"A Super-Rare Bird" One of the Most Beautifully Made and Wonderful Sounding Guitars Ever…

1954 HOFNER MODEL 463 AOUSTIC ARCHTOP.

This super-rare, fifty-seven year old, non-cutaway sixteen inch-wide, three and a quarter inch deep archtop, weighs just 4.80 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 9/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/4 inches. Two-piece carved close-grain spruce top, one-piece carved ribbon mahogany back, and ribbon mahogany sides. A wonderful medium-to-thick profile, three-piece maple neck with a two mahogany center strips. Two-layer (mother-of-peraloid and black) neck heel onlay. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with original triple-layer (white/black/white) nut, 'zero' fret and 22 original jumbo nickel-silver frets. Block shaped fretboard markers with inlaid eleven-piece mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, black and white strips. The top and bottom of the body are very ornately bound with a thick white binding on the sides and half-herringbone 'rope' purfling around the top and back. The f-holes are single-bound and the neck is triple-bound. Headstock with three-strip pattern of white mother-of-pearloid and tortoiseshell with arrow shape outline inlaid in white. Three-in-a row open-back strip tuners with white oval plastic buttons. Shaped white mother-of-pearloid pickguard with one-line border engraved in black and with mounting bracket to treble edge of body and two securing pins, one to the treble side of neck and the other to the treble side of the bridge. Original rosewood height-adjustable bridge with adjustable fret-wire inserts. Nickel-plated escutcheon 'Lyre' tailpiece with "Hofner" engraved on wide bar, secured by two pins and one screw. The inside of the spruce top is marked in pencil "27. 9. 54". The "Hofner" logo is impressed (in black) into the spruce top, just below the treble foot of the rosewood bridge. This incredibly rare guitar is near mint (9.25) condition with just some very fine finish checking on the top and a few tiny surface marks on the back. It has never had (nor required) a neck re-set, there are no cracks in the body and the neck has never been drilled for a strap button. Housed in a later (worn) black shaped softshell four-latch case with tan foam lining (8.00).

In our research we have been unable to find another example with all of the present refinements. It is very obvious that this model was produced in 'tiny' numbers…