Hopf JP Professional 1977

I’m offering a Hopf JP Professional for sale, which was developed by Dieter Hopf together with the English singer-songwriter John Pearse of BBC2’s „Hold Down A Chord“ fame (who was quite popular in Germany at the time and even lived here for the last years of his life) in the mid- to late 1970ies. Aside from the fact that it is a "signature model", it also featured some innovations at the time, such as the reinforced fan-bracing inspired by classical guitars and the fact that it was designed to be played with both steel-strings as well as nylon strings - so it was one of the first cross-over guitars in a way! :-)

This particular JP Professional for sale here was built in February of 1977, here are some more details as provided by Dieter Hopf himself with whom I had a very nice e-mail conversation a while back:

All original Hopf John Pearse Professional, 02/1977

- OM size guitar

- Cedar top, solid

- Jacaranda sides and back, solid

- Jacaranda pick-guard

- Slotted headstock, tuners w/metal shafts

- bone-nut

- Long scale, 65cm

- Neck-width @ nut: 50mm

- Neck-width @ 12th fret: 60mm

- Fan-style bracing, reinforced

- Bridge-saddle can be exchanged for use w/nylon strings (currently set-up for steel strings, nylon saddle not included)

- original case

The guitar has low action and great playability, it is currently strung with Elixir custom lights. Fret-wear is minimal, intonation is good, some normal and small signs of use. It has some lacquer-checking on the back only. The guitar is structurally sound and in great playing order - highly collectible as well as a great player!

An interesting story about this particular guitar is that the previous owner bought it from German Jazz-guitarist extraordinaire Volker Kriegel in November 1978 in his shop in Frankfurt that he was running with Peter Coura at the time, as documented by the original sales receipt (will be included). I always feel it‘s nice to know a little about the provenance of an instrument!

You can find some more information on John Pearse here if you’re interested:

Sold as described for EUR1150,- incl. insured shipping (DHL) within continental Europe, other locations pls. see below. Open to reasonable offers.

Thanks for your interest!

Edit: Due to questions here some more measurements:  

Measurement E-to-e-string @ nut: 38mm
Stringspacing @ nut: 7,5mm

Measurement E-to-e-string @ bridge: 57mm
Stringspacing @ bridge: 11,5mm

Total length: 104cm

Body length: 50cm

Width @ lower bout: 40,5cm

Width @ upper bout: 29cm

Width @ waist: 23,5cm

Depth @ lower bout: 9,5cm

Depth @ upper bout: 10cm

Weight: 1933grams