Hi all. New member here. I just came into posession of a rather crusty barn find (almost literally) Hohner Les Paul copy. Serial number is 89110. I’m assuming that means it was made in '89? Just curious. It’s in decent shape, just dusty and unused.
That’s an HG-430LP, made in Japan in the late 1970s. The serial number doesn’t contain a decipherable date.
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Thanks for the info…
Hi Markus,
Hohner Service says according to the serial no. this guitar was built in S. Korea in 1988.
Steve
Nah, it’s a 70s HG-430LP
I’ve passed that on. But how do you know?
The four diamond inlay on the headstock, the truss rod cover with the pointy bits, the black witch hat knobs, the 5 digit serial number on a sticker on the back of the headstock - they’re all characteristic of an HG-430LP. At least that’s the US designation, I know at least one UK distributor sold it as the MP 022 B but I’m not sure if that was an official Hohner UK model name or just that distributor’s.
Thanks! I passed the photos on to Hohner Service, Ciro says the serial numbers can sometimes be misleading and based on the photos can confirm that as you say this guitar was made in Japan in the 1970s. He sent me the following specs:
Mahogany body, neck and headpiece, fully bound. Bolt on neck. Rosewood fingerboard, perloid markers. Tune-o-matic style bridge. Stop tail piece. Gold plated hardware. Scale 24 3/4". Deluxe humbuckers with adjustable posts. Individual volume and tone controls for each pick up. Ebony black, tobacco sunburst, cherry sunburst, natural grain maple; made in Japan → by Hohner UK
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The natural ones are quite different despite in theory just being a colour variation of the same model. As far as I can tell they’re a maple pancake body with a maple top and a maple neck and a maple fingerboard. And black position markers to set all that maple off!