Hondo Paul Dean

[67Marshall]

anybody have any pics and info?

thx

[VintAxe]

hi 67Marshall,

I've looked through my Hondo catalogs and the Paul Dean isn't listed. The only information I can find is the Harmony Central Review which I'm sure you have already seen.



I'll reply back to this thread if any information turns up. sb

[Mad-Mike]

[VintAxe]

Excellent post Mike, the info you have shared is greatly appreciated. Actually, I ran across a Hondo Paul Dean photo the other day that I was going to add to this thread. It's not great since the guitar is missing tuners and other hardware, but it is the best I have at the moment. From what I can tell, this one must be a Paul Dean II.

I look forward to seeing some better pixs from you Mike. Thanks for the outstanding contribution. sb

[Mad-Mike]

I'll start with the one from Vintaxe, I rotated it 90 degrees. I forgot what catalog it's from, I think it was late 1983, and it was next to something similar to Kramer's "Duke" if I remember right. If you look close enough, you can see that they did not photograph an actual HONDO Paul Dean, but an Odyssey Paul Dean II, which is kinda strange, because as I recall reading, the Odyssey Paul Dean, according to one source, did NOT have any Attila Balough/Odyssey writing on the headstock, so it's kind of an interesting picture.


Here's a picture of a Hondo Paul Dean in excellent condition from one of the guitar brag sites. You can really see the grain on the pickguard on this one, I think Hondo used some kind of textured plastic rather than that rubberized material used on flight cases.


Here's the only Paul Dean III I've seen, and it's in Loverboy's "Hot Girls In Love" video. You can just barely see the bridge pickup. This is the guitar that makes me question if Hondo really did put a trem on that model, because in this shot, it's pretty obvious that's a Non-Trem Leo Quan Badass bridge.


Here's a picture I nabbed out of a Loverboy fansite photo collection of Paul with one of the prototypes, this one sporting a MusicMan Style pickguard, and rear mounted controls.


Here's another photo from the same fansite cropped down. This one is the P-90 version. The reason these variants intrigue me, is because I dunno about the Odyssey versions, weather they were all dual DiMarzio Super II, or if they made them with P-90's or other pickups.



One last picture from the fansite, this one is of one of the guitars fitted with Super II pickups. I think most of the production PDII's had the stock Hondo pickups, probably because most kids wanted to get the guitar on the cheap, rather than buy the thing fully fitted with the Super II humbuckers.

[jedistar]

Sold eBay for $47.66 US (7 bids) 30 March 2007
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Hondo-Paul- ... dZViewItem

The Kramer version:
http://www.vintagekramer.com/pauldean.htm
photo of Paul with the Kramer:
http://www.vintagekramer.com/Ads/paulspromo.jpeg
ebay snakeskin version
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0088228709

Interesting bio here of Paul Dean and the first 50 guitars made by Canadians before Hondo then Kramer.
http://web.295.ca/~gtmadore/article%2016.htm

If you hurry you can buy a paul dean loverboy pick
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0103960327

[Mad-Mike]

I have not been here in awhile, however, while out searching for a good "body template" on-line for this model series, I came across this on E-bay. I figured I'd necropost and put this up here since this is a good bit of info on these models.

Apparently, the Paul Dean III does exist and is quite a bit rarer than the II, as this is the first one I've seen.






From my observations....
- Uses many of the same parts as a Hondo strat copy from the period (pickguard, back plate, trem, pickups, and knobs)
- I don't ever recall seeing Paul using one of these, the closest is the "Hot Girls In Love" guitar in an earlier post, but that has a Leo Quan bridge and looks like it has standard Paul Dean II wiring except the pickup selector switch.
- The entire back is painted black, I don't understand the reasoning behind this, except maybe Hondo is trying to hide something (blemishes, plywood, I dunno), maybe this was why Paul moved to Kramer in 84'-85'ish.

Pretty cool to actually see these were around.

[crawly]

Well on a whim I was googling a guitar and I ended up here. I have a picture of one of theses illusive Paul Dean II guitars. This is from my private collection and it required an extensive amount of digital image restoration, but I am positive this is the guitar in question.




Seriously though, I have a Paul Dean II that I bought around 1990 and every now and then I'll Google it just to see what comes up. Currently this seems to be about the only source of information on it. So, if anyone is interested, I'll take some pictures and post them here. I might even cut her open and take some picture of the naughty inside bits!

~crawly

[mb848]

Did anyone see the Hondo Paul Dean III that just sold on Ebay? I had found this post and just happened to look on Ebay and saw it there. It has the typical nicks and scratches found on a 25 year old guitar, but after reading about how rare they are, especially the III model, I couldn't resist. It cost me $89.00. It is also finished in a very 80's looking black and red zebra stripe. I have no idea if this finish is original, but when the guitar arrives I'll post some pics.

I have to say, there is really no information at all out there about these guitars. The most info I found was here at the Vintaxe forum. Any more information would be great!

[Mad-Mike]

I know this thread is over 2 years old, but I feel since I've started posting all the info I could here, I'll post more that might be of interest to the forum on the actual Hondo guitar itself.

http://www.axetalk.com/forum/attachment ... 1291070998

I just got one for $200 from E-bay about a few weeks ago, and have had a chance to "pop the hood" and take a look inside - here's the actual specs for the Paul Dean II...

