PSA: 1973 Les Paul equivalent

[gorch]

This Hoyer Les Paul 1973 auctions at a high price and still has 2 days to go.

The guitar is unique in condition and in the way that it offers stereo output. It's 100% handcrafted (no CNC machines back in the time), sold first hand and 1 out of 25 world wide.

For someone not familiar with the brand. Made in Germany Hoyer were licensed to built Gibson guitars for the European market back in the early 70s. Their self branded Gibson copies were said to better than the originals back in the time.

[cmatthes]

For someone not familiar with the brand. Made in Germany Hoyer were licensed to built Gibson guitars for the European market back in the early 70s. Their self branded Gibson copies were said to better than the originals back in the time.

I've never heard that before - did not think Gibson ever licensed things out prior to their affiliation w/Japan much later on (??).

I have heard of the Hoyer brand, but everything I've seen has been drastically different from Gibson's output.

[BCR Greg]

For someone not familiar with the brand. Made in Germany Hoyer were licensed to built Gibson guitars for the European market back in the early 70s. Their self branded Gibson copies were said to better than the originals back in the time.

Nope.

Good copies, but not AUTHORIZED by Gibson in any way.

[Gino]

Hoyer definitely had some kind of "deal" going on with Gibson in the early seventies.

I know there's the rumor over here that they did build Les Pauls for Gibson, but I doubt that.

A dealer 14-year old me was hangin' around all the time back then who was selling A LOT of the Hoyer guitars told us that Gibson had some kind of wood supply problem and that Hoyer helped them out.

As a "thank you" Hoyer was supplied Gibson humbucking pickups to offer as an option on their Les Paul copies. Those had "Gibson" embossed onto the nickle cover and they sold quite a bit of those, of course as after-market pickups were simply not available back then (at least in Germany). This story does make sense to me, also because (Norlin) Gibson Lesters were unbelievably expensive back then due to exchange rates and Gibson had virtually no market in Germany as most musicans would go the Britain to buy Gibbys.

Fact is, though, that the Hoyer instruments were far superior to most of the Norlin crap at a fraction of the price.

Yeah, and I'm lurking to fetch me a nice 70's Hoyer Lester one of these days...

[RobB]

25-1/2" scale, 23 (!) frets. Check out the massive bridge and bolt-down tailpiece...

Looks like a nicely constructed guitar. I like how they incorporate a belly-cut into the back binding and do a cap on the neck heel. Classy. Looks like a refret, but if not, that's some pretty bitchin' fretwork.

[cmatthes]

I read the Clapton bio a couple of years back - I think EC's first guitar was a Hoyer?

[crunchee]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does this guitar's neck appear to anyone to have a multi-laminate/ply construction? I've seen that type of necks on German guitars before (Hoyers and Hopfs mainly, if memory doesn't fail me), years ago, on '60's era models--and the photos appear to show that to me here, especially with the 'zoomen' feature.

[gorch]

Multi-ply was fairly common at the time with German made guitars not just with Hoyer.

[specialk]

I read the Clapton bio a couple of years back - I think EC's first guitar was a Hoyer?

Good memory. From page 22 of his book:

"The instrument I had my eyes on was a Hoyer, made in Germany and costing about two pounds. An odd instrument, it looked like a Spanish guitar, but instead of nylon, it had steel strings. It was a curious combination, and for a novice, it was really quite painful to play."