MODIFICATIONS TO A 2009 HOFNER GALAXIE SOLID GUITAR -  PART 2

See and read about Olaf's 1st Stage Modification Project HERE.

COURTESY OF OLAF POETER, GERMANY:

OLAF EXPLAINS:

Now that I am retired, I finally got around to changing my "modern-day" Hofner Galaxy (built in 2009) for the third time. The first modification is already in this Vintage Hofner gallery, and has been for several years. That first modification was the installation of an Eric Clapton Stratocaster circuit with a 12 dB mid boost and a tone pot with bass and treble bleed. Later on, I installed a Fender roller nut in order to avoid de-tuning during vibrato usage. Having done all this, I became aware that the original pickups were pretty poor. They were lacking the transfer of the sparkling treble frequencies which the guitar provided when being played dry (without plugging into an amp).

For this reason I have now mounted a set of Duesenberg Pickups, which actually cost as much as the whole guitar when I bought it! Unfortunately, I had to carve a new pickguard because of the different pickup size, but now it is ready. The photos on this page show the finished product.

The Fender active electronics pcb is protected by the foam packing.

These Duesenberg pickups do what the Chinese-made Hofner pups were not capable of! Great sparkling treble tones, even though the neck and bridge pups are mini humbuckers (called "Little Toasters"). I also installed a 6-way toggle switch (called a Freeway Switch) which now provides the following options:

(Postscript: I actually ended up swapping the humbuckers, so that the active coils in the toggle positions 4 and 6 are in the opposite direction to each other now. This is what creates a Strat-like tone which is much better than shown above.)

This job was not easy, but I believe that I have now achieved the best possible sound out of this guitar. The lesson I have learnt is that if the body and neck construction of a guitar is good, and if it sounds great played un-amplified, then you can upgrade it considerably with good hardware components.