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A lot of players know Höfner for their distinctive basses, but what’s one thing our readers should know about your instruments? Höfner also produces guitars and has a long history of guitar making. Many models are unique, rare and becoming highly collectable. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Höfner had a significant market share in the UK and Commonwealth – so Höfner instruments were played and owned by many of the players on the scene during this musical era. Players such as Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour, George Harrison, John Lennon, Hark Marvin and Eric Clapton are just a few of the players who owned – or still own – Höfner guitars.
Höfner is still a family-owned business and most of its production headquarters are still in Germany. It is rare today to find a company – in any business – that has had employees for 40 plus years; Höfner still has several employees with a history of 40 plus years and counting. Some of these “Masters” hold a significant part in creating and designing key Höfner instruments.
Another big part of the company’s production and history is violin-making. The company actually started as a small violin workshop in 1887. In the early 1900s, Karl Höfner was commissioned to repair the King of Saxony’s own personal violin. The job was successful and Höfner had the King’s honor – as a result, Höfner quickly gained a reputation for quality instruments. Today, Höfner is the largest stringed-instrument company in Germany – we manufacture violins, violas, cello, double basses and bows. We have many talented “Masters” who have special skills and techniques with finishing and woodworking. We use some of our violin-making secrets and techniques in our guitar and bass production.
As you touched on, you were very involved with certain points in musical history; the post-war jazz scene and the “British Invasion.” That’s got to be a great feeling, and I’m interested to know how you see that affecting your company, either positively or negatively.
It was a great thing! Höfner instruments were all over and many of these artists were playing Höfner. Everyday we still have questions and calls coming in, asking about some of these models and having conversations about the players and sounds they made.
Paul McCartney and the 500/1 (Beatle Bass) became so iconic that many of the other Höfner instruments were overlooked or even forgotten about. In the last ten years or so, many of these other models have gone through a process of being rediscovered. Höfner sold over one-million guitars between 1948 and 1994, so there are many models and a ton of history.
| “The word “Master” can be much overused today, but in Germany it is very complex and difficult to actually become a true Master. The schooling and tests required to pass are extremely tough and the process takes years of study, practice, hard work and skill.” |
Looking back through your vintage instruments, Höfner obviously built a reputation with your archtops. When did that begin, and where did it take you?
Yes, both hollow and semi-hollow instruments played a key role in building Höfner’s guitar reputation – as a matter of fact, these guitars are still in demand and a very important part of Höfner’s business today. We started producing archtop guitars in the late 40s; by the early 50s, the guitars really took off and production was ramped up. Models such as the President, Senator, Committee and the Golden Höfner guitars were some of our most popular and now collectable models.
We have the pleasure and honor of many great jazz guitar legends – past and present – making Höfner jazz guitars their personal guitars of choice. We still produce several models of jazz guitars. Some models still are based from earlier models but with some updated and new features for the modern player’s needs.
When it comes to the production of your guitars, what touches make a Höfner instrument special? I think it is all of the handwork and special care that goes into each and every instrument. Our German production is still handmade by trained and true Masters. The necks and tops are carved by hand and our bows are bent over a flame. The word “Master” can be much overused today, but in Germany it is very complex and difficult to actually become a true Master. The schooling and tests required to pass are extremely tough and the process takes years of study, practice, hard work and skill.
Höfner has one of the largest wood collections around. We have Masters whose job is to go out and buy wood direct from the actual forest themselves. This way we can reject wood and check grain patterns and look for other key factors. We buy spruce and maple mainly from the Black Forest and often travel to other countries like South America for the orchestral bow wood.
In the end, it means that each instrument is consistent and has an individual character.
Tell us about the John Lennon guitar, and the work that went into it.
The Höfner Club 40 was John Lennon’s first electric guitar ever! This guitar was designed and based from his 1959 Club 40, in celebration of our 120th Anniversary. Only 120 of these John Lennon Club 40 guitars are being produced, and we are proud to donate a portion from each sale to the John Lennon songwriting charity.
The guitar itself is all hollow construction (like a small archtop without f-holes). It is short scale with one single custom-built neck pickup. It is very light in weight and a real blast to play.
120 years is a milestone for any business, let alone in the music industry. Have there been any real challenges Höfner has had to face throughout its lifetime? Of course over a 120 year period, there will be changes and hurdles in any business. Musical styles change and rotate around a bit – therefore the preferred and desired instruments change as well. Höfner’s guitar production developed quickly into a fairly wide variety of instruments and had enough history and uniqueness to keep up the demand.
