A new headless work-horse!

Somewhere in 2016, I noticed that one of my favorite guitars – a 2000 Hohner G3T – had some issues. This guitar has a so-called zero-fret (so there is no nut but a fret at the location where you would expect a nut) and this zero-fret had some serious fret wear. An easy job to fix but it made me think, don’t I need another one as well just in case other problems show up.

Fretwear on zero-fret
Fretwear on zero-fret

So I started to wander around on the internet. These Hohners are not being made anymore. There are other cheap-looking copies and even the Steinberger brand issues new headless guitars, but they are bariton models and have all these options I don’t like and are missing the options I love.

Anyway, my last resort is the second-hand market, what is available? Nothing on Ebay but there was a listing on the Dutch “Craigs-list”. Originally it looked at a 200 Watt Higher & Kettner Attax amp but the seller also had a Hohner G2 (two humbuckers instead of the H-S-S set-up of the G3T) for a reasonable price. And it was in the city where I work so it couldn’t be easier.

I contacted the guy, he sent me some additional pictures and I could see that he did some -lets put it politely- handwork to it. Anyway, it was a cheap guitar so let’s close a deal. We made an appointment, exchanged addresses and it turned out he lived on a farm completely on the opposite side of the city where I worked. Basically not even in the city but right in the middle of the meadows.

Mmmm, I didn’t have access to a car the day of our appointment but public transportation was available (bus) with a stop almost in front of his farmhouse. So I got myself on a adventurous trip which lead through parts of the Netherlands I never visited before. It was November, dark, rainy but after a trip of an hour I got where I had to be.

The next challenge showed up. Indeed the busstop was in front of his farmhouse but there was a ditch in between so I had to walk (through the rain) all around his estate to reach to the front door. Completely wet, my boots covered with mud I rang the bell and a very friendly man opened the door. The amp was already turned on, I played the guitar and he told me all about the history of the guitar. How he used it during gigs, that he hated the zero-fret and had it replaced by a real nut (cutting away a part of the head piece that holds the strings) and that he painted the guitar himself, simply with a brush.

And indeed, the paint job was awful, the nut was a cheap plastic nut but the frets were OK. And since I really wanted to go home, I closed the deal and went home with the guitar and a beautiful flightcase especially made for this guitar. Altogether 250 euro’s, an OK deal.

My new Hohner
My new Hohner, picture taken at the bus-stop.

In the bus back, I noticed the smell of stale beer. It was the guitar case. Some pints must have been spilled over this case so at home it first spend a couple of weeks in the garage to get rid of the smell.

After closer inspection of the guitar, I decided to do a complete paint-job plus a nut replacement. So here we go…

Getting rid of the paint
Getting rid of the paint
Fill up all of the holes
Fill up all of the holes
Base coat
Base coat
Test fitting parts
Test fitting parts

Replacing the nut was a very hard job. I bought a new Tusq blank nut (black color) but somehow I wasn’t able to get it to fit properly. Possibly I didn’t pay enough attention to it because I got bored with the whole project. After some time I decided to look for a replacement head piece and I found one for about 40 euro’s at http://www.hohner-cshop.de. I ordered one, sanded the material of the nut equal to the fingerboard so it became a some sort extension to the fretboard, installed a zero fret and then installed the new head piece. The guitar became instantly a perfect playing guitar. It made me realize how important the nut slot depths are. They were not cut deep enough causing a very high action and therefore resulting in an unplayable guitar.

Next step was the final finishing. I decided to go for a metallic dark red finish, but not before I designed myself a logo in Inkscape.

Metallic red coats plus logo and first clear coats
Metallic red plus logo and first layers of clear coat
Polishing and buffing
Polishing and buffing
End result
End result and installing hardware

It was quite a journey but I have my second Hohner!