Hofner Travel guitar MODDED | New upgrade and sound samples |

In this episode of Geek's Tweaks, my friend Michiel set me the challenge of modding his Hofner Shorty Guitar with a new pickup, New tuners, new wiring, new bridge, the works! This guitar SERIOUSLY kicked my butt.
Here is ALL the stuff I used from Thomann : redir.love/tho...
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#theguitargeek #HofnerShorty #GeeksTweaks

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Please leave a like if this video brought you any joy! Sub here for more - kzbin.info/door/I5i6aBbINMIEkYW3b6olHg

[@grilledspaghetti]

Always wonder while the "70's style" knobs aren't hairy.

[@careyvinzant]

I've been gigging with one of these for about three years now and love it. Mine is of course modded too (Hipshot harp tailpiece, DiMarzio D-Activator, push-pulls on pots for treble bleed and series/parallel, stainless frets, Tusq nut). It's super weird, but it's also my favorite electric ever.

[@tomdameek]

Brilliant Job Andy ! I’m glad you showed your mishaps l. The same thing happened to me with the shorting and with the bigger Jack socket. Great tip with the screwdriver and the neck. Still learning off you so Thanks mate. 😀👍👍👍❤️ These are small, those are far away - Dougal 😀😀

[@brucemillar]

Great video, nothing’s ever easy. I’m glad you did that so as I know not to. Or at least to do things slightly differently. Nice tips for the hardware though. And, as you know, these are small, those are far away. Cheers! 😉👍

[@oldrrocr]

Thanks! you convinced me to start with another guitar, knowing I'll prbly mod it too.🤣🤣🤣

[@pathway777]

Sweet just ordered one

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Oh cool! Enjoy it

[@peteywheatstraws4909]

The fretboard is surprisingly playable. Can't play it sitting down with no strap, there's plenty of articles and videos about how to combat this. Easiest way is have your strap go to a loop behind the nut.

[@tomgreen876]

These are small, those are far away - thank you for the insight, just wanted you to know the torture you went through was worth it and will save me alot of hassel, just picked up a little bad boy of my own and first things i bought were a new graphtech nut and gotoh bridge, will polish up the frets using the same daddario kit and stick some DR neon 10 gauge strings on. needed to replace the strings and polish up the fret board so easy job to get the rest done too.

[@mark5150ty]

When adding larger pots to a small cavity that is shielded with tape I have always found it is easier to just paint the entire cavity so that nothing can ground out.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Paint with what?

[@mark5150ty]

@@TheGuitarGeek any kind of paint LOL just get some black acrylic brush on paint or tape the guitar cavity off and spray it with spray paint any paint will cover the copper and you will not have conductivity. At least a couple of coats or one thick coat

[@PavelTyan]

Many thanks Thomann and Andy for this video! I bought this guitar for the travelling purposes and wanted to upgrade it a bit up to the usable condition and your video has saved a lot of time for me! I already considered HB locking tuners as I had a very positive experience with them in my other mods but I wasn't sure about the size of a GraphTech nut which I also wanted to install and now I am just going to use the one from the video as it looks like it fits perfectly. Very good advice for the bridge! I am going to use the one as well: currently under the link is another option, more expensive, Shaller Signium for 135 EUR but it looks the original one from the video was Gotoh 510UB (Thomann number 476733) for about 2 times lower price than Shaller, so I am going to order the one from the video. Many thanks again - very helpful!

[@conorheduvan]

That Father Ted quote! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Finally! I really thought that one had slipped by.

[@conorheduvan]

@@TheGuitarGeek It caught me by surprise, but I’m really happy to know you’re a fan!!

[@saarangnarayan123]

These pots are not small, and those tuners are definitely not far away. But imagine the possibilities of stripping the paint and doing a DIY paintjob, too.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

I offered.. 😉

[@JWWEntertainment]

If I bought one. Could you make it Left Handed and make a new body? Up for body design sugestions.

