Refurbishing My Hofner Galaxie 176

chiagerald

New member
Hi,

Need some help and advice... I've just fallen in love with the Hofner Galaxie 176 @ Guitar 77 and yes, I bought it! I know it's not in very good shape, but I can certainly see the potential in this piece and would like to try my hand in refurbishing it to the original specs. Dennis (from Guitar 77) told me that it's possible to get spare parts for this (hopefully he's right!). Would really appreciate any help or advice in refurbishing, getting spare parts and so on...

Below is a pix of my current guitar taken from the Guitar 77 website (I've edited the pix so I could add some comments of the missing bits):

myhofner.gif


In summary, the crucial parts I need are:
1) New vintage tuners with caps
2) New Hofner Plastic logo
3) Pickup Switch
4) Middle & Bridge pickups
5) Rhythm/Solo Switch

The less crucial parts are:
1) Backplate to cover tremolo mechanism
2) Plastic tip for tremolo bar
3) Original Scratchboard with switch labels intact

Here are some questions:
1) What's the best way to remove rust? I've tried Autosol but some pieces are really bad despite me polishing like crazy. Is there a way for me to sand off the rust with special sandpaper and then make it shiny again while removing the scratches I've made with the sandpaper?

2) What's the best way of repainting the body of the guitar? I'm thinking of changing the colour to cream. There are some nicks, scratches in the wood.
Here's a picture of what I hope to achieve:

2030250mk.jpg


3) There are some nicks on the back of the neck too and I believe the headstock was originally black (see pictures below). What should I do? What type of sandpaper grade should I use? What sort of varnish? I'm clueless lor...

4) Any way of making a plastic scratchplate which is badly scratched shiny and smooth again?

5) All the screws are really rusty and I was wondering if anybody could tell me a good local hardware store where I could get new screws for the guitar.

6) The bridge is working but seems to be modified (cos it looks different from the pictures I've seen on the Internet). The rubber strip is missing too (dunno what it's for though). If you know anything about the original bridge, would appreciate any info...

Here are some mint examples of the guitar I've found from the internet:

mintexample1.gif


mintexample2.gif


Thanks for reading!
 
haha its a cute guitar man... extreme retro-ness . but the buttons look quite confusing man... looks like a midi-guitar of sorts...

how does it sound dude?
 
Maybe I'm trying to assume that you went next door Guitar Connection to look for kevin and ask his opinion.
You should take his word, as he has seen quite a number of these for fixing already.

My personal opinion, is that it's not worth it. The wood on these guitar are not good to work with. The hardware in question will set you back in your pursuit.

Pickups missings means that they were either salvaged to save another git or were spoilt and convinently removed. These PUs should have detiorated badly by now, again, the quality is not there to be worth restoring. Also the kind POTs and switches are almost immpossible to find these days to match the mounting.

Not black HS and missing selector could mean that they were originally like that, not redone, as the guitar in question again is not of good value at the time it was popular.

Production will churn out different variation and revision for different market.
 
Yo ChanMin,

It's not confusing at all... there are three knobs below each pick up to control the tone of each pick up. I think the switch on top of each pickup is used to turn each pickup on/off and there's another knob on the top left to control the overall volume.

There are some problems with the electronics (some ground/shelding buzz) but so far it sounds good. Sort off reminds me of the clean sounds you hear on R.E.M records (like Rickenbackers?) or the old British groups (Beatles, Ventures, Hollies, etc...) Definitely much better with the clean sounds though...
 
Hi Mikemann,

Thanks for your input man... nope, I haven't gone to Guitar Connection at all or ever spoken to Kelvin... Yes, you have painted a rather bleak picture and also a difficult one but I'm going to do my best. I guess when there's a will, there's a way. Would appreciate any advice you might have to make this refurbishing a reality! :)

Anyway, here's a link that really inspired me... however, I don't have the technical knowhow so that's why I seeking advice...

