Caspar Hopf began putting his name on musical instruments in 1969, and the family business was passed down through a dozen generations before arriving at Dieter Hopf, who led the Hopf company into the electric guitar era in the 1950s.

Working with designer Gustav Glassl, Hopf created some of the most modernistic guitars of the 1960s. One of Hopf’s signature features was cat’s eye soundholes. Gretsch had introduced the smooth, tapered design on its high-end Synchromatic acoustic guitars in the late 1930s, but when Gretsch dropped the cat’s eye holes in the 1950s, Hopf picked them up and put them to good use.

The Saturn 63’s body shape was inspired by Fender’s solidbody Jazzmaster, but the double soundholes on the bass side – accentuated by metal binding – gave it a memorable look that was distinctive from a Jazzmaster or any other guitar, for that matter.

Thanks in part to being featured in an ad for Star Club in Hamburg, the Saturn 63 was the most successful Hopf of the 1960s.