Hofner 459 Repair

[sgosnell]

I like Tru-Oil. It's easy to apply, non-toxic, and dries to a very hard finish. I used it on the neck of an old Epiphone that had been badly refinished and the neck needed work. You can't tell the difference in the finish between the body with nitro and the neck with Tru-Oil. Touchups are easy if needed.

[Glenn Jennings]

Greetings folks, Tuners have arrived safely. Of interest is the fact that the ferules are larger in diameter than the holes in the neck head so I will need to drill them out. I thought that the holes would be larger than the ferules and I would have to bush them down to fit the ferules. Not a problem I have a plan.

I will do a test hole in some hardwood scrap and to determine the exact size required to fit the ferules into. I don’t want it to be too tight as with the wood being so old and dry I don’t want to risk splitting the wood by pressing them in too hard. Also don’t want to delaminate the fancy plastic layer on the front of the neck If that happens she is ruined. Would be like driving a nail into a piece of pallet timber in order to fix a loose board. Unless you drill a hole for the nail it splits 90% of the time. Might be better to drill to a push by hand fit and use a touch of the PVA water soluble glue to lock them in place. this can be sprung by steaming or letting a little water work its way into the glue over a couple of days should one want to get the ferules out at some later stage.

In order to get things lined up properly I plan to take the appropriate drill and stick it in the metal lathe chuck. spin her up to high speed and with judicious use of a grinding block that I can fit into the lathe tool holder I will step the drill down until the last half an inch is a neat fit in the existing holes in the neck head. This section of the drill then becomes a centering guide for the thicker part which will bore out to the required size.

I could use a drill the right hole size to centre the hole in the neck head clamp it in place the swap the drill out to the required drill size for the ferule but I think this is a recipe for a major balls up. You only need to be out be few thou of an inch and the whole thing will bind on the tuner posts which is to be avoided at all cost. There is not a lot of clearance in the ferules when the tuner posts are fitted. We are only talking a few thou here.

Well Stephen the tuners are fitted and the neck ready to glue in Have attached photos of the stepper drill I made and the jig for holding the neck in. The modified drill has worked perfectly for centering the drill in the existing hole and reaming the hole out to the desired size without drifting off centre the tuners dropped straight in no adjustment required.
Jay suggested I make some minor adjustment on the angle of the neck then we glued her in. The jig has worked perfectly and the neck alignment is right on the centerline and the neck angle is spot on so I'm a very very happy guy about now.

The neck is a lot better fit in the body than it was before and with cleaning off the heavy glue deposits back to good wood has dropped down lower in the join by about 1.5 mm and has locked in tight on the sides of the V notch join. The original joint looked to be a bit of a dry joint with the glue holding hands in some spots and large areas with nothing on it at all. I think we have a winner. Jay was happy with it so I must have got it right, Many many sincere thanks to Jay and Stephen for their support and assistance with the project.

[Jehu]

Nicely done, Glenn. Looking forward to the first 2 x 459 jam in New Zealand history! We should start a duo called "918".

[Glenn Jennings]

Bring it on mate sounds real good to me hehehehe Better make sure we have plenty of beer . Could be a long, long night hehehehehehehe. Thanks for all your help buddy. Hey I guess if we make it guiness it's one way to get into the guiness book of records hehehehehe.

If we make a decent job of it we should post it.

Better start practicing hehehe.

Cheers
Glenn

[sgosnell]

For enlarging holes, a reamer is the correct tool, not a bunged-up drill bit. Reamers are available at almost any tool store for a few dollars. $5 is a high price, but it's well worth it to have one for enlarging holes safely and quickly, to any size you need, just ream a little at a time and try the fit.

[Glenn Jennings]

Didn't think of a reamer. Hammertone told me that was how he did it after I had done the job. He reams out the top of the hole to get drill clearance to prevent any tearing of the edge of the hole then he drills out the rest. The holes had to be taken out quite a bit to fit the ferules and with the 3 tuner posts being fixed in position on the mounting plate just a few thou out and the tuners wouldnt have fit. Not having done this before I figured that if the bottom half inch of the drill was a neat fit in the hole then it would be perfectly centred for the second stage to bring it out to correct size. It seemed to work well which at the end of the day is all that really matters.

Would use a reamer for doing single tuner posts now that I know that is a good way to do it but dont know if I would have the skill to do a tripple that way and get it right.

Have since found out that drilling jigs are available. Might be more expensive but cost is nothing if you can get the right tool for the job.

Have you used the reamers on tripple fixed plate tuners ?? If so how did it work out. did you have any issues with fitting the tuners??

[Hammertone]

Hammertone told me that was how he did it after I had done the job. He reams out the top of the hole to get drill clearance to prevent any tearing of the edge of the hole then he drills out the rest.

That's one way, perhaps best for very old, dry wood, to prevent the compression force from fitting the metal ferrule from possibly splitting the wood. If that's not an issue, I often use a reamer for the whole job.

[Glenn Jennings]

Hi Stephen and all you other guys,
Well the Hofner 459 is now restored and I'm very happy with the outcome. I have played it every day for the last week and she is starting to sound pretty darned good. The more I play it the better sounding she gets. Care has been taken to have her overall look in keeping with her age so a few minor blemishes have been left to be in keeping with her 63 years of service as an instrument. I managed to get the neck angles spot on with some help from Jay. Stephen was a great help with his vast knowledge of Hofner instruments and managed to find me some mint condition tuners to fit on her. The pick guard is not original but was made from some material I managed to source in Australia which is a s close as we can get to the real thing. She has a nice tone and should now be serviceable for another 60 years.

Jay thinks that when we get together for session it will probably be the first 2 Hofner 459 jam in New Zealand history. It sure won't be the last.

Hope for those viewing the progress on the Jazzguitar forum that you find the information useful.

Best wishes
Glenn

[PhilMonty]

Hi there,

First off great job. I just purchased a 1957 459S that is almost exactly like yours. It is missing the pickguard and I am attempting to source one. Looking at yours, it does not appear to anchor at the bridge as well as the neck. Mine has a hole in the bridge and neck where the guard mounted. Do you know if that is a model year difference? Did you have that guard made? If so where did you source it?

I see there is a guy in Australia that is making Hofner guards.

Any help truly appreciated.