On the bass guitar side, having the Beatle Bass and the history associated with the instrument retained a lot of interest ever since the Beatles hit. The “British Sound” is really in again, and jazz music is also gaining in popularity. Generally speaking, during the 70s and 80s, solidbody guitars increased in popularity and hollowbody instruments were less fashionable – but Höfner always kept up production. In contrast, the orchestral (violin) side of the business does not change around and go through the trends like the guitar and bass side of the business.
Did Höfner ever go out on a limb and try something that just didn’t work?
We have heard a few comments in the industry that something we make won’t sell in their opinion because, “it does not look like this” or “sound like that,” etc. The Jazzica Custom model is radical and a totally different guitar from a traditional archtop guitar, but players purchase this guitar over our competitors because of its unique features.
We do a lot of research and development and get many players’ opinions before we go to market. Sometimes a product is even created or reissued because of an overwhelming amount of phone calls and emails asking for a prior model. The Club bass and the Club guitars were brought back because of this reason. If we hear comments about how a certain feature or design on our instrument benefits a player, then we look at it and see where we can improve or develop it further.
You do have some incredibly unique instruments. Could you tell us about a few of them? The jazz guitar/archtop models we currently have in production are the Verythin JS, President, Jazzica and Chancellor models.
In terms of unique features, take a look at the Jazzica Custom model. The side of the body is conical or tapered – it sort of looks like a wedge when you look at it from the side. The advantage here is it keeps the optimal acoustic sound but also makes the guitar very comfortable to play, as the right arm in playing position is over the narrow part of the body. The mass and sound is still there behind your arm, and you don’t have to raise your arm up high over the normal big boxes.
The Jazzica Custom also comes with ebony-covered foam soundhole stuffers so it can played at very high volumes. These plugs dampen the acoustic volume and bass response so it can be turned up. Bobby Broom, for example, leaves one plug in and the other out on stage, so that you can still hear the acoustic sound; one plug controls enough of the feedback for his sound and volume level.
The Verythin JS model is very popular today with many jazz artists. It is indeed very thin – only a little over one-inch deep at the sides. It has a solid spruce sustain block inside that is fitted and hand-carved. When plugged in, the end result is a real jazz sound with a lot of sustain and overtones, without the feedback issues.
In 120 years, how has the philosophy at Höfner evolved – or has it changed?
No, not really. This is a family business and customer service is very important to us. Even though Höfner is the largest stringed-instrument maker in Germany, we still have a small business approach. We try our best to offer the best value and highest quality instruments that are special and unique without copying the standard trends. We don’t want to develop something just because it looks different but lacks sonic function or benefits to the player. There is a purpose and a place for each model.
What does the future hold for Höfner?
Hopefully another 120 years! I think Höfner has many opportunities with a rich history and strong brand name. It will be fun to keep spreading the word with all of our current and exciting up-andcoming instruments, and we look forward to recreating some of our other historic reissue models.
Höfner
hofner.com
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For the first time in the band’s history, the Dawes lineup for Oh Brother consisted of just Griffin and Taylor Goldsmith (left and right).
Goldsmith’s lyrics spoke to me the loudest, with lines like “Well, you can judge the whole world on the sparkle that you think it lacks / Yes, you can stare into the abyss, but it’s starin’ right back” (a casual Nietzsche paraphrase); and “Oh, the snowfall this time of year / It’s not what Birmingham is used to / I get the feeling that I brought it here / And now I’m taking it away.” The way his words painted a portrait of the sincere, sentimental man behind them, along with his cozy, unassuming guitar work and the band’s four-part harmonies, had me hooked.
Nothing Is Wrong and Stories Don’t End came next, and I happily gobbled up more folksy fodder in tracks like “If I Wanted,” “Most People,” and “From a Window Seat.” But 2015’s All Your Favorite Bands, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Folk Albumschart, didn’t land with me, and by the time 2016’s We’re All Gonna Die was released, it was clear that Goldsmith had shifted thematically in his writing. A friend drew a thoughtful Warren Zevon comparison to the single, “When the Tequila Runs Out”—a commentary on vapid, conceited, American-socialite party culture—but it still didn’t really do it for me. I fell off the Dawes train a bit, and became somewhat oblivious to their three full-lengths that followed.
Oh Brotheris Goldsmith’s latest addition to the Dawes songbook, and I’m grateful to say that it’s brought me back. After having done some catching up, I’d posit that it’s the second work in the third act, or fall season, of his songwriting—where 2022’s Misadventures of Doomscrollercracked open the door, Oh Brother swings it wide. And it doesn’t have much more than Dawes’ meat and potatoes, per se, in common with acts one or two. Some moodiness has stayed—as well as societal disgruntlement and the arrangement elements that first had me intoxicated. But then there’s the 7/4 section in the middle of “Front Row Seat”; the gently unwinding, quiet, intimate jazz-club feel of “Surprise!”; the experimentally percussive, soft-spoken “Enough Already”; and the unexpected, dare I say, Danny Elfman-esque harmonic twists and turns in the closing track, “Hilarity Ensues.”
