Hopf Guitars....

[Julian Templeman]

Andy's here in London have a 1975 Hopf "J.P. Professional" for sale. I
first saw a review of one of these about '75 in the long-dead
International Musician magazine (IIRC), and was always interested in
them, but this is the first one I've ever seen in the flesh.

It's a very interesting six-string steel string with a lot of
classical guitar features, which isn't surprising as Dieter Hopf is an
internationally renowned builder of classical instruments. These steel
strings were inspired by Mr.Pearse, hence the name.

The instrument has a slotted headstock with a typically ornate
classical-style look, a pinless bridge that owes more than a little to
classical designs, and a fingerboard way wider than we're used to on
steel strings. I'm not too hot on woods, but it looked to me like a
rosewood fingerboard, spruce top, and some sort of rosewood b&s... oh,
and a wooden pickguard, too. No idea about bracing patterns or
anything like that...

It sounded bright and resonant, definitely well played-in, but I'd
have a problem playing anything with a fingerboard that wide. No way
could I get my thumb around the bottom E for the ragtime pieces...

If I hadn't already bought a guitar this month, I'd be very tempted to
lay out 875UKP for a piece of guitar history...

jt
in london

Templeman Consulting Ltd.
London and North Wales

[John Sorell]

Post by Julian Templeman
Andy's here in London have a 1975 Hopf "J.P. Professional" for sale. I
first saw a review of one of these about '75 in the long-dead
International Musician magazine (IIRC), and was always interested in
them, but this is the first one I've ever seen in the flesh.
It's a very interesting six-string steel string with a lot of
classical guitar features, which isn't surprising as Dieter Hopf is an
internationally renowned builder of classical instruments. These steel
strings were inspired by Mr.Pearse, hence the name.
The instrument has a slotted headstock with a typically ornate
classical-style look, a pinless bridge that owes more than a little to
classical designs, and a fingerboard way wider than we're used to on
steel strings. I'm not too hot on woods, but it looked to me like a
rosewood fingerboard, spruce top, and some sort of rosewood b&s... oh,
and a wooden pickguard, too. No idea about bracing patterns or
anything like that...
It sounded bright and resonant, definitely well played-in, but I'd
have a problem playing anything with a fingerboard that wide. No way
could I get my thumb around the bottom E for the ragtime pieces...
If I hadn't already bought a guitar this month, I'd be very tempted to
lay out 875UKP for a piece of guitar history...
jt
in london
Templeman Consulting Ltd.
London and North Wales

Julian,

What did you buy? I missed that post.

John

[Julian Templeman]

Post by John Sorell
What did you buy? I missed that post.

A 1976 Gurian from Bob Thomas... very nice. It has become a firm
favourite with Son Number 1, because it sounds great with his gentle,
strumming, singer-songwriter playing...

julian

Templeman Consulting Ltd.
London and North Wales

[John Sorell]

Post by Julian Templeman

Post by John Sorell
What did you buy? I missed that post.

A 1976 Gurian from Bob Thomas... very nice. It has become a firm
favourite with Son Number 1, because it sounds great with his gentle,
strumming, singer-songwriter playing...
julian
Templeman Consulting Ltd.
London and North Wales

Ah! I haven't had the pleasure of playing/hearing a Gurian. Maybe one
day....

John

[Sleepy Fingers Jones]

This post might be inappropriate. Click to display it.

[Julian Templeman]

Pete said...

Post by Sleepy Fingers Jones
Gentle, strumming, singer-songwriter playing?
From your son? He's, um, 15 isn't he?
Give the little shit an SG for Christmas and get his head straight
before it's too late..

He's getting a Strat+amp for his 18th in April...

... and if it wasn't for the guitar, I think he'd be writing bad
teenage poetry, so I'm counting myself lucky :-)

julian

Templeman Consulting Ltd.
London and North Wales

[David Morton]

Post by Julian Templeman
bad
teenage poetry

BZZZZZZZZZZZZT<<...Tautology.

[Matt Hayden]

Post by Julian Templeman
Andy's here in London have a 1975 Hopf "J.P. Professional" for sale. I
first saw a review of one of these about '75 in the long-dead
International Musician magazine (IIRC), and was always interested in
them, but this is the first one I've ever seen in the flesh.
It's a very interesting six-string steel string with a lot of
classical guitar features, which isn't surprising as Dieter Hopf is an
internationally renowned builder of classical instruments. These steel
strings were inspired by Mr.Pearse, hence the name.
The instrument has a slotted headstock with a typically ornate
classical-style look, a pinless bridge that owes more than a little to
classical designs, and a fingerboard way wider than we're used to on
steel strings. I'm not too hot on woods, but it looked to me like a
rosewood fingerboard, spruce top, and some sort of rosewood b&s... oh,
and a wooden pickguard, too. No idea about bracing patterns or
anything like that...
It sounded bright and resonant, definitely well played-in, but I'd
have a problem playing anything with a fingerboard that wide. No way
could I get my thumb around the bottom E for the ragtime pieces...
If I hadn't already bought a guitar this month, I'd be very tempted to
lay out 875UKP for a piece of guitar history...
jt
in london
Templeman Consulting Ltd.
London and North Wales

There's a photo of this instrument (or a sibling thereof, at any rate)
in Tom and Mary Anne Evan's book "Guitars from the Renaissance to
Rock." The book alleges that the instrument is designed to take
either hard-tension nylon strings or light-tension steel strings.
Sounds like an interesting instrument.

mh

[JOHNPEARSE]

I designed the JP Professional in the mid-seventies to provide fingerstylists
with a guitar with a wide fingerboard and a slightly longer scale.
The instrument was convertible from steel to nylon stringing by means of a
number of bridge-saddle modules that could be rearranged so as to provide the
player with a great variation of saddle heights and configurations.
The guitar was just one of a number of instruments that I designed for Dieter
Hopf and was the 'flagship' of the line. Regretably it turned out to be
incredibly labour-intensive - and therefore, expensive - and so it was in
production for just two years.
I gave my prototype to Woody Mann a few years back, but I still have - and
regularly play - #2 (the one pictured in the Evans book.)
I believe that the design was way ahead of its time - I have strung #2 with
heavy strings as a baritone guitar for one recording sesssion, for instance,
and right now she is strung in Nashville tuning.

Hope this helps (as WHM would say).
John Pearse.