More on the Hohner EGS Electric Guitar
Hohner USA got back to me about the EGS Electric Guitar and here’s what I learned…
At this time, the guitar is only available on a special-order basis in the US.
This instrument was developed for our overseas market, and we’re still evaluating its viability for the US market.
The retail price is $2999.99, and orders typically take about 6 months from order date…
And so, the news is bittersweet. On the one hand this ergonomically designed guitar is available and thus a major triumph. A major guitar manufacturer has chosen to do something bold and innovative rather than just something bland and derivative. And in addition to its ergonomic advantages, it has very nice specs as detailed in The Hohner EGS Electric Guitar. Unfortunately, it’s not the bargain that some of us had hoped for.
With used Klein electric guitars selling for thousands of dollars and alternatives meaning custom guitars like the Forshage, it would have been great to have a major manufacturer leverage their economies of scale and make an ergonomic guitar accessible to the average guitarist. Understandably, this is a fairly risky venture for Hohner and so the instrument is only available on a limited basis.
Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to more details on the EGS and if Hohner is listening, how about a version with simplified electronics and perhaps a bolt on neck? And since you already have headless guitar parts from your Steinberger licensing arrangement, a headless version would be nice as well…
At $3K with a six month wait, you’re way better off ordering a Forshage to your own dream specs. Too bad about this one… They should have kept it under $1500 USD to be competitive, even though there is little competition!
I was hoping for a similar price as well, Roger. If that were the case, I would have already started counting my pennies…
I can see how annoying it is not to be able to buy it due to market policies. But it’s usually the other way around: North American suppliers not distributing overseas (and I’m from Denmark, Europe, so I’ve been a bit annoyed about that from time to time).
But besides that… Is the EGS actually that ergonomic? It looks to have terribly little picking arm support and it might be quite neck heavy.
How about instead – if you’re looking for a cheap and ergonomic (traveling) guitar – adding a thigh rest and arm support to the Steinberger GT-pro?
It does seem a bit odd that they would release it first outside of the North American market – at least from the perspective of sheer potential sales. I imagine North American sales account for a rather substantial portion of overall sales.
As far as the picking arm support, I do think its on the small side although I’ve been rethinking my position on that a bit. While still important, I think its impact relates to the overall design.
One of the concerns with a typical guitar design is that it pushes the picking arm too far out. One of the things I’ve observed with my Hohner GT-2 (the licensed wood version of the Steinberger GT-Pro) is that because of its small body, it lets my picking arm drape naturally at my side. That’s a good thing as long as the rest of your position is relatively neutral and you don’t engage or over engage muscles that don’t need to be involved. I’ll have more on this at some later point when I post about my observations of living with my project guitar…
I can’t speak to the possibility of it being neck heavy (one good reason for my preference for headless designs) but I suspect that the extra material after the bridge is there for just this purpose.
Keep pushing, Robert. A change of specs here, different materials there and they may just have a viable consumer product.
There are definitely areas where Hohner could reduce costs. For example, they could do away with the piezo and active pickups and just go with passive pickups.
But, I’m going to guess that a fair amount of the cost is attributable to the aluminum leg rest which has two points of articulation.
Otherwise, the woods themselves are straightforward – nothing particularly exotic there – maybe replace the ebony fingerboard with something less expensive.
Glad we got to hear more about this. Too bad it’s not the information some of us wanted to hear!
I have to applaud the EGS for its bold appearance, if nothing else. You can cloak ergonomic features in an otherwise “standard” shape and still end up with something that’s more or less the “same ol’ same ol'” with a twist. And for some people, that’d actually be the DRAW! But for me, the appeal is the unique design along with the ergonomic features.
If one could get a hold of or manufacture something like the EGS leg-rest… combined with a mini arm attachment like on the Traveler… one could come up with a unique and compact design. 🙂
(headless… of course…)
I’m definitely drawn to its unusual approach. What we need is a Transformer like guitar with adjustable arm rest and leg rest. It might be odd but it sure would go a long way toward tailoring itself to the guitar player. 🙂
Hello,
I took over product management responsibility for Hohner’s string instruments on September 1st. I realize this thread is a year old, but for those of you interested, I wanted to let you know that the first production series of Hohner EGS models is out and is going through QC in our factory in Germany right now.
As this group appears to be more involved and interested in progressive designs, I am inviting you to throw your questions at me.
Regards
–Wolfgang
@Wolfgang – Thanks so much for the note. I’ll follow up with you directly. Excited to hear more!