The main engine behind Dawes, the Goldsmith brothers are both native “Angelinos,” having been born and raised in the L.A. area. Taylor is still proud to call the city his home.
Photo by Jon Chu
“I have this working hypothesis that who you are as a songwriter through the years is pretty close to who you are in a dinner conversation,” Goldsmith tells me in an interview, as I ask him about that thematic shift. “When I was 23, if I was invited to dinner with grownups [laughs], or just friends or whatever, and they say, ‘How you doin’, Taylor?’ I probably wouldn’t think twice to be like, ‘I’m not that good. There’s this girl, and … I don’t know where things are at—can I share this with you? Is that okay?’ I would just go in in a way that’s fairly indiscreet! And I’m grateful to that version of me, especially as a writer, because that’s what I wanted to hear, so that’s what I was making at the time.
“But then as I got older, it became, ‘Oh, maybe that’s not an appropriate way to answer the question of how I’m doing.’ Or, ‘Maybe I’ve spent enough years thinking about me! What does it feel like to turn the lens around?’” he continues, naming Elvis Costello and Paul Simon as inspirations along the way through that self-evolution. “Also, trying to be mindful of—I had strengths then that I don’t have now, but I have strengths now that I didn’t have then. And now it’s time to celebrate those. Even in just a physical way, like hearing Frank Zappa talking about how his agility as a guitar player was waning as he got older. It’s like, that just means that you showcase different aspects of your skills.
“I am a changing person. It would be weird if I was still writing the same way I was when I was 23. There would probably be some weird implications there as to who I’d be becoming as a human [laughs].”
Taylor Goldsmith considers Oh Brother, the ninth full-length in Dawes’ catalog, to be the beginning of a new phase of Dawes, containing some of his most unfiltered, unedited songwriting.
Since its inception, the engine behind Dawes has been the brothers Goldsmith, with Taylor on guitar and vocals and Griffin on drums and sometimes vocal harmonies. But they’ve always had consistent backup. For the first several years, that was Wylie Gelber on bass and Tay Strathairn on keyboards. On We’re All Gonna Die, Lee Pardini replaced Strathairn and has been with the band since. Oh Brother, however, marks the departure of Gelber and Pardini.
“We were like, ‘Wow, this is an intense time; this is a vulnerable time,’” remarks Goldsmith, who says that their parting was supportive and loving, but still rocked him and Griffin. “You get a glimpse of your vulnerability in a way that you haven’t felt in a long time when things are just up and running. For a second there, we’re like, ‘We’re getting a little rattled—how do we survive this?’”
They decided to pair up with producer Mike Viola, a close family friend, who has also worked with Mandy Moore—Taylor’s spouse—along with Panic! At the Disco, Andrew Bird, and Jenny Lewis. “[We knew that] he understands all of the parameters of that raw state. And, you know, I always show Mike my songs, so he was aware of what we had cookin’,” says Goldsmith.
Griffin stayed behind the kit, but Taylor took over on bass and keys, the latter of which he has more experience with than he’s displayed on past releases. “We’ve made records where it’s very tempting to appeal to your strengths, where it’s like, ‘Oh, I know how to do this, I’m just gonna nail it,’” he says. “Then there’s records that we make where we really push ourselves into territories where we aren’t comfortable. That contributed to [Misadventures of Doomscroller] feeling like a living, breathing thing—very reactive, very urgent, very aware. We were paying very close attention. And I would say the same goes for this.”
That new terrain, says Goldsmith, “forced us to react to each other and react to the music in new ways, and all of a sudden, we’re exploring new corners of what we do. I’m really excited in that sense, because it’s like this is the first album of a new phase.”
“That forced us to react to each other and react to the music in new ways, and all of a sudden, we’re exploring new corners of what we do.”
In proper folk (or even folk-rock) tradition, the music of Dawes isn’t exactly riddled with guitar solos, but that’s not to say that Goldsmith doesn’t show off his chops when the timing is right. Just listen to the languid, fluent lick on “Surprise!”, the shamelessly prog-inspired riff in the bridge of “Front Row Seat,” and the tactful, articulate line that threads through “Enough Already.” Goldsmith has a strong, individual sense of phrasing, where his improvised melodies can be just as biting as his catalog’s occasional lyrical jabs at presumably toxic ex-girlfriends, and just as melancholy as his self-reflective metaphors, all the while without drawing too much attention to himself over the song.
