1962 Rodebald Hoyer

[Bryn Upton]

I am in Germany for a few months and found a 1962 Rodebald Hoyer Broadway guitar, it is an archtop with a sunburst paint job, lacquer finished (completely checked) and a loose neck. It was almost never played and has been hanging out in an attic for 45 years. The fingerboard and frets are perfect but the paint is flaking off on the head and the neck appears to be loose. There are plastic bands that run around the sides that have come away and don't appear to have enough slack to be re-glued.

I took off the strings and the bridge looks great. I just got this today so everything is already closed for the evening but tomorrow I will head to the paint store in the next town to try to find something I can use to restore the lacquer.

I have never tried anything this ambitious before and I am in a foreign country to boot so I am hoping the good people here can help out with this project. I am attaching pics of the instrument, the checking, and the logo.

[Dave Yelverton]

Hi Bryn
Just a few notes of caution. I was given a Hoyer in similar condition last year- crazed finish, cracking bindings etc. The owner wanted it re-finished. When I checked around, I found that Hoyers had some value which could be compromised by any re-finish work. The trend over here at least seems to require that guitars show all the signs of age, so I tend to steer clear of restoration!
I went back to the owner and advised against doing any work on it to maintain its value. This wasn't a problem for him as he wnted to keep it as a playing instrument, so he authorised a complete strip and a 3-tone sunburst. You will probably need to replace the bindings unless you can find some way to protect them; I assume you will try to re-consolidate the finish with butyl cellosolve. It will take out the bindings for sure,unless you carefully remove them and even then it may be difficult to stop them from cracking up. If you do decide on a complete strip, beware; the back is a maple lamination over birch and it can be paper thin in places!

[Bryn Upton]

Thanks Dave,

My plan at this point is indeed to try to re-consolidate the finish. I took it apart today and the body is in really good shape, the mother of pearl inlay is perfect on the fretboard and just needs a shine up on the head.

Thanks very much for the note about the material, I was wondering. I could not tell by looking inside exactly what it was made of. I love the original two color sunburst so I am going to try to keep it. There are a couple of chips of paint missing on the top but I don't think that is such a big issue as long as I can get the lacquer to work.

Any idea on how to save the logo (which appears to be on clear cellophane or something) when I am applying the cellosolve?

[Dave Yelverton]

Bryn, have you looked at this page of Frank's?

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier/Technique/Finish/Lacquer/Am....

He manages to keep the Martin Decal when amalgamating. On the guitar I worked on the Hoyer decal seemed to be a sort of gilt application directly on the surface of the wood and covered with spray The customer wanted it covered so no problem! . Provided your decal has a sufficient covering of cellulose you should be able to save it.If it's too close to the surface then I'm not so sure; it might be a problem to refer to Frank. If that's the case I would be interested in his solution.
Good luck with the re-finish.

Dave Y

[kield]

Hi Bryn.

I am very interested in info about your guitar. This model from Rodebald Hoyer is very rare to find with a solid sprucetop. It looks as if its a sprucetop in the photos. Apart from that its also unusual that this model has the Broadway label.
Inside there will probably be some numbers that can date the instrument to day-month and year. Can You find them for me maybe ?

Please send to [e-mail]

best regards kield

[Rob Mercure]

Hey Bryn,

Have you found any more about your guitar of this company? I've got a similiar looking model that's three layer plywood that I bought at a flea market in the late 1970s that been "in progress. since. As best I remember the guitar had no machines (or ones so cheap that I dumped them) and no bridge or trailpiece. So I put a set of machines on it that came off a goldtop Les Paul that a friends was upgrading (machines were Klusons with the triangular key) and a tail piece and bridge from other various old cheapie arch tops. Later I added a "soap bar" PU that was pulled from a 1958 Les Paul TV by another friend to added a humbucker to his guitar. Unfortunately years ago I sanded off the front of the peghead and altered the top contour as I condidered it very ugly (how we change) - since I didn't have any name on the guitar that I could find then I assumed it was an early 1960s higher end Japanese model. But after looking at your pictures and other I can find one the RH this is definetely one.

For a semi-hollowbody the guitar sound pretty good acoustically played but not as good with the P-90 as I would have thought. It originally came with three really cheap single coils whose parts I still have. But the neck while being thin with a distinct flat backed "D" controur is a bit narrow for my hands and would probably fit someone else better. Overall the instrument turned out to much better made than I thought when I picked it up for $10-20 long ago.

So I'd love to find a site with overall model descriptions and pictures. Whle this instrument remains in my fixer up bunch if someone that really loved these wanted it I'd probably work up a trade.

Rob

[kield]

Hi Rob

I am a big fan of these guitars and consider them to be good guitars and the best of them as good as any famous brand.

Here are the ones I have/had :

http://www.lacquercracks.dk/#Rodebald

and some more info in bad english :

http://www.lacquercracks.dk/rodebald.html

and the same "finished" article in german with better pics :

http://www.schlaggitarren.de/home.php?text=hersteller&kenn=75


I would love to recieve pics of rod.hoyers on [e-mail]

Best regards from Kield "Lacquercracks" , Denmark

[Bryn Upton]

I am no longer in Germany so I no longer have the guitar. I could not bring it back to the States with me. I took it to a repair shop to see if they could help me with the supplies I wanted to get to fix it up and the luthier said the neck was ruined. There is no truss rod so the warp would be basically impossible to straighten out. I did take pictures of the guitar and I am sad I had to let it go.

[kield]

Ok Thanks. A Shame You didnt take it back with you. the neck is noty difficult to straighten out even if it has no trussrod,- a real luthier can do taht easily. You should not by any chance remember the numbers inside it ?

Best regards Kield

[Rob Mercure]

Thanks, Keild,

I should be getting home interjnet again in a week or so - am still using the public library now - and once I do I'll post a pic of the guitar and see if you agress it is an RH. While there were no labels nor stamps in it wihen I got ist (and I stupidly altered the peghead countour as I didn't like assymetrical headstocks - still don't to some extent ) the overalls construction and outline seems to suggest and RH. Guess we will see,

Thanks again,
Rob

[kield]

You are welcome. Most Rod.Hoyers have no labels and thats why they have become so relatively "unknown" untill the last few years. Most of them however ( but not all) have an inkstamp inkstamp inside on the back , under the bridge area, easy to see through the holes by using a flashlight.

Hope to see your pics soon when your internet is ok again .

best regards kield