Höfner Archtop
model 455
1958 - 1959 Vintage
sunburst
50's HOFNER 455 Archtop Violin Sunburst
Very nice acoustic Made in Germany 
Höfner : The Beatles brand ...
At 70, she naturally shows the signs of age = ding and dongs...
pickup :  pickup Attila Zoller (  installed a few years ago for a very Jazz sound )
neck : a screw had been installed for neck stability which is a good thing for future stability.
a vintage mechanical rod is slightly bent but works correctly
string action 2,8 millimeters at the 12th fret
This guitar can be tested at Guitar's Cafe, Rue de Bourg 11 in Lausanne, Switzerland
This Höfner was put back into operation by LRM Lutherie in July 2025
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When Hofner re-commenced production in Moehrendorf, Bavaria after WW2, the 456 was one of the archtop models offered. A very similar archtop had been produced with that model designation before the onset of the war when Hofner were based at Schoenbach in Bohemia.
The 456 was intended to be Hofner’s mid-range archtop, utilising nicely flamed maple for the body back and sides, with a maple top. A good standard of ornamentation was used on the guitar, with binding/multi-purfling around body top and back edges and soundholes, with the rosewood neck also bound. Pearloid strips were used for the fretmarkers, and on all but the very earliest guitars, a pearloid/tortoishell/pearloid celluloid fascia covered the front of the headstock.
There can be problems differentiating between the 455, 456, and 457 models, particularly as Hofner seems to have continually revised the detail cosmetics of these models over the years. The main basic difference between the 456 and the slightly later 457 is that the 456 had a maple body top and the 457 had a spruce top. Both the 455 and the 456 had maple tops, but the ornamentation on the 456 was of a higher standard than the 455. For example, the 455 was not provided with binding to the neck initially, though later examples (after the demise of the 456) did gain this feature.
Initially the 456 was only supplied in brown sunburst finish. Later, a natural blonde finish was available, and some examples even have a red-burst finish.
As with the rest of the Hofner range, the 456 was available from c1954 with the option of factory fitted electrics.
The 456 disappeared from the range in 1962, by which stage the 457 model would seem to have taken over as Hofner’s principle mid-range archtop.