Product: Hondo 780 Deluxe Series
Price Paid: US $140.00 used
Submitted
06/14/2006
at
12:55am
by
Chaz
Email: surrealexistence at aol<dot>com
Features
:
8
It's an Explorer copy. Cream colored. No Pickguard. Two humbucker pickups, stock, I think. One volume knob, one tone, set up like on a telecaster. Three way selector switch, too. It was missing the truss rod cover when I got it as well.
I think it was made in the 80's. Not sure of the country.
Played perfectly when I got it (it was bought used from a secondhand music store) except for the A string buzzing a bit when played open. I just jammed a really really small bit of paper in the string slot in the nut. Plays great now. No buzzing on any frets, great low action.
Maple fretboard and neck, gloss finish. I sanded it down a bit so it was satiny. I hate gloss finishes on necks. The neck is pretty thick, like on most Gibsons.
The body is pretty solid, and I think is made of plywood, as I can see the plys showing through the paint a bit. The indents from them, I guess.
It has a hardtail bridge, string through body. Six saddles.
It has no pickguard, and I replaced the ugly knobs with Gibson ones when I bought it.
Tuners arent the best, but they're pretty damn good.
All in all, pretty damn good.
Sound
:
7
I play alternative kind of rock, with some ragens of influences incorperated including blues, metal, videogame style music. ALl kinds of weird shit. Nothing too weird though.
This guitar can rock with the best of them.
I use a stolen Fender Bassman 60 watt (the newer bass amps, not the classic guitar amps)
Sold my effects to help pay for the guitar, so it's only the Proco Rat distortion now.
This guitar doesn't make any undue feedback or buzzing/humming. It seems grounded pretty well.
It has a really thick, heavy sound when you want it to.
The neck pickup is pretty muddy though. Both pickups are a bit muddled, but the bridge is pretty clean. Could be better though.
Both pickups together give you a pretty bassy, rich sound. Sounds good clean like that.
It's not too versatile, mainly becuse of the overly bassy neck pickup, but it's not bad. Good overall sound quality.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
Everything seems fine on it, other than the wear and tear of use from the previous owner/owners. For a fairly cheap, used guitar, it's pretty damn relaible and stable.
Reliability/Durability
:
8
It's built like a tank.
Everything except the kind of flimsy plastic cover for the wires under the picuup selector switch and knobs.
That moves around a bit when you change pickups. Makes me a bit nervous, considering I cracked one side around the scew hole prying one of the knobs off with a screwdriver.
Other than that, built like a tank.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
I haven't had to deal with the company at all.
In fact, I'm not even sure they exist anymore.
Overall Rating
:
8
I've been playing guitar for about 5 or 6 years. This is the first decent guitar I've really ever owned, as they've all been really shitty hand me downs or really cheap pawn shop purchases.
I got actually more than I expected buying a cheap used guitar. It's built well, sounds pretty good, and plays great.