Of course, most of our conversation revolves around songwriting, as that’s the craft that’s the truest and closest to his identity. “There’s an openness, a goofiness—I even struggle to say it now, but—an earnestness that goes along with who I am, not only as a writer but as a person,” Goldsmith elaborates. “And I think it’s important that those two things reflect one another. ’Cause when you meet someone and they don’t, I get a little bit weirded out, like, ‘What have I been listening to? Are you lying to me?’” he says with a smile.
Taylor Goldsmith's Gear
Pictured here performing live in 2014, Taylor Goldsmith has been the primary songwriter for all of Dawes' records, beginning with 2009’s North Hills.
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
Guitars
- Fender Telecaster
- Gibson ES-345
- Radocaster (made by Wylie Gelber)
Amps
- ’64 Fender Deluxe
- Matchless Laurel Canyon
Effects
- 29 Pedals EUNA
- Jackson Audio Bloom
- Ibanez Tube Screamer with Keeley mod
- Vintage Boss Chorus
- Vintage Boss VB-2 Vibrato
- Strymon Flint
- Strymon El Capistan
Strings
- Ernie Ball .010s
In Goldsmith’s songwriting process, he explains that he’s learned to lean away from the inclination towards perfectionism. Paraphrasing something he heard Father John Misty share about Leonard Cohen, he says, “People think you’re cultivating these songs, or, ‘I wouldn’t deign to write something that’s beneath me,’ but the reality is, ‘I’m a rat, and I’ll take whatever I can possibly get, and then I’ll just try to get the best of it.’
“Ever since Misadventures of Doomscroller,” he adds, “I’ve enjoyed this quality of, rather than try to be a minimalist, I want to be a maximalist. I want to see how much a song can handle.” For the songs on Oh Brother, that meant that he decided to continue adding “more observations within the universe” of “Surprise!”, ultimately writing six verses. A similar approach to “King of the Never-Wills,” a ballad about a character suffering from alcoholism, resulted in four verses.
“The economy of songwriting that we’re all taught would buck that,” says Goldsmith. “It would insist that I only keep the very best and shed something that isn’t as good. But I’m not going to think economically. I’m not going to think, ‘Is this self-indulgent?’
Goldsmith’s songwriting has shifted thematically over the years, from more personal, introspective expression to more social commentary and, at times, even satire, in songs like We’re All Gonna Die’s “When the Tequila Runs Out.”
Photo by Mike White
“I don’t abide that term being applied to music. Because if there’s a concern about self-indulgence, then you’d have to dismiss all of jazz. All of it. You’d have to dismiss so many of my most favorite songs. Because in a weird way, I feel like that’s the whole point—self-indulgence. And then obviously relating to someone else, to another human being.” (He elaborates that, if Bob Dylan had trimmed back any of the verses on “Desolation Row,” it would have deprived him of the unique experience it creates for him when he listens to it.)
One of the joys of speaking with Goldsmith is just listening to his thought processes. When I ask him a question, he seems compelled to share every backstory to every detail that’s going through his head, in an effort to both do his insights justice and to generously provide me with the most complete answer. That makes him a bit verbose, but not in a bad way, because he never rambles. There is an endpoint to his thoughts. When he’s done, however, it takes me a second to realize that it’s then my turn to speak.
To his point on artistic self-indulgence, I offer that there’s no need for artists to feel “icky” about self-promotion—that to promote your art is to celebrate it, and to create a shared experience with your audience.
“I hear what you’re saying loud and clear; I couldn’t agree more,” Goldsmith replies. “But I also try to be mindful of this when I’m writing, like if I’m going to drag you through the mud of, ‘She left today, she’s not coming back, I’m a piece of shit, what’s wrong with me, the end’.... That might be relatable, that might evoke a response, but I don’t know if that’s necessarily helpful … other than dragging someone else through the shit with me.
“In a weird way, I feel like that’s the whole point—self-indulgence. And then obviously relating to someone else, to another human being.”
“So, if I’m going to share, I want there to be something to offer, something that feels like: ‘Here’s a path that’s helped me through this, or here’s an observation that has changed how I see this particular experience.’ It’s so hard to delineate between the two, but I feel like there is a difference.”
Naming the opening track “Mister Los Angeles,” “King of the Never-Wills,” and even the title track to his 2015 chart-topper, “All Your Favorite Bands,” he remarks, “I wouldn’t call these songs ‘cool.’ Like, when I hear what cool music is, I wouldn’t put those songs next to them [laughs]. But maybe this record was my strongest dose of just letting me be me, and recognizing what that essence is rather than trying to force out certain aspects of who I am, and force in certain aspects of what I’m not. I think a big part of writing these songs was just self-acceptance,” he concludes, laughing, “and just a whole lot of fishing.”
YouTube It
Led by Goldsmith, Dawes infuses more rock power into their folk sound live at the Los Angeles Ace Hotel in 2023.
