During COVID I’m started teaching myself slide after playing guitar for many years. Up until now that’s meant tuning my SG to open E and playing away! I was looking to purchase a Reso for the longest time. Agonized over my shopping choice and decided to go for this Hofner. Take delivery next week. Any experience with this Reso out there? Thanks for having me in this group!
Welcome, Blues. How about adding at least your first name and where you live.
I've never come across one in person. Looks pretty nice - I see on Reverb the price new was showing $900, so it would be on the upper end of guitars built in Asia.
I'm guessing when you plug it in the surface pickup will sound mostly like an electric guitar, and unplugged of course it will sound like a resonator.
I got a kick out of the line below I found in the description - it was likely written by someone at Hofner headquarters in Germany, or someone in their U.S. office who has no clue:
" Chrome hardware and Hofner antique brown sunburst finish complete the look of this buegrass guitar. "
A bluegrass guitar it ain't, unless you were to put a nut raiser on it and play it across your lap with a steel bar. 
Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 12/22/2022 11:57:34
Thanks Mark!
Hmmm. I thought I put my location in my bio - CONNECTICUT. I’ll add my name- Abe. I’m hoping I can coax some blues from the Hofner. Do you think you can ever get a Reso sound from a pickup on a Reso?
Of course you can- you would just need a good preamp and maybe some effects. I really like the Fishman Aura Spectrum.
If I owned this Hofner roundneck when I need to plug in I would just play it as is. Adding to what Luke wrote, there are a number of ways to enhance the sound - but you will have to throw some money at it to get respectable acoustic reproduction.
Being by a surface mounted magnetic pickup, I'm reasonably sure that plugged in it will sound fairly electric guitarish, you aren't going to get much at all of the resonator cone.
The good new is that in general, roundneck bottleneck or fretting players on a spider bridge guitar don't seem to geek out and become as obsessed as us lap style squareneck players who plug in.
The bad news is that chasing accurate amplified sound on a spider bridge reso can get pretty expensive. While there have been many good pickups over decades for flattop acoustics, it has only been in about the past 15 years or so that major strides were made to amplify spider bridge resonator guitars. They can be a beast to tame.
Edited by - MarkinSonoma on 12/30/2022 13:26:10
The big factor is how you Want it to sound plugged in .
Most of the discussion here is wanting to sound just like unplugged , except going thru a sound system . As- is , this will sound at least somewhat Electric Guitar - ish .
But your screen name references Blues , and your profile pics also show bottle neck slides .
Somewhat Electric Guitar - ish Reso in Blues/ Blues - Rock/ Roots Rock is not uncommon , and considered acceptable . Try it out with your amp set for clean , see how you like it .
Yup. Thanks! That’s what I’ve been doing. Clean all the way. With a bit of compression. Pleased with the sound.
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