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jim.dougans/hofner/
 
Haha! Too late now, got myself into this situation... anyway, there's some hope as I've found some vintage parts on the Internet... need to compare prices first...
 
i m not really a gear export esp about maintaining the shine in guitars ... but what i do hear from my musician fren who is obsessed with swords and all kindsa shiny metal stuff is that go get a set of sword polish / really great metal polish

1) removes rust EASILY ( according to him just dab wipe and wipe again and it will look shiny )
2) shiny (looks mint)

or u might just wanna try WD-40 or WD-11 anti rust lubricants
 
hofner said:
wah hofner....i was eyeing it...but it looks expensive to restore.

Hahaa! Hofner, I thought you might have one already since it's your nick! Ya, it will be pricey to restore but I believe that if I don't rush it, I could find a few good bargains for spares here and there, probably ebay. It should be a fun and challenging project, looking forward to it! :)
 
stars said:
i m not really a gear export esp about maintaining the shine in guitars ... but what i do hear from my musician fren who is obsessed with swords and all kindsa shiny metal stuff is that go get a set of sword polish / really great metal polish

1) removes rust EASILY ( according to him just dab wipe and wipe again and it will look shiny )
2) shiny (looks mint)

or u might just wanna try WD-40 or WD-11 anti rust lubricants

Yo Stars!

Sounds interesting... do you know where can I get this sword polish?
 
subversion said:
hey Gerald, what ever happened to your strat?

Yo Subversion!

How are you doin man? You talking about the strat used to entertain the old folks many years ago? Heehee... Sold it years ago but bought another strat last yr. It's a MIM powerhouse strat, the one with a 25db boost. It's not too bad, used it for some recent recording projects!!!

Thinking of refurbishing this hofner so I can use it as my second axe. :) It's quite retro too so it's kinda cool... heh heh
 
chiagerald said:
stars said:
i m not really a gear export esp about maintaining the shine in guitars ... but what i do hear from my musician fren who is obsessed with swords and all kindsa shiny metal stuff is that go get a set of sword polish / really great metal polish

1) removes rust EASILY ( according to him just dab wipe and wipe again and it will look shiny )
2) shiny (looks mint)

or u might just wanna try WD-40 or WD-11 anti rust lubricants

Yo Stars!

Sounds interesting... do you know where can I get this sword polish?

sure buddy ! try caesear ... its a sword retail chain ... my fren is a LOTR buff and he uses the metal polish he bought from them to polish all his eqenstar brooch , sword , and wadnot from there ...

cesear has a lil outlet right on top of carrefu at suntec ! ya can try find out wad brand of metal polish and go right down to get it at carrefour ,... think its cheaper at carrefour
 
Actually autosol is a downright abrasive 'polish'. My experience is than anything that you make shine with autosol will become dull and oxidise very quickly afterwards. Cuz all the protective surface will be removed.

You should consult a chrome plating agent on how to treat it or just send it to them to do up for you completely. Make it as good as new.

I think you should find the PUs firstly. And also a new logo.

Here is another tip, re-do a NEW pickguard with the fittings for modern PUs and switches and pots. Change all those to new ones. Much easier than finding stock stuffs, esp so long ago since production stopped.

Could be a better choice, as you can actually use the guitar and not worry about the vintage parts spoiling and cannot find again.

You should go consult Kevin of Guitar Connection on your pursual of this project. He can even help you repaint the body and re-route the body if necessary for the new parts.

Either way, very costly and time consuming. A good chance of ending up with a broken heart (remember, a project can be a failure too)

I bet someone should be laughing now for being able to dispose of this git at a price.
 
hofner said:
heh the hofner i refering to is Paul Mcartney's bass guitar the hofner64.

hshs ys know where can we find one ? kidna tempted to get one brohter hofner .. isit sold in SG or must we order from germany or hofner out of business ? its a really old brand rite ? from beatles tt era
 
i do know that dan enterprise is selling the hofner64....but i do not really advice people to get their gear...rip off.
 
What has been done to the Hofner?
I know- its an old post & hey I got one too
& have thought of bringing it back to life after many many years of project halt.
 
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