[@rjohnson5120]

One word: epoxy. Insulation, packing, and shimming. Fun to watch and makes me want to fool with one! Okay busted. Commented before because these are small, those are far away. And now I'm not sure the juice is worth the squeeze 😅

[@lone-wolf-1]

Bees are small, goose are far away 🤪

[@TheGuitarGeek]

A group of geese is called a gander but only when there are on the ground

[@lone-wolf-1]

@@TheGuitarGeek Nicely twirled back!😊 Gees‘us , I‘m stupid!!😂 edit: came back few weeks later to explain: we germans have a strange way to speak english. There is no excuse for that! It‘s pure ignorance and lack of knowledge. Lesson learned! Thanks! (I just hope, every english speaker knows german at least how I know english...☺️) Don‘t want to mention the other 3-4 languages I speak... you simply can not be perfect in everything...🤷🏻‍♂️

[@matzer8846]

Got one of these too ... modded it: Wilkinson bridge and splitable humbucker, needed a neck reshimming ... ... fun to play when strap is attached like on a western i.e. upper end at headstock ... Thanks a lot for sharing ... fun to watch!

[@TheGuitarGeek]

ahh the western strap style makes a lot of sense!

[@etyramone2000]

Nice ! I found these Hofner guitar (which exists also as a bass) and love the fact that they are travel guitars which doesn't cost 3 times a basic guitar. I dreamt of a modding about them and here it is ! Thanks Andy. I hope someday you make another video about the dookie pedal you thought once of :D cheers !

[@vasotoe]

These are small, those are far away...and Andy is far far away sleepless nights! Wooweee. Nice job!

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Thanks V. I am so happy I did it!

[@robsonkingstrat]

These are small, those are far away!! That was a fun one to watch! :D

[@CoyoteDuran1]

*These are small; those are far way.* *I've owned the red model for over a year now and I fell in love with it. However I DID make upgrades. I swapped the bridge for a black wraparound, the stock nut for a black graphite nut, the stock knobs for speed knobs and the tuners with black locking tuners. I also added Schaller black strap locks. Now this might seem like a lot of money but I got most of the parts from Guitar Fetish. (The strap locks were from my local mom-and-pop guitar shop.) I'm debating swapping out the humbucker too. It's definitely one of my favorite guitars to play on the couch and at work.* 🙂🙂 *That said, this was an awesome vid, Andy. Loved the hard work you put in and attention to detail! You've made a new fan and subscriber!*

[@TheGuitarGeek]

I am thinking about picking up one for myself - It has to be the red one. Welcome to the channel!

[@davegiddings2545]

"OK, one last time. These are small… but the ones out there are far away". 😉

[@luisamau8398]

was a cool project, congratulations

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Thanks Luis

[@greylocke100]

Have you considered converting one of those Hofners to a lap steel?

[@Evilroco]

You made fitting that pickup look so hard my eyes wanted to bleed. I would suggest buying a router or good quality multi tool with mini router bits ,it'll make enlarging body pockets much easier and neater and may save you those sleepless nights. Loved the Father Ted quote at the end , so you know I made it all the way.

[@kksteinhardt]

These are small, those are far away!! Nice work.

[@tallercaller]

In searching for info on a travel guitar that so closely resembles this Hofner that it could be a clone (mine's a lefty Galveston), I stumbled upon this video. "These are small, those are far-away" could be a key to why a 6'6" person (me) would own such a tiny guitar. However, I can't decipher TheGuitarGeek's meaning.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

I’m 6’4, it’s a small guitar body but the neck is more than ok.

[@davidcole5183]

Don't know if you've seen the Spanish guy who used a strap on sand weight on the strap just above the bridge strap pin.

[@dananthony6258]

Your hairs freaking awesome dude.

[@BooleanCorporation]

These are small those are far away but damn what an amount of work went into this thing. My god. Weirdly enough it's actually itching my impulse buy (I have carrying my expensive Gibson around) just to have something I can get to practice now and then, and leave the LP at home for recording and other stuff.

[@panan7777]

This guitar, PositiveGrid MINI or even GO and wireless. Can't get much smaller.

[@bigbasil1908]

I think the wonky tuners look good. They give an offbeat look. A bit jazzy looking.

[@Dave062YT]

Great stuff .I just bought a deluxe (2 pick up)and this is real food for thought .Cheers p.s Does Michiel still have it ? and if so does it get much use?

