The President was the least expensive of Hofner’s single-cutaway full-depth electrics, although the theme of American government continued down the line to the non-cutaway Senator and Congress models.

With a 16.25-inch body, the President was a bit smaller than the Committee, which varied between 17.5 and 18 inches. And the President had less binding, plainer inlay and a less ornate peghead. But when it came to performance the President started out with the same rosewood covered pickups as the Committee, and it moved right along with the more expensive model to the “toaster” style units and on up to double-coil humbuckers in the early 1960s.

The President, like most traditional archtop electrics, fell by the wayside in the 1970s, but Hofner revived the name in the 1990s for an updated version called the New President and an offshoot called the Vice President. In 2004, the political names took a curious turn toward the company’s homeland when Hofner introduced a more expensive model called the Chancellor.