Thursday 31 March 2016

Höfner Shorty - DIY modifications

If you've missed reading my review Hofner Shorty - Test Drive, I suggest that you do before diving into this article that is specially written for handymen.

Tools required for donkey-work

  1. 18" straight-edgfoame (or a steel ruler)
  2. Feeler gauge (Metric)
  3. Small Phillips screwdriver
  4. Large Phillips screwdriver
  5. Small flat-head screwdriver
  6. Large flat-head screwdriver
  7. Foam rubber tubing
  8. Teflon grease
  9. Teflon tape
  10. Fish-wire
  11. Scissors
Breathe down my neck, baby!

The 12" radius neck (maple neck with rosewood fingerboard) came straight as an arrow from the factory. Some
players would prefer this but I wanted a slight relief (dip in the middle, back bow) for the strings to vibrate freely during hard strumming.

Access to the adjustable truss-rod was difficult; at least two strings needed to be moved aside to unscrew three Phillips screws of the 
head-stock's plastic cover.
Using the supplied Allen key, the truss-rod was loosened by a quarter turn in the anti-clockwise direction (looking down from the head-stock).

With a capo placed at the first fret, the strings were held down at the 17th fret. Using a feeler gauge, 
a satisfactory gap of 0.10 mm was  achieved (measured between the fret's top and the string's bottom at the 7th fret).

Bridge under troubled body

The chunky Schaller look-alike nickel-plated bridge was placed too close to the pickup. It was moved back to achieve the 24.75" (62.8 cm) scale length for which the Shorty is designed (Gibson Les Paul's scale length is the same). Fender guitars usually come with a longer 25.5" scale, hence their twangy sound.

By fiddling with the two large flat-head studs of the bridge and the two Phillips side-screws at its rear back, I was able to move it back to 
achieve the following gaps:

Bass side: 5.50 mm
Treble side: 5.00 mm

The studs were unscrewed and their bottom halves covered with Teflon tape to make them fit snugly for a bridge that would not move about in the bushings.


That's where the action is

I adjusted the bridge height for 
a comfortable playing ACTION (height of bottom of string from top of fret at 12th fret). At the bridge, base-to-body heights of the studs was adjusted to get the following:

Bass side: 5.50 mm
Treble side: 3.50 mm

Although Höfner's suggested ACTION is 2.00 mm (bass side) and 1.30 mm (treble side) at the 12th fret, 
I set it for the following:

Bass side: 1.60 mm (lower than recommended)
Treble side: 1.40 mm (slightly higher than recommended)

ACTION measured at the 1st fret (
Bass and Treble strings): 0.45 mm.

The above-mentioned adjustments might seem tedious and difficult but if left uncorrected, a player will end up applying greater force ('high action') to press the strings and sounding out of tune higher up the fret-board due to intonation problems. Both things are undesireable.

Strap buttons

Although the buttons are large and very useable, the rubber washers under the strap buttons sat with their bellies sticking out. I adjusted them to look proper.

Tuners won't tune her

The Shorty's tuning tended to drift a lot. This was due to loose tuner shafts and wobbly knobs. One may
spend money on more expensive tuning machines but not before trying the following trick for free.

At the head-stock, I unscrewed the hexagonal top nut of one tuner and found its centre-post wiggling merrily. After unscrewing one Phillips screw from the rear of the head-stock, I was able to take the tuner off completely. The centre-post was given a few turns of Teflon tape and after reassembly it felt snug in its place.

Since the lose Phillips screws of the tuners' knobs also contributed to tuning problems, I tightened them somewhat for a tighter turning feel and hence greater 
stability. The Shorty now stays perfectly in tune all the time.

Grease monkey

With just a touch of Teflon grease I lubricated the top of the individual bridge saddles to make the strings move easily over them. I also lubricated each string's slot on the nut to make the strings move easily inside them. Instead of grease, some guitarists use powdered graphite from a soft pencil.

Are you nuts?

Höfner claims the nut is made out of bone. My guess is that it is made out of water buffalo horn.

The heights of strings at the first fret, as they passed over the nut, were fine. If these are high on your guitar, the action there can make playing uncomfortable. You will need to have the slots filed down 
by a guitar repairs-person using special nut files.

Odd harmonics are bad for love


Odd harmonics (overtones) generated behind the nut tend to colour the sound in a negative way. A strip of hard rubber was placed under the strings and just behind the nut to mute all the odd harmonics of the strings.

