TYPE
Electro-Acoustic Hollow Body Archtop guitar
FEATURES
Maple body and neck
Rosewood fretboard
Two black-bar single-coil Höfner pickups or two single-coil Fuma pickups
INFORMATION
The Höfner Club guitar was the entry-level model for many young guitarists who could not afford a guitar from one of the major American brands. Guitarists such as John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ritchie Blackmore, Gordon Giltrap, Justin Haywood and David Gilmour all owned a Höfner Club early in their careers.
They were archtop guitars manufactured in Germany with a small hollow body that was 5cm/2inches thick, without a sound hole. British distributor Selmer labeled this instrument Club, a name used only in the UK. The 40 had one pickup and the 50 had two. The control knobs were mounted on a tortoise shell panel and a simple floating pickguard was mounted on the body. The original pickups were single coils, made by Fuma from Berlin. Höfner later introduced his own smaller black bar pickups that were mounted on a rosewood base. They were replaced in 1960 and finally a Höfner humbucker was introduced in 1963.
