Vintage Guitars - Hofner, Hagstrom, Framus guitars and basses used by Irish bands in the '60s
On these pages we share vintage photos of musicians with their instruments. If you can identify any of the musicians, please let us know. We are indebted to Guy Mackenzie, Paul Day, John Doyle, Stefano Aria, Steve Russell, Jack Marchal, Mike Robinson, Alfons Lahaye and Tommy Dunne for their very generous expertise in identifying most of the guitars. Where possible, we have credited vintage guitar websites with photos. If your website has been omitted, please let us know and it will be added.

Malachy Laverty with his 1963 Hofner Verithin

A beautiful Hofner President hollow-bodied archtop played by Mickey Brady of The Avons.

This guitar looks like a Rickenbacker but it's not. It's a  Framus Fret-Jet c.1962-'63. Not Paul Brady as we thought but Dave Prim.

Hofner Galaxie  c1962-'63 (Arrans Showband) A Framus 5/154 Deluxe 4 (1966) played by The Victors (name?) bassist.
Derek Kennedy of The Swingtime Aces with his vinyl-covered (red) Hofner Colorama c.1960-'61 with metal tailpiece and sans tremolo.

Steve Lynch with his Hofner Committee Thinline

The Detroit Showband's guitarist with his Hofner.
A Hagstrom EDP46 Deluxe c.1959-'60 (Swedish) owned by The Slick Six guitarist. Colour photo courtesy of weirdvintageguitars.com

This is a Hofner 500/5 bass c.1960-'61 owned by the bassist in The Royal Viceroy Showband

Guitarist with the Billy McFarland Showband poses with his Hofner Verithin with Bigsby tremolo. Thanks to Steve from vintagehofner.co.uk
Brendan O'Brien of The Dixies with his single-cutaway archtop Hofner Committee c.1960-62

Fergus Plunkett of The Corvettes with his Hagstrom. Colour photo courtesy of weirdvintageguitars.com

Top of the Hofner archtop series, the Committee played by  Tommy Lamont of The Cossacks. 

A Hofner Colorama c.1960-'61 played by the guitarist in The Young Vikings. Up to 1960, the Colorama had a Gibson-style (3+3) headstock. Photo on right courtesy of vintagehofner.co.uk

Guitarist with The Detroit Showband with his Hofner

Framus Strato Star 5/156-52 bass c.1963. Catalogue photo courtesy of framus-vintage.de
The Topic Showband bassist (name?) plays a Hofner 500/5 (1961) A Hofner President c.1957-'60, owned by Tommy Fitzpatrick (Swingtime Aces/Kings) A Hofner Senator c.1957-'60  played by a member of Waterford's Derek Joys. Thanks to Steve from vintagehofner.co.uk
Des Kelly of The Capitol Showband with his Framus Star bass. Noel McGann of The Cadets with one of the very few Hofner "violin" basses as used by The Beatles' Paul McCartney. Shift yer head Eileen! A Hofner 500/5 c.1960-'61 hollow-bodied bass owned by a member of Dundalk's Young Vikings.
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Some great
vintage guitar sites!
Rudy's Music Fetish Guitars Vintage Hofner Framus Vintage
Hagstrom Vintage GuitarHQ Weird Vintage Guitars Burns Vintage
East European Vintage DDR Vintage Guitars Hopf Vintage My Rare Guitars
rocknrollvintage.com guitarage.nl Reverb '60s Guitar Museum
Norman's Rare Guitars Glen Quan Collection Dave Rogers Collection Real Guitars
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The Irish Bands Archive is an ongoing work in progress. Photos, cuttings, posters, adverts, line-ups, etc. to be added are always welcome and appreciated. If you have anything to contribute, please contact us by email.
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