I have a few questions about a guitar I recently purchased for $45.00. It was in poor shape and I had to replace the broken tuners with spare parts I had, fix the neck, and re-string it. It plays fairly well, but I know nothing about it. I’d say after I repaired it, it is in good condition. Here’s a pic.:
According to Hohner Service, the serial number doesn’t tell them anything, but the HW220 model was made in the mid 1990s. However, Phil is usually a mine of information, so I wouldn’t discount his evaluation, especially if it appears in the 2006 & 2007 catalogues. Here the available specs:
-6-string acoustic
-dreadnought-size body
-mahogany back, sides and neck
-spruce top
-rosewood fingerboard,
-20 frets
-open tuning heads
-adjustable truss rod
Thank you Steve and Phil. I really appreciate y’all looking into my guitar for me. The past few days I have been playing the Hohner more than my Martin guitars (haha). It does play surprisingly well, considering the poor condition it was in when I first got it. I also like this little on-line Hohner community that’s going on here.
Hi Steve,
It probably was introduced earlier along with the other HW models but the acoustics are harder to track. But interestingly the specs in the 2006 catalogue are slightly different to yours, specifically they have closed tuning heads. So that’s something Jay could check to help with dating.
Thanks Phil. Hohner Service has reliable info on most models, but sometimes the documentation is incomplete. As they couldn’t find that serial no., they just sent the dates mid-90s plus the specs. Could be the earlier models had the open tuning heads.
Models could change quite substantially over the years. For the HW220, it looks like the logo changed, the headstock shape changed, the soundhole rosette design changed and the very late ones look like a different soundboard wood. But it was always a budget student model - below the “baseline” HW300. But if it sounds good to you, it’s a good guitar.
I thank you both for putting forth so much effort on an old guitar I paid $45.00 for. Haha. I actually bought it initially to give to a young boy in town that was looking for a used full sized guitar. Now I might keep it. I am picking up 4 other guitars this weekend anyway. Thank you so much!
