LG,Here are my two Hopf OMs which I’ve wanted to introduce in this group for a while now, a Hopf „John Pearse Professional“ built Feb. 1977 (always in the left of the pics) and a Hopf “The Swinger“ built in Jan. 1976. Both guitars are essentially the same instrument, one sold under license as a John Pearse signature model and one sold without the name (and therefore slightly cheaper) and with some design differences (mainly different headstock-shape, scratch-plate shape, slightly longer scale, narrow fingerboard). The Hopf JP Professional was developed in the mid- to late 1970ies by Dieter Hopf together with the English singer-songwriter John Pearse of the BBC’s classic „Hold Down A Chord“ guitar course fame, who lived - and died - in Germany. Aside from the fact that it is a signature model, it also featured some innovations at the time, such as the reinforced fan-bracing inspired by classical guitars and the fact that it was designed so it could be played with both steel-strings as well as nylon strings - one of the first cross-over guitars I guess!
Some more details, with noted differences between the models:
- Cedar top, solid
- Jacaranda sides and back, solid
- Jacaranda pick-guard
- Slotted headstock, tuners w/metal shafts (JP Professional) / plastic shafts (The Swinger)
- bone-nut (I had to make a new one for the Swinger as the old one had been messed with)
- Scale, 650mm (JP Professional) / 660mm (The Swinger)
- Neck-width @ nut: 50mm (JP Professional) / 45mm (The Swinger)
- Neck-width @ 12th fret: 60mm (JP Professional) / 55mm (The Swinger)
- Fan-style bracing, reinforced
- Bridge-saddle can be exchanged for use w/nylon strings (currently set-up for steel strings)
An interesting story about my JP Professional is that the previous owner who sold it to me bought it from internationally renowned German Jazz-guitarist Volker Kriegel in November 1978 in his shop in Frankfurt which he was running with Peter Coura at the time.
Enjoy!
Niels