You'll see players as old as Elvis Presley using devices to dampen unwanted vibrations for a better tonal balance between open and fretted notes.

Foam rubber can be stuck between the bridge and a tailpiece (as on Les Paul) but the Shorty has no such need as it comes with a combination bridge-tailpiece.

To find out how much difference no dampening makes, strum between the bridge and the tailpiece (or nut and tuners). Those loud off-key pitches can interfere with synthesizer tracking in case you're using a MIDI device.
Pinkie-pad and wrist-pad added
Slap my wrist, twist my pinkie

A Fender guitar's large pick-guard and a Gibson's floating type help guitarists anchor their right hand fingers for comfortable playing. The Shorty's low pick-guard makes the right hand automatically move towards the neck where it remains oddly suspended in the air to make 
picking difficult.

I tried resting my right wrist over the bridge but its sharp saddle edges hurt. The abnormal Shorty had too much space underneath the strings.

At least a 3.40 cm high wrist-pad is required to provide comfortable anchoring while playing.

Occasionally I require anchoring my right pinkie on the pick-guard. Again this could not be done on the Shorty. So I stuck at the bottom of the pickup frame an adhesive stick-on furniture protector. Its thickness of 1.40 cm was just right for the job.

The humbucking bugger

I played the Shorty through various amplifiers and found the guitar's humbucking pickup sounding harsh, treble-heavy and sonicly imbalanced. The bass lacked clarity and punch.

By adjusting the pickup height from both ends, I was able to alter the balance between bass and treble. T
he middle Phillips screws on both ends of the pickup frame were adjusted until I got the following heights (measured from the pickup's plastic frame):

Bass side: 0.50 cm
Treble side: 1.00 cm

I think this humbucker contains ceramic magnets with excessive machine-wound copper wire around the bobbins. Since there is nothing smooth or classy about the Shorty's sound, perhaps changing to a pickup of choice will inject new life into this guitar.

As of this writing, I'm considering a very special hand-wound pickup that's made in England but before doing so, I must replace the original strings with something better to hear what the Shorty really sounds like.


A rubber piece can dampen odd harmonics
Since there's a gap of 9.00 cm between the fret-boards' end and the humbucker, installing one more Tele 'lipstick' pickup (with circuit modifications) might provide greater tonal variations on the Shorty.

Tone and Vallium controls

Nothing in the world is sillier than slippery knobs under sweaty conditions. Thankfully, the Shorty comes with 
round knurled metal knobs that are exceptionally smoothly. Just like for vintage wiring, the tone remains intact when the volume is turned down (something that doesn't happen on many 'modern' guitars).

The humbucker sounds treble-heavy only when the tone control is left wide open but when turned down, the tone is quite controllable. One could also try inserting a resistor in the circuit to make this guitar less shrill.

Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton and Jeff Beck have shown us how to do tone and volume swells on Fender guitars not with volume pedals but with pinkies; you can easily do the same tricks on the Shorty. I feel the volume and tone controls could have been placed a bit farther apart for greater flexibility.

The ratings of the capacitors and potentiometers (pots) used are as yet unknown.

0.022μF for humbucker (normally 0.047μF is used for single coil pickups).

500K for humbucker (normally 250K is used for single coil pickups).

The innards

A bit of hum is always heard when the Shorty is plugged into an amp. I lined the pots and pickup cavities with aluminium tape to take care of this 'hmmm' problem. Since there was no hole drilled internally that allowed a ground wire to connect with the bridge studs, I simply attached a wire to the two points to get rid of hum produced when hands are taken off the Shorty. 


Unbalanced personality

When you wear the Shorty with a guitar strap, its head-stock drops and renders it unwearable. If you are seated, it behaves like a very restless infant. A ballast weight of approximately 1.20 Kg is required at the body end to keep it properly angled for playing. Tying the guitar strap to the head-stock somewhat stabilised playing.


Is that a bone nut?
Louis Vuitton soft-bag

I cut a sheet of 1/2" foam, folded it inside the bag, glued the bottom end together and added a foam strip at the bottom end for the guitar body to rest upon. I also created a 2'' thick neck support out of the same foam. With this done I could afford to bang around this soft-bag without worrying about inducing stress on the neck or the head-stock.

