As you can see, it is a delightfully detailed MIK copy of a Hofner. I believe "ROGUE" is just a "house brand name" stenciled on the guitars from this factory purchased for resale by Musician's Friend - kinda like the old Sears "Silvertone" label on Harmony guitars in the sixties. It is very similar to the "Jay Turser" violin "Beatle" bass, and some of the hardware is identical to that used on the MIK Epiphones, Tursers, and others (although I had I heard that the Turser guitars were Chinese imports, not Korean). Whatever...
I had a "real" Hofner in the seventies, and I actually did not care for it as an instrument. Although I LOVED the look, It didn't sound that good to me, had a horrible balance, and the case smelled like cat pee! OK, the smell wasn't the guitar's fault...
Anyway, I think that the Rogue is actually a more playable instrument. It's heavier, so it sits more "confidently" on the shoulder, much better balanced - the Hoffy, as I recall, was terribly neck-heavy. It has much nicer tuners than the Hoffy had, and with its newer-design humbucking pickups, it's both quieter and LOUDER - with more bottom than I remember the Hoffy ever having.
As good as it sounded "stock," there is one thing I modified on this guitar. It's such a thorough copy of the Hoffy that they even copied the wiring of the pickup switches and controls - including the goofy (and unusable to me) "solo/rhythm" switch, which basically just cut the volume in the "rhythm" setting. As these guitars have no conventional tone control - the knobs are both volumes, one for each pickup - I un-wired the resistor from the "solo/rhythm" switch and instead wired a capacitor between it and the neck pup, so that when you switch to the "rhythm" setting, instead of a volume drop, it rolls off the highs, just like turning a tone knob down to "zero." I wired it this way so that it doesn't affect the tone when just the bridge pup is selected - it only works when both pups or just the neck pup is on. That way, I can get some REAL thump and rumble. The original intention was to try a few different values, but I liked the way it sounded with the first one I tried (.020 mf) and thought, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"
My over-all impression of this bass is that it is a well made instrument, and very nicely finished. Its playability reminds me of a Gibson EB-0 more than anything else, and the tone of the neck pup is somewhat like that of the Gibson, with a little less mud. Add the piano-like "doink" available from the bridge pup, and this axe gets the "Deaf Eddie" two-thumbs up!
August 2002: I DID finally put a set of flatwounds on - GHS, not Pyramids - and after re-notching the nut to accomidate the larger diameter strings, it now produces a delightful "THUD!" Yipee! These flatwounds seem to make the tone cap kind of a moot point on the neck pup, but you can still hear it working with both pups selected.
