Hondo Fame Bassmaster 001

I have no idea when this bass was made...but it had to be early to mid 80's. This 4-string p-bass copy is defintely better than most of the Hondo basses I have seen around. It has 22 frets on a solid maple neck. It has a Kahler tremolo bridge, Grover tuners and a very pathetic sounding single passive P-bass pickup with one volume and two tone controls. The body is the best feature of this bass. I think the bass is probably maple, but I'm just guessing. The BEAUTIFUL flame maple top that is presented with a brown stain in a type of burst pattern. It's a basic P-bass copy with a black pickguard and gold hardware.

I play rock and metal, and this bass fit...barely. I would strongly recommend finding a better pickup for this bass. I originally ran this guitar through a Sunn Coliseum Lead amp head with a twin 15 cab. It sounded fine...but the pickups were crap. Their output was lousy and they sounded way too muddy.

Was it set up? I bought the thing used, and whoever had this thing before me was a moron. They obviously thought that the strings needed to be a mile above the fret-board. After I adjust the neck back down, this thing played well. Other than the previous owner gimping it up, the bass seemed to be put together very well. The neck is obviously a high quality maple neck, and plays pretty easy.

This bass is made of solid granite! I try and take care of my equipment, and I had an incident where my strap came loose from this bass while I was playing. It fell about 3 feet to the floor and landed on one of my old stomp box effect pedals. After crying about the dent it left in the back of the body, I was able to play the instrument just fine. The pots and jack were junk, and had to be replaced. The bass is dependable now that I have replaced all the pots, jack and pickups. I don't play hard, and this bass has never let me down since I replaced everything. :-)

Uh...what customer support? This company is still in business, but I have never EVEN tried to contact them for support. The bass was cheap, and it was my first when I was 17. I wanted to learn so I took care of things myself. I have recently had occasion to email them for more information about this bass...I'm still waiting for a response.

Overall, the bass was about average when I bought it with a 5 out of ten rating. After replacing the pickups, the pots and the jack, adjusting the neck and cleaning it up, this bass improved to at least a 8 out of ten. The bass has good tone and sustain, and I still love to play it. I have a Washburn bass and an Ovation acoustic/electric that I play with a group of friends. I love this bass and will never get rid of it because it was my first. It's a good bass now, and has the really nice, crunchy sound that I like...but I had to replace a lot of things to get it. My rating reflects the standard bass, stock bass that I bought...not the updated one I play now. :-) I have never seen another bass like this...but if I found another one, and the price was right...I would buy it.