Hondo 766 Deluxe Series

Hondo Model 766 Deluxe Flying V Guitar.
Bought this brand new in about 1975 along with a Vox Half Stack piggy back and 4 10". I have had and kept this guitar perfect for over 30 years. It's still my favorite hard rock guitar. 22 frets, solid body, single humbucker pickup. Passive electronics (I believe). Beautiful Maple neck, I don't know what the body is made of. It's a V shape of course. The bridge is a simple angle and drag design, easy to set harmonics etc. Non-locking tuners, nice thin neck. It came with a V case.

With a single Humbucker, this guitar is pretty limited, but under distortion sounds fantastic. ZZ Tops, heavy rock riffs all sound great on this guitar. It is very bright, somewhat noisy, and needs very little effects. I can actually make this guitar talk. I don't like the V body for it's uncomfortable play while seated.

Factory set-up was a joke. I had trouble with it for the first few years, because I didn't know how to adjust the harmonics at the bridge. Once I learned how to care and adjust this guitar, it has been perfect. The pickups all came too low, and had to be adjusted up. The tuning pegs are fairly loose, and always have been. The saddle is difficult to work with, but with practice becomes ok. There is no pickup selector, and only has a single volume and tone knobs. It does carry fantastic action tho.

The V is a good "song specific" guitar. I use it to play certain types of music only. It sounds great 'dirty', and not good clean. For soft chording, or for background fretting, I have to switch out to a strat. For harsh leads and solid old rock, this thing belts out the tunes. The strap buttons are located in terrible places, making it very difficult to place a good strap on it. The finish has lasted 30 + years with only my belt buckle markings on the rear side. I would not play a gig with this guitar alone.

30 years ago, it never gave me a single problem, and I never tried to obtain support. Now if something went wrong, I would replace most of the guts for sure.

I've been playing for around 40 years now, and this guitar has been the backbone of my learning and playing days. Today I rely on my strat a lot more than this guitar, and it is relegated to the 'obscurity' bin as did the Hondo Company.

don't know the year- don't know when it was made. one hb pickup. one volume, one tone knob. 22 frets. full size neck, but mini flying v body. weight is comparable to a strat. very meat and potatoes kind of guitar- has what needs to be there and nothing more.

well, when it comes to anything distorted, this baby sings. its pickup is very bright, so clean is not very attractive. basicly i use this guitar when i want to drive my amp hard- blink 182, green day sort of stuff. when i pull back into ballads, i really have to switch to my cort strat copy. that's really my complaint against this guitar- not a lot of versatility. that's why i'm trying to switch to an ibanez s series.

factory set up? ha. how would i know? when i bought this sucker, the nut was broken, string retainers were gone, and some yahoo had covered it with contact paper and spray paint. i really don't even know the original color of this axe. the humbucker is a little off center... or the bridge is, or the neck is or SOMETHING is... anyway, it's not a huge deal and it still plays and sounds great.

doesn't like to stay in tune. output jack in on the top of the bottom side of the "v", so i got a lot of popping until i figured out to put the cord through the strap first. it would be A LOT more dependable if the strings would stay tuned, but maybe i just play too hard on it. who knows. heck, it cost me 60 bucks and 30 bucks in repairs, and i can use it for shows and even for recording. who could ask for more?

never dealt with em

i've been playing guitar seriously for 6 years. my gear right now is a montage of junk that i've modified to sound good. right now i play this sucker through a fender power chorus 2x12 combo. sometimes i hook that amp up to my peavey 300 combo bass amp, which sounds TIGHT. anyway, if it was stolen, i wouldn't buy another (mostly cuz i don't think i could FIND one...), but i'd mourn the loss of a cheap axe that actually played pretty well. i wish it stayed in tune better and i wish it was more versatile... and i wish it wasn't a flying v mostly cuz i feel weird walking into a blues jam with a flying v... lol...