Model: Hofner S5 PA
Color: Mahogany
Year: 19801
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Used in...
- 1989-1999? (last seen in Spring 1999)
- Noel's first electric guitar!2
- played during the first rehearsals with the band
- featured in the background in the video of Whatever
- played during various recording sessions until Standing on the Shoulder of Giants
- played by Bonehead for Up In The Sky in 1994 and 1995
- used as backup guitar during the early Oasis tours
- maybe used to record Noel's first demo tracks (1988-1989)3
Details
If you look closely in the video of Whatever, you can spot an unfamiliar guitar among the more recognizable ones positioned in front of the amps.
The mistery was finally solved thanks to Noel's Gibson TV interview4 (filmed in 2022 but released in 2023): the guitar in question is a Hofner - the very one that Noel owned when he joined his brother Liam's band in 1991.
So, essentially, this is the first Oasis guitar.
After some detective work, the guitar was identified as a Hofner Model S5, version PA, assembled in Germany in the early '80s.
The S5 is a solid-body guitar with a set neck - essentially a Les Paul copy.5 The PA version, announced in 1979 and produced since 1980, had a special battery-operated circuit that included an acoustic filter and a pre-amp to boost the signal by 10 dB; the special features could be activated by depressing the knobs. By the way, "PA" probably stands for "pre-amp".
In Noel's own words, from the Gibson TV interview:
"I had this Hofner guitar, which is in the shape of a Les Paul but it was really thin and it took a battery. And I didn’t know for years that it took a battery, it sounded a bit shit until somebody said “You know that has active pickups?” And I was like “what does that mean?” and he’s like: “There'll be a battery somewhere, put a fu**ing battery in it“. And it fu**ing sounded like the best thing ever, it sounded like a fu**ing atomic bomb going off."
The pictures below provide more details about the S5 PA; the second is an ad from Barratts of Manchester, the official UK distributor for Hofner guitars at the time.6 Perhaps that's where Noel bought his S5 PA?
In March 1991, while he was in Munich touring as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets, Noel phoned home and he learned that his brother Liam was in a band.
Later on, one Sunday Liam invited Noel to jam with them at a rehearsal space called the Red House, in Manchester. Noel picked up his Hofner... and that's the start of the whole story.
During the first gigs with Oasis Noel played different guitars: at first a Fender Jaguar and a Hohner JT60, then - later on in 1993 - the Antique Sunburst Epiphone Riviera and finally his Epiphone Les Paul.
He did keep the Hofner though... and there it is in the Whatever video, filmed on 5 December 1994!
The Hofner was a backup guitar during the 1994 tour: it can also be seen in some backstage photos taken by Paul Slattery in 1994.7
Between 1994 and early 1995 it was played live by Bonehead for Up In The Sky: these are among the very few occasions where he didn't play his usual Antique Sunburst Riviera.
It is unclear why he used the Hofner for the job - and for that song only: maybe it was due to a different tuning?
Apparently, the S5 PA was used during many recording sessions throughout the 90s.
Here's an excerpt from a 1997 interview with Noel:8
"Still have my first guitar, yeah. It's a brown one, a Hofner. We try to cut it on every album we record, just jam it on there so you can say 'See that guitar there, that's my first ever guitar, and it's still going strong.' I think it made it onto this record [Be Here Now], I think Bonehead plays it as rhythm guitar."
It did make it into the Be Here Now sessions: its distinctive headstock is visible in a photo taken at Abbey Road in October 1996 by the great Jill Furmanovsky.
The Hofner also appeared during the Standing on the Shoulder of Giants recording sessions, seen in a guitar rack in another Furmanovsky photo from May 1999 at Chateau de La Colle Noire.
That was its last known sighting... until the next piece of evidence turns up!
Some pictures of a similar S5 PA in mahogany can be seen below.9
The knob placement on Noel's model appears different, likely due to variations between production batches. Interestingly, the pickups and hardware were made in Germany by Schaller, a manufacturer known for high-quality components.
All in all, it should have been a solid guitar - aside from its rather unconventional electronics.
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For informational and non-commercial use only. Please do NOT publish this content elsewhere.
If you share or use this information, please provide proper credit and link to the website.
I appreciate your respect for the years of dedicated, freely available research!
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- The S5 PA was produced between 1980 and 1983. Judging from various details, according to a Hofner expert from Germany (thanks Klaus!), Noel’s S5 should be from “1980, probably early in the year“. ↩︎
- Chart interview, June 1997 ↩︎
- It’s totally speculation, of course. ↩︎
- Gibson TV Icons – Noel Gallagher ↩︎
- The identification of the model – and of all the subsequent details reported here – has been made possible thanks to Steve Russell’s vintage Hofner website, an incredible source of info and pictures. ↩︎
- Source: Steve Russell & guitarage.nl ↩︎
- Oasis: A Year on the Road – Paul Slattery ↩︎
- Chart interview, June 1997 ↩︎
- Source: Reverb ad, 2023 ↩︎
The Chief's Guitars - Noel Gallagher's guitars: a complete guide - Oasis and NGHFB 