Hondo II Black Beauty

[tome]

Here she is rescued from a long line of student owners. Original pickups are long gone and now has GFS replacements. I play out with it at gigs, strictly open E tuning for slide as correct intonation is impossible due to inaccurate bridge placement. It must have been like this from day one for over thirty years as the rest of the workmanship is not good either. Having said that, I'm thrilled with the sound of it using a brass slide.




There were some traces of glue residue from a small rectangular sticker on the back of the headstock under this Quality Control sticker.




I fitted some new tuners because one of the originals had been replaced and one of the others was broken. I guess the block logo predates the script logo which was first used in 1978 according to US Trademark Office. I feel it was made in Korea but I'm not sure. Switch and pots are Japanese and the tailpiece is stamped Japan underneath.




Here's the model number on the neck plate.

[VintAxe]

Great information tome. I have a late 1970's Hondo catalog I dated as 1977 since they were using DiMarzio pups but the guitars pictured in the catalog have the script logo so it is probably more accurately dated 1978 according to your trademark information.

I think you are right about Korean production, hence the poor workmanship. Yours is probably a 76-77, they were still working out the kinks. Too bad they couldn't at least get correct bridge placement

[tome]

I just checked the US Trademark Office again, and I have made a mistake re first use of Hondo II script logo According to their records, first use was 1st March 1977. I tried to provide a link but it times out all search enquiries.

I'm pretty sure the Dimarzio equipped Hondos launched in 1978, here's an ad from 1978