[@bigbasil1908]

The bridge bolts on my hofner shorty were really loose like they had not been machined to the right size and the bits where the bridge slots into on those bolts are also loose and not machined to the right size. I put some ptfe tape on the bolts which helped a bit. Also the string pegs on the tuner machines were very loose and jiggled about. I put some ptfe tape around those too but they are still a bit wobbly, and I did try to put some heat shrink tubing on them rather than the ptfe tape but alas the tubing was too thick to be able to put the tuner machines back together. It's a nice guitar apart from the shytty quality bridge and tuner machines. I'm probably going to buy some gotoh locking tuner machines for it but that's going to cost about £60+, and maybe I'll get a gotoh bridge for it but those two things cost more than I paid for the guitar brand new lol. Still, it might be worth it to have a decent quality hofner shorty. I have another hofner shorty that I bought before this one that had a couple of bad dents on the guitar body and am thinking of taking the humbucker pickup from that one and adding it to this one, so that it will have two humbuckers (and I have some pick guard material to make a new pick guard to fit the two pickups). An extra pickup, bigger pick guard and a switch should make the body heavier, hopefully balancing the body and neck more.

[@FrostRare]

After thoroughly measuring my nuts I was able to handle this thing with stunning flexibility and endurance.

[@danielr.schafer9504]

Im trying that screw drive trick! looks good and it may soften the edges of the frets if they are softer metals...

[@davidcole5183]

These are small and those are far away. What about the double pickup model (Deluxe, think I)?

[@toddsteele72]

These are small, those are far away. What about modding/ restoring a a guitar that you found cheap in an op shop/ or market? You could film the search as well?

[@Theladrion]

Funny, just bought the bass version 3 days ago, to have something to bring when crossing borders. I thought the fretboard edge bevelling by compression wih a srewedriver was a thing only I did ^^

[@rivulus]

I went through pretty much the same issues when I modded mine a year ago. Mine was an older model and the stock bridge sat so high the lever action pulled the inserts loose in the soft wood of the body. A replacement wilkinson bridge sat much lower. I used a humbucker sized p90, so no problems there. I was too lazy to enlarge the control cavity so I left the mini pots. I don’t do many volume swells on the couch anyways. The frets needed a lot of work though, a full level and recrown. In the end I would not do it again, the base guitar is just too low quality. I like the “traveler” brand mini guitars better. Much more expensive, but they are ready to go right out of the box.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

I think they must have improved. This stock was perfectly playable

[@ThiemPlay]

I really like this project. ☺️ These are small and those are too long. 😜

[@kevinboor3560]

This is indeed small and that is far away Dougal. Very useful, done some modding on my Shorty already. Put an Artec PAF style pickup in there and, dare I say it, I think it sounds better than than the Gretsch (but there again I don't like that sound). I use this guitar every time I'm away with the family as it pops into the little spaces left after all the luggage and the dog have been installed. A "sticky" strap is definitely a bonus with this guitar due to the neck free fall issue. I will be using those locking tuners...I think they're Jin-Ho if I'm not mistaken which is why they're so good I reckon. Musiclily sell them as well and I too have had no issues with these. They are slightly cheaper on Thomann which is great. I have also ordered the Gotoh bridge and the Graphtec nut...did you have to file it at all? Anyway thanks so much...your videos are always worth watching to the end. I use a lot of your tricks when I have a guitar on the bench.

[@PooNinja]

I am small and far far away. But I cast a large shadow. Well my large Butt casts a large shadow anyways

[@TheGuitarGeek]

That’s your butt?

[@PooNinja]

Pandemic pounds 😖

[@fatcuffy]

These are small, those are far away 😉

[@markorollo.]

i'm a beginner, like, never played more than two notes on a guitar beginner, and i'm also a short-arsed wheelchair user, cant handle full size guitars, too big for me, i think this might be just what i'm looking for, ive looked at a few 3/4 scale guitars before, like the epiphone les paul express, but do i really need to go to that level yet?

[@peteywheatstraws4909]

Get one of these and an acoustic guitar strap set up, there's real bad neck dive.

[@PeteCarlton]

"These are right, those are the ones I bought."

[@Fastmoskitorecords]

I have that same guitar (höfner shorty) and bought it as a joke.. but... Is there any way to keep the tune with this guitar? I want to fix that problem :( just dont know how.. Can some one help me??

[@cet777]

What is the gold single pickup guitar hanging behind you?