- 3 Piece Maple Neck, separate Maple 24.75" Scale fretboard, headstock tilted back about 10 degrees, sealed gear tuning machines, Gibson style nut, 21 jumbo frets, black plastic inlays on fretboard. 4-Bolt neck that uses inset metal grommets for support as opposed to a plate, and the screws are closer together at the top of the neck slot, probably to prevent shifting. The truss rod is at the body end and has a slot cut for easy access with the pickguard removed. May have the "tone channels" as the neck resonates a good bit. Apparently these came with 2 different logos - the earlier ones like mine and the PD-3 above, came with the older 70's style Hondo logo, the later ones got the H in a circle logo.

- 2 piece body, either Ash or Maple, looks to be northern hard ash like Fender used in 1970's, but I'm not totally sure. The body is routed 4 two humbuckers and has a large, Jazzmaster-like rout down the treble side for the controls. No plastic wood or anything similar like Paul used on his strat and possibly the prototypes. Very clean routing, no sheilding except some sheilding tape below the pots on the pickguard.

- The pickguard is textured plastic that warps in some spots with age if one places undue stress on it, particularly around the pickups, with one little sheet of aluminum foil below the pots. The pots have one larger pot for volume and one smaller one for tone, no clue if they are original or not. The master volume has a treble bypass cap on it (sweet!!), and the pickups are the standard Hondo humbucker fare - black twin bobbin humbuckers with non-adjustable pole pieces and quite microphonic. They sound really good though and have that "Paul Dean" sound to them (very resonant midrange that's somewhat vocal-like). Hondo's version of the DiMarzio Super II pickups perhaps? Has the original black metal knobs and black 3-way switch, and the original output jack.

The guitar came with the original hardshell case and the blackest most-in-need-of-changing set of strings I've ever seen. Stayed in tune perfectly, and has been an excellent addition to my collection thus far. Might start using it live once I use my Revlon..er...ah...Manland Makeshift Parrafin Wax Bath on the pickups.

Some LARGE Shots of the internals
http://www.axetalk.com/forum/attachment ... 1291072125
http://www.axetalk.com/forum/attachment ... 1291072094
http://www.axetalk.com/forum/attachment ... 1291072094
http://www.axetalk.com/forum/attachment ... 1291072094
http://www.axetalk.com/forum/attachment ... 1291072038


I did some videos on youtube under my account "creepingnet", never mind my moustache that I had at the time.

[VintAxe]

Thanks for the update mad-mike. Due to your effort we probably have the most detailed information available on the net for the Hondo Paul Dean.

Your effort will be much appreciated by fellow enthusiast

[mb8448]

Here is my PD-3, purchased a few years ago on Ebay for a whopping $89.00. I am certain that the finish is original. It was a bit dirty and has it's share of nicks and scrapes, but knowing how rare these things are I couldn't resist! I just put on some fresh strings and it sounds great. By the way, this forum is by far the best source of info on these guitars. Thanks to Mad Mike for all the recently posted info as well.

[Mad-Mike]

[lutzkibbutz]

Hey, peeps! I have a few shots for you. I am the fella who did the first Harmony Central review on this guitar way back when. I am new to this forum and will try to figure out how to post the photos after doing the text stuff up. A few recordings ago I went through my entire solid-body collection and tried them all through my Marshall JCM-800 to get the rock rhythm sound I was after. I was a little surprised (but perhaps shouldn't have been!) to ascertain the Hondo Paul Dean II and a Norman NS-20 electric were the two best sounding so those were utilized from that point on. Included in the link berlowe are a recent pic of Paul with Loverboy playing a Les Paul (he started with a band called, "Streetheart", was then chosen as the nucleus "Loverboy" was formed around, and more recently started a band called, "Scrubbaloe Cain"), one of him signing my Paul Dean II, and some of the second version I have. Paul like the Hondo and told me even HE doesn't have one of these! I offered it to him being I have two and, knowing he is a multi-millionaire, thought maybe he might give me one of his Les Pauls or something in trade! He probably didn't like the idea of taking something valuable from a fan and thus the offer was left on the table. As you can see he, like the majority of the rest of us who are fans, has gotten older (he was a fair bit older than the other Loverboy band members, by the way) but still smokes on the guitar, looks cool doing it, and is a good fella.

Anyway, I still have two of these guitars and am willing to put the non-signed one up for offers. The version pictured here is in very good condition (some minor playwear) as you can see, and it has been professionally set up. It is all original and I believe it to have the Hondo pickups in it, which I would not want to replace as they truly sound excellent.

One of the posters mentioned a link with a picture of Paul playing a Hondo in Europe (haven't had a chance to check out the shot yet) but that goes against what he said about not having one and not actually having seen one before mine...sounds a little strange, eh???

If anyone can educate me as to how to actually show jpegs on my postings that would be pretty cool!

Cheers,
Jeff

http://profile.imageshack.us/user/lutzkibbutz/

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[Mad-Mike]