The original Made-in-Germany Shorty

This baby came with hardware, tuners and a humbucking pickup made by Schaller of Germany. If you had the same goodies on the Chinese Shorty (let's call it Chorty), it might cost U$D 250 extra.

Like some of their current more expensive Höfner guitars, the company could offer a German model with all the bells and whistles attached. Would you believe, it once also offered Shorty with a built-in amplifier and speaker, and came in kit form for assembly at home? Gone are the days when quality oozed from objects of desire for much less money.
Watch my back, Fraulin
In conclusion

Even pricey guitars tend to emerge from factories without being properly set up. Today manufacturers save time (money) and leave you to struggle with guitars that sound awful and feel uncomfortable. This is a huge conspiracy against the consumers; the manufacturers had better clean up their act. New guitars must have documentation that certifies that each and every item has been properly set up. Just affixing 'QC' or 'passed' stickers does not do justice to musicians.
Original baby from Germany

Most people are not even aware of the kinds of faults I have highlighted here and end up spending more money on 'better' guitars. A guitar technician may charge as much as GBP 65 (U$D 100) for doing what I did—and that will not include modifying the tuners.

So, go ahead buy a Shorty and experiment like a mad scientist.

And don't miss reading part-I of this article: Hofner Shorty - Test Drive

Model code: HCT-SH-RD-O
My guitar's S/No: P0408H323
All pictures by the author, except that of 'donkey with a guitar' and Mid '80's Shorty Super-181 (Wolfgang, Germany)

©Tahir Gul Hasan, 2016

23 comments:

Unknown said...

A well written article with little little details for guitar lovers out there. Good information shared. I love the sub titles in your article. Excellent read.

Moosey said...

very useful article, i have a green one of these hofners and i must agree with you, it a dog of a guitar and needs tweaking before its playable to an acceptable standard, i replaced all the hardware with schaller parts on mine, this meant drilling the bridge posts to put in imperial threaded studs, i also replaced the nut which wasn't even cut properly on mine, the strings would bind in the slots, the only issue ive noticed is to get the action playable the bridge has to be very high, i plan to remove a couple of mm off the back of the neck to make it closer and flatter to the body (its at an odd angle), this should make it so the bridge can be lowered and sort the action out in one go.

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

Thanks for your comments, Moosey. You seem to be a tinkerer too! :)

Unknown said...

Interesting and useful article.

I have modded my shorty into a headless to fit into carry on baggage with neck removed. Details here:

http://www.trans-fi.com/hofner-shorty

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

Thanks! You've done a remarkable job yourself.

toffee said...

Thank you for this interesting and helpfull article. I bought a red Shorty just a week ago, manufactured somewhere between 2005 and 2008 and I struggled with the tuning of this little monster all the time. After reading your article, I inspected the tuners and they were wiggling as a bunch of grass in the storm. I tightened them as discribed and now it's just as you said: it perfectly stays in tune. Thank you!

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

Toffee! Edible name there. Glad to be of service to out-of-tune humanity.

Victor said...

I'm thinking of replacing the nut. Which one did you use? There are many sizes available out there

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

Why are you considering changing the nut? Thus far I've not bothered changing the nut because it sounds fine to me. I'd rather experiment with a new pickup than spend money on the nut.

Please consult the article below and you'll be able to appreciate what to consider if you plan to go nuts!

Re-Fretting Gibson Les Paul Custom

http://writersblocktgh.blogspot.com/2017/02/re-fretting-gibson-les-paul-custom.html

Racer_X said...

Nice guitar for the price, and travels well. I think i must have gotten a good one since mine seemed to play really well out of the box. I have done a setup on it though, just to tweak it a bit. Been thinking about what else I could do to modify it a bit. The one pickup is pretty good, especially when you cut the treble a bit - but thinking about adding a neck pickup or piezo under the bridge, to add more of a mellow tone. Any ideas? Anyone else mod'ed the pickups on a Shorty?

Anonymous said...

Great job, and thanks for this post! I got one recently (used) but there was no allen key in the bag. Could you tell be which one I can get instead? Thanks

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

I didn't measure the wrench size! A man CAN make mistakes! May I suggest that you try different Allen wrenches? Thanks for the compliments!

Anonymous said...

i just picked up a black shorty. i changed out the tuners for some spare PRS ones and that did the trick to keep in tune. i wnat to change out the pickup for sonething cool like a JB or a pearly gates maybe even a Lace alumitone humbucker but i cant seem to find anyone else out there that has changed the pickup or was clear on what they chose. Cheers

Ian L'Ordinaire said...