[@salliemusic5016]

Did you end up not liking the wood(style) tuner buttons? Looks like the final build is back to chrome. I had a similar pots/sizing problem updating my squier affinity precision with larger cts 250k pots and a switchcraft jack. Wiring looked and sounded fine when out of the body, and then short/ground as soon as you get everything in and tightened. Big 'ol bummer. Also had to fill and redrill because the pickguard went on and came back off so many times. Oh, and these are small; those are far away.

[@dalepal]

These are small. Those are far away. It just depends on where you are and your perspective.

[@davidcole5183]

I'm surprised that so many people buy the single pickup version when the double pickup version is only about $20 USD more. On a strap the headstock works better than the forward strap button and a weight of about 250 grams or so on the lower end of the strap

[@edumerloph]

A P90 can be a better option at replacing the original humbucker?

[@superdarkshadow]

hey, I have that one as well (the shirt, not the guitar)

[@TheGuitarGeek]

It’s a nice shirt

[@CountNetsrac]

These are small and far away, but they are not the wood knobs or are they just too far away and small for me to see?

[@leftyamazed]

I have one of those shorty guitars, however I and it are left handed and I believe Hofner don't make any left handed versions, so I guess mine is a shonky knock off. As a good jedi once said These are small, those are far away!

[@TheGuitarGeek]

A far off Galaxy

[@daimong4553]

Just bought bass version, but the NECK DIVE problem drives me crazy. How did you fix it?

[@peteywheatstraws4909]

Have your strap go to a loop behind the nut, like an acoustic guitar setup.

[@charlessmith8544]

So small and far away. I suggest some rich soil and sun lamp. It should grow to a full size guitar in a short time

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Hahahaha

[@davidcole5183]

Why is a capacitor necessary?

[@philspillane8074]

Is there a wrap around bridge for this guitar with clearance to allow for a single string change ?

[@bigbasil1908]

Those are far away and these are small and the smallness of those faraway things are infinitely far away in the smallness of the universe

[@__Anton__]

These are small, those are far away.........Small but perfectly formed 'ish'

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Ish of course!

[@Barondays]

These are small those are far away Hi Andy I'm going to change pick ups in a tele 1st try is a 25 watt soldering iron hot enough or will i need to buy one thanks in hope of ans.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

I would really recommend a 40watt iron. Good luck!

[@Barondays]

@@TheGuitarGeek thanks for your reply i will do that 👍

[@darthfaderlives89]

“I’m gonna solder the socket in now and we’ll have a...celebration?” “The socket doesn’t fit.” At that point I lol’d 😂 These are small but those are far away.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

So did I but I also died a little inside :D

[@bigbasil1908]

I wouldn't run your thing down the fretboard, it could be painful

[@randylinguitar6348]

A lot of work. These are small, those are far away.

[@steweco]

Please consider yourself 120% happy. I think it’s a great job! Btw, what does the bassist owner say to this? Oh Lord, won’t you buy me that Hofner guitar. Since the Islands left the bEUilding (holy #%%*) I’m leaving the Marmite stains on the kitchen floor as they are; for that extra vintage vibe. Disclaimer: These are small and those are far away.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Hahaha, you’re nuttier than I am

[@steweco]

@@TheGuitarGeek you bet! 🥴 No, can’t be. 😅

[@steweco]

@@TheGuitarGeek 2nd thought: I’ll take that as a compliment.

[@xneurianx]

I am small. Andy is far away.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

I cannot disagree

[@TimSamoff]

These are small, those are far away!

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Hey Tim!

[@scienceobrien8335]

These are small and those are ………. I can’t remember

[@rottalmusik6563]

Thies are small and far far away?😉 like in shreck🤣✌

[@adamtoms8809]

I usually clean marmite by licking it.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

The best way

[@adamtoms8809]

@@TheGuitarGeek no ferrules so I stopped watching.

[@NinoSidari]

I have nothing to say except these are small and those are far away

[@davidcole5183]

These are small and those are far away

[@TheMadHatter625]

These are small … those are far away

[@TheGuitarGeek]

hahahaha

[@chriscooper9108]

Small & far away i cant understand why you'd spend that much money on a guitar like that.?

[@derrickd3gmail]

Can you tell me what the overall length of the hofner guitar is? I could only find 32.5 inches (825.5 mm), but I found this on a forum and not on hofner's official webpage. Thanks so much.

[@TheGuitarGeek]

Sorry , it’s already with the new owner

[@tonybrooks476]

These are small and those are far away.