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Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
s, with one division that manufactures guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
s and basses
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
, and another that manufactures string instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
s.

The company was made famous by The Beatles
The Beatles

The Beatles were a rock music and pop music band from Liverpool, England that formed in 1960. During their career, the group primarily consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr ....
' bassist Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney Member of the Order of the British Empire is a multiple Grammy Award-winning England singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record producer, film producer, Painting, and Animal rights....
's use of their left-handed 1962 Höfner 500/1
Höfner 500/1

The H?fner 500/1 Violin Bass is a semi-acoustic guitar bass guitar manufactured by H?fner under several varieties. It was introduced in the mid-1950s....
 model as well as John Squire
John Squire

John Squire is an English musician, songwriter and artist.Squire is best known as a member of The Stone Roses, a rock band in which he formed a songwriting partnership with Ian Brown....
's iconic use of a custom Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionism movement. In October 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner....
 paintjob semi-acoustic guitar while in The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses were an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1984. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
. Today it is known as the "Beatle Bass" or "Cavern Bass" after the Liverpool
Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
 club where the Beatles played in their early days and the first bass player of the beatles Stuart Sutcliffe use a 500/5.

Höfner company was founded by luthier
Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. The word luthier comes from the French language word wikt:en:luth#French which is French for "lute"....
 Karl Höfner in the city of Schönbach
Schönbach

Sch?nbach may refer to the following places:*Sch?nbach, Austria, in Lower Austria, Austria*Sch?nbach, Saxony, in the district L?bau-Zittau, Saxony, Germany...
 in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 in 1887, and soon became the largest manufacturer of string instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
s in the country.






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Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instrument
Musical instrument

A musical instrument is an object constructed or used for the purpose of making music. In principle, anything that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument....
s, with one division that manufactures guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
s and basses
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
, and another that manufactures string instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
s.

The company was made famous by The Beatles
The Beatles

The Beatles were a rock music and pop music band from Liverpool, England that formed in 1960. During their career, the group primarily consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr ....
' bassist Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney Member of the Order of the British Empire is a multiple Grammy Award-winning England singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record producer, film producer, Painting, and Animal rights....
's use of their left-handed 1962 Höfner 500/1
Höfner 500/1

The H?fner 500/1 Violin Bass is a semi-acoustic guitar bass guitar manufactured by H?fner under several varieties. It was introduced in the mid-1950s....
 model as well as John Squire
John Squire

John Squire is an English musician, songwriter and artist.Squire is best known as a member of The Stone Roses, a rock band in which he formed a songwriting partnership with Ian Brown....
's iconic use of a custom Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock was an influential American painter and a major force in the abstract expressionism movement. In October 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner....
 paintjob semi-acoustic guitar while in The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses were an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1984. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s....
. Today it is known as the "Beatle Bass" or "Cavern Bass" after the Liverpool
Liverpool

Liverpool [] is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a History of borough status in England and Wales in 1207 and was granted City status in the United Kingdom in 1880....
 club where the Beatles played in their early days and the first bass player of the beatles Stuart Sutcliffe use a 500/5.

Company history

The Höfner company was founded by luthier
Luthier

A luthier is someone who makes or repairs stringed instruments. The word luthier comes from the French language word wikt:en:luth#French which is French for "lute"....
 Karl Höfner in the city of Schönbach
Schönbach

Sch?nbach may refer to the following places:*Sch?nbach, Austria, in Lower Austria, Austria*Sch?nbach, Saxony, in the district L?bau-Zittau, Saxony, Germany...
 in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 in 1887, and soon became the largest manufacturer of string instrument
String instrument

A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones....
s in the country. His sons Josef and Walter joined the company around 1920, and began spreading the brand's reputation worldwide. The company suffered some upheavals during and after World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, but survived and continued to thrive. The company built new factories in Bubenreuth
Bubenreuth

Bubenreuth is a Municipalities of Germany in the district of Erlangen-H?chstadt, in Bavaria, Germany....
 in 1950.

Changes of ownership

In 1994, Höfner became part of the Boosey & Hawkes Group
Boosey & Hawkes

Boosey & Hawkes is a British Sheet music that claims to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass instrument, string instrument and wind instrument musical instruments....
, and was able to expand and upgrade its facilities with the influx of cash. In 1997, the company moved from Bubenreuth to Hagenau
Baiersdorf

Baiersdorf is a town in the Erlangen-H?chstadt district, in Bavaria, Germany.In the district Hagenau is a violin maker, named after Karl H?ffner, is based in a company of the town Bubenreuth....
.

After a near-bankruptcy in 2003 Boosey & Hawkes sold its musical instrument division (including the Höfner and Buffet Crampon
Buffet Crampon

Buffet Crampon et Compagnie is a manufacturer of high-quality woodwind instruments including oboes, flutes, saxophones, and bassoons. The company is perhaps most famous for their clarinets, as Buffet is the brand of choice for many professionals....
 companies) to The Music Group
The Music Group

The Music Group was a European parent company which owned several important musical instrument manufacturers which were formerly part of the music division of the Boosey & Hawkes Group....
, a company formed by rescue buyout specialists Rutland Fund Management, for £33.2 million.

Höfner remained a part of this conglomerate until January 2005, when The Music Group sold the company to Klaus Schöller, who has been the General Manager of Höfner for many years.

In mid-2005, The Music Group (having lost many of its component manufacturers) stopped distributing Höfner in the USA, and the distribution was picked up by Chicago firm Classic Musical Instruments (CMI).