each are good value. I personally feel that they are genuine, but we'll see.
On the subject of vintage instruments, I agree that they are over rated and over priced, I have a '63 Strat and it's by no means the best in my collection - it's way down the list. I once spent a fortune on a 1960 Gretsch Country Gentleman so that I could check out Roberto's theory, but once I was satisfied with my own findings I re-sold it and got my money back. Since then I have bought two new Gretsch guitars that are superior in build and sound.