THE 2025 FRAMUS HOOTENANNY REISSUE IS HERE: Lennon's Lost Acoustic is Back!

The 2025 Framus Hootenanny Reissue is finally here! I am incredibly grateful to have scrutinized this guitar for almost 2 months now, and this video is an unbiased breakdown of these reissues.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I was not paid for this review, but YouTube requires me to check the "sponsored content" box if I "accepted anything of value from a third party." I received the instrument for free for the purposes of making this review.

We'll discuss every feature of these reissues, talk about all the specs, pricing, and more. We'll also talk about how these compare to the original Framus Hootenanny models, why The Beatles used them on "Help" and "Rubber Soul" throughout 1965, the famous "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" scene in the movie, how John Lennon's guitar was given to Gordon Waller (of Peter and Gordon), lost for decades, and eventually found in an attic. We'll also do a brief history of the Framus company, other models in this line, and more. Yes, this is a very dense video!

A massive thank you to Hans-Peter Wilfer, the Framus team, Christian Hoyer, Perry Stanley, Brian Johnson, and everyone else who helped make this video. While this may the first time I've received a guitar to review, I certainly hope it won't be the last! 😉

LINKS (NO AFFILIATION)

Perry's Vid:    • 1964 Framus Hootenanny plays The Beatles!!  
Christian Hoyer's Framus books: https://shop.warwick.de/en/merch-prom...
Warwick Store: https://shop.warwick.de/de/instrument...
Thomann: https://www.thomannmusic.com/framus_v...

Interested in a pickguard or black truss rod cover? I'm working with a pickguard manufacturer here in the states to do this with real celluloid. If you're interested, send an email to:

[email protected]

Want to print my review?

Shoot me an email (either the address above or my official YouTube email, which you can find on my profile page). I wrote a multi-page article about this guitar, complete with exclusive photos. Vintage Guitar Magazine wouldn't even look at the article unless I gave the guitar to them for one of their staffers to review (yeah, not happening).

ADDITIONAL NOTES

I have to add this tidbit for everyone who read this far: I wanted to post this video a month ago, but I couldn't because of a copyright strike from...The Beach Boys. Yes, you read that right. Because The Beach Boys did a terrible cover of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" on their 1965 "Party" album, they claimed ownership of this ENTIRE VIDEO! The Lennon/McCartney tracks were all cleared – it was The Beach Boys' publisher that held out for an entire month (30 days) before letting their claim expire. The YouTube copyright system is so ridiculously abused by these large media conglomerates that it's honestly getting to the point where I'm losing motivation to do this.

0:00 Tone Demo 1
2:24 Intro
4:22 Framus: a brief background
6:23 Framus Hootenanny context
8:53 John Lennon’s guitar
10:28 Reissue comparison
17:54 Final verdict
21:10 Tone Demo 2

About the tailpiece #1: I will discuss this in greater detail in an upcoming video, but one hardware feature will be changed on production models thanks to yours truly. The tailpiece is retained by two flush nuts recessed into the string holder (at the end of the "bars"). They needed to be slightly beefier, and the production models will also come with a slot head access point on these nuts to ensure the string holder portion is fully tightened against the posts. In the 1960s these tailpieces would have been welded here as one piece, so this wasn't an issue.

About the tailpiece #2: I should also mention that all these modern tailpieces are a trapeze in appearance only – they do NOT hinge like the vintage models. As far as I understand it, this was a design decision made by the Framus team very early on to ensure a consistent break angle over the bridge and prevent buzzing (which was a problem on the originals). I'll also go more into this in a future video.

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DISCLAIMER: This video is for educational purposes only. All images, audio, and video footage fall under fair use laws. No copyright infringement is intended.