Hodson guitars?

Craig Bumgarner · June 2006

I'm pretty happy with my Hodson 503SR, #93, 1999 which I have had for about a year now. Nice woody Selmer sound, complex and fairly loud. No instrument is perfect and neither is this one, but overall, it is the one I play the most.

Keep in mind that mine is an early instrument and after 300-400 instruments since, there can be no doubt Hodson's current instruments are even better. I think Hodson is very much worth consideration.

I do, however, strongly believe in "try before you buy".

BTW, my visit to Jacques Mazzoleni a couple years ago was nothing less than cordial. I made an appointment, told him in advance I was likely not to buy. He generously gave me an hour of his time and allowed me to play half a dozen instruments including a real Selmer (well, he didn't let me play that one). His website says: "48 hours approval on all purchases. Returns accepted for any or all reasons. Full refund minus shipping." I have no reason to doubt this is the case.

Just my 2 cents.

Craig Bumgarner

sockeye · June 2006

Thanks for the update Craig. I feel bad about the "gossipy" stuff I posted & am going to go back & edit my posts to remove these comments from the record.

John

chappie · June 2006

I can also say that I played a couple of Hodsons at Jaques Mazzoleni's and they were pretty dull... poor finish, setup, dull sounding guitars. Jacques on the other hand is a great guy and has always been very generous. I bought a Dupont from him and he has always been very helpful with anything that I have needed. If you buy a guitar from anyone sight unseen you are taking a risk but many folks don't have the opportunity to play Selmer style guitars where they live and are forced to "window shop" and suffer the inevitable cost of mailing a guitar back. I bought a Dell'Arte Hommage from a dealer in Texas for a great price but sent the guitar back right away. If anyone has a chance to visit Jacques by all means do so... a great opportunity to play a lot of great guitars as well as some not so great. All good experience.
C

Stringswinger · June 2006

I've played three Hodsons, one here in California and two in France. I was underwhelmed with all three. That said acoustic guitars are all different. Every maker probably has sone 'duds'. The economics of it are such that a maker just cant destroy those instruments that are not good. I've played Selmer's and D'angelico's that were not great (I've also played some guitars of those makers that blew me away). Bottom line, play them before you buy unless you get a good enough price so that you can be sure of selling it to someone else. (Please don't sell your "dud " guitar to me

) I have read some favorable reports about Hodson's guitars, I hope there are some good ones out there. All the best to David Hodson and the players of his guitars.

Cheers,

Marc

www.hotclubpacific.com

TenorClef · November 2006

I don't own a Hodson guitar but I have found David Hodson very helpful, on a recent insurance claim he supplied me with a replacement Gitane DG250M and the guitar plays great. I believe both JJ and Hank (Shadows fame) both own Hodsons and are very happy with them. I did try to pin David down to giving me his opinion of the overall quality of the Gitane he supplied me with but got a mute responce. Whether that was because the Saga Gitane surprised him for build/tone quality or whether he just felt the instrument was poor i don't know. I suspect the former.