You said you converted your scale length to 24.7" scale yet on my shorty its already 24.7" scale. This is what the available information said and I've also measured it so it is. Have you actually made it a 25.5" scale instead? I wanted to do that but now i'm confused!

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

Ian, thanks for reading my blog but what I wrote was:

"The chunky Schaller look-alike nickel-plated bridge was placed too close to the pickup. It was moved back to achieve the 24.75" (62.8 cm) scale length for which the Shorty is designed (Gibson Les Paul's scale length is the same). Fender guitars usually come with a longer 25.5" scale, hence their twangy sound."

What I meant was that the Shorty's slightly shorter scale length was finely ADJUSTED (increased) to read exactly 24.75" (62.8 cm). I didn't increase it to 25.5", which is for Fender guitars!

I hope that answers your question.

Jez said...

I modded my shorty by swapping out the pickup for a seymour duncan p-rails. Added an on-off-on switch inbetween the volume and tone controls and now I can have either a humbucker (middle position), a single coil or a P90. Great mod and provides a wide variety of sounds. I love the sound sound of the P90 on this guitar. I had to rout out the body cavity a bit to make room for the rather large switch I had. Whilst it was dissembled, I took the opportunity to strip the paintwork back and do a nitro sea-foam green finish.
Couple of tips that assist playing. Whilst playing sitting down, I place my right leg through the strap so that the strap at the back goes down under my leg. I can then sit on it to maintain tension and keep the neck up. I also added a small carabiner to my strap at the rear strap button. This clips into my belt loop when I'm standing up and keeps the neck from dipping.

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

Jez, thanks for sharing your ideas. I guess you're a genius! Due to the soft wood of the body, I decided not to undertake major surgery but rather make the Shorty more comfortable to play.
I also consulted with an expert guitar technician who thought I'd be wasting money on a cheap guitar by upgrading it heavily. So, I used the cash-in-hand to buy a Fender Modern Player Plus. Very happy with it!

Jez said...

Thanks Tahir. Hardly a genius, just had some bit's and pieces lying around from another project and a soldering iron. I'm slightly in awe of the set-up and tweaks that you've done, but now inspired to try. I've not played around too much with the neck and action, but now I'll give that a go.
Interesting that you mention the Fender modern player plus as I had the telecaster version for a number of years but loved it too much to start playing around with modding it in any way. It was the shorty and a self build that tempted me to try things out, on the basis that if it went too wrong, I hadn't ruined a beautiful guitar. Maybe it is the very imperfections of the shorty that push us to try and change it! BTW, your technician was right about the soft wood body. The sea-foam green isn't beautiful, but for a first try I was satisfied.

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

Jesus Jez! You've posted an entire article here! Great! Keep on rockin'.
I'm not into modifying primarily because all my guitars are very expensive to replace; messing around with the originals will ruin their originality and vintage value.
Do check out my other music related articles, especially the one about the Les Paul 'black beauty'.
Damn the Covid-19, just stay well.

Johan Dalén said...

Hi, I enjoyed reading your article, especially since I have a Shorty wich Im struggling with a bit. The neck dive and lack of wristsupport make it difficult to use. I think adding a wristpad could be a good idea. How did you attach the wristsupport to the guitar?
Best wishes,
Johan from Sweden

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

Hello Johan from Sweden. I love that country!
Thanks for your kind comments.
God, I haven't touched Shorty baby in a long time.
Hmmm...This wrist-pad thing was attached to the bridge using a fishwire, if I remember correctly.
Right now there aren't any wrist or pinkie pads attached. Hopefully soon I'll find a better solution for the neck-heavy Shorty to stay in a playable position.
Best regards.
Tahir

Jez said...

Easiest solution I've found is a micro caribiner (about 4-5cm in length)
Clip it through the guitar strap at the hole where it attaches to the back of the body. When you put on the shorty, the clip should be by one of the belt loops on your jeans. Clip the carabiner into the belt loop and the neck dive is completely sorted. I find it also prevents someone knicking your shorty and running off with it easily... I've got some photos, but don't know how to add those to the site.

Tahir Gul Hasan said...

Welcome back, Jez.
Good idea but something else needs to be done to ensure that the Shorty stays in position while you're standing, sitting normally or playing like a classical guitarist.
Regards.