Hondo Strat

[megid]

Hi there everyone,

This is my first post here, and I'm hoping I could get an ID on this. It would be very much appreciated. I have pics and info here:



I've heard almost everywhere that Hondo's are pretty much just pieces of firewood, but the Hondo I have is really, really good. I have played my friend's 86 MIA strat, and this pretty much rivals it.

[Riotonsunset]

[megid]

[Big Beat]

[wietse]

i found one very similar to your's on the site of lord bizarre.


http://www.lordbizarre.com.

he calls it a H-76 and thinks it was made in 1982, and strangly that guy is almost always right.
because the hondo name went out of use in 1987, only to be revived a few years ago.
i think the date is right.
hondo was always hit or mis in that time, or you get an nice guitars or a unplayable piece of crap.

the early 60's/70's hondo mostly were terrible, i don't care what the bluebook of guitars says about them (mostly good quality copy's).
i know by experience that's not true.
when the name changed to hondo II the quality was getting better, later on the name changed back to simply hondo.

if your's is a nice guitars you'r lucky and enjoy it.

[Spud1950]

It is indeed an H 76. Here's a link to a thread about the same model from a while back. Unfortunately the eBay links are no longer valid, but I originaly put them up and that's exactly what have.

[megid]

Yes, but compare the pics. Why does the faceplate on mine only have 3 screws on the top of it compared to the 4 on the H76? I'm pretty sure it's all original. Is it just an earlier model?

[Spud1950]

Didn't notice that. Your pickguard has a total of 8 screws while the others have a total of 10 screws. I would remove the screws on yours, lift it up a bit and check to see if there are 2 more holes under it,or not, in the body. That should tell you if it's original, or if it was perhaps replaced.

[megid]

[wietse]

lesson one, never be amazed by the small differences guitars of the same asian brand have whitin a model.
january they used scratchplates with 10 holes, in march they went to 8 an month later is was 9 or 10 again.
only thing that matters for them is what was the cheapest scratchplate available at that moment.
the most of the hardware was not made by the same factory as the rest of the guitar.
don't forget though samick was de main builder of korean hondo's, hondo was just a name, and if fuji gen or matsumoku could build the same guitars for less money they went for that option.
there are tokai build hondo's, longhorn model, and matsumoku made models, DC model, these were higher end guitars than the average hondo's, set neck solid body (no plywood) etc.

[megid]

Thanks for the info! So my model is definitely an H-760 model and made in Korea?

[Spud1950]

It's a model H-76,not an H-760. There is a difference. The H-760 has a maple fretboard and the truss rod adjustment is at the neck heel, like a vintage Strat, not at the headstock.

[daan]

A good friend of mine had a Hondo almost exactly like the first poster's in the early 80's. When we stripped the paint off of it to change the color in the middle/late 80's, we found that the body was made of molded OSB! (think particle board) The stripper basically melted the glue holding the body together, so it ended up in the garbage. I had a Hondo fake LP, that thing was way nicer than the strat my buddy had.