Höfner – Model 175 Tele

Sometimes I get a guitar in for some TLC. This Höfner 175 is one of them. 

This early 1970’s Höfner model 175 Tele (not to be confused with the Höfner model 175 that was produced in the early 60’s) is an adaptation of the Fender Telecaster but then with Höfner electronics and pickups. This model was released with a tremolo and without. Officially, with the non tremolo versions, an ashtray was fitted over the bridge, but that item was lost a while ago on this guitar.
These guitars were produced between 1971 and 1973 in the colors yellow and sunburst; both came with a clear coat headstock or a headstock that was painted in the body’s colors. The guitar has a zeroth fret.

The circuit

The guitar is fitted with two single coil pickups. A switch lets you choose between them. The guitar has a single volume and tone control.
A quick search on the internet reveals the schematic. These schematics though didn’t fit the version I got in, so I traced the unit.

I gave the guitar a cleaning, set the neck up and adjusted the bridge. Lastly, I adjusted the pickups for their height. The bridge pickup is easily overshadowed by the neck pickup. I replaced the pickup selector switch with a new one as the old one was broken. I also swapped the potmeters for some good CTS versions. 

The sound

When plugged into an amp, there happens something special. I LOVE these pickups and this guitar. It had a a very distinct tone that works really well with big and amps with a mid dip;  at the same time it can be piercing and cutting through the mix. The neck pickup has a very natural and acoustic tone that isn’t really bass heavy or boxy and the bridge pickup can really cut through the mix!
The neck is really fast and is easy to get used to. It isn’t anything like a Fender but the model feels quite natural when playing. 

They are not common but they sound amazing! Go find them!

Links

Find one on Reverb.com

Response

  1. Dr Banerjee Avatar
    Dr Banerjee

    This is such an intriguing collision of worlds. The Höfner 175 already occupies its own strange, lovely niche – that semi-hollow warmth, the featherweight feel, the way it sings under light touch – and grafting Telecaster aesthetics and circuitry onto it feels both heretical and strangely logical. Like someone asked: what if the Beatle bass’s softer sibling decided to grow up and move to Nashville?
    The photos make the point better than words could. That single-cutaway silhouette with the classic Höfner contours still peeking through, the slab body, the exposed pickup routing – it’s not a clean mash-up; there’s visible tension between the two languages, and that friction is what makes it interesting. I can imagine the tone sitting somewhere between a lightly overdriven semi-hollow chime and the sharper cut of a Tele bridge pickup. Probably glorious for clean-to-dirty transitions in rootsy or indie contexts, less so for anything that needs thick sustain.
    The real question this raises for me is intent. Is this a working musician’s problem-solving exercise (give me the familiar feel of a Tele but with the airy, woody response I love from my Höfner), or is it more of a conceptual piece? Either way, it’s a reminder that the guitar’s evolution is still very much alive at the edges, not just in high-end luthier showpieces but in these idiosyncratic, personal builds.
    I’d love to hear it, even if just a quick clip. Something tells me it doesn’t sound like either instrument alone – which is exactly why it’s worth the experiment. Nice work documenting it.

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