Hondo Explorer Copy

I bought this guitar from the now defunct "Wayne's Boots and Guitars" and the bad side of North Fort Worth. I was 15 at the time. It was strange to go in a cowboy boot store and buy a rock and roll guitar.

It is big, solid, and fairly heavy. It has a 22 fret solid neck, not bolt on. It is painted a hideously garish red and white striped ala' Van Halen, which I very quickly crapped up with punk rock stickers and duct tape. It has two double humbucking pick-ups, which I have been told are old DiMarzio's. It also has two knobs for volume and tone, and a three way switch to control which pick-ups are "on". It has a string thru body tremolo, of which I lost the handle many years back. That's OK though because I never used it much anyway. I am not sure what model the tuners are, neither am I sure of what the body is made of either. It is literally built like a tank though. I have had it since 1984 and still play it to this day. Other than the abuse I gave it, it is still in the same condition as when I first got it. The action of the fretboard is wonderful, and very easy to play. No sign of sagging is noticeable. Very remarkable for a $100 dollar guitar from a cowboy boot store.

My musical style, at least when I bought it, was hardcore punk. Now I use it for more gothy/Industrial/experimental ventures. It has a great, very unique sound. It has a very rich sound that goes well with a classic style distortion (like an old Tube Screamer), or even better, a tube driven amp. It is almost too fat and rich to be a lead instrument. The sustain from it is incredible. I could never bring myself to get rid of this beast because I love it's sound. I have had several musicians I have met from time to time try to buy it from me, but have never wanted to sell it. Some of them have even offered ridiculous amounts of money for it. I could never live with myself if I sold it.

I have had no problems with the action of this guitar. It has always been very easy to play, with the strings just the right height above the fretboard. You have to actually work at it to make it buzz. The neck set-up was just great.

My only complaint with this guitar has been the tremolo. The handle stripped out early on and fell off. It also had a tendency to make the strings go out of tune. I never used it, so problem solved. If I was into actually using the tremolo, I would have replaced it. I did have to replace the volume pot after the first five years. No problem.

This guitar is literally built like a tank. It has been dropped, banged around, and bashed with. It took all of it and more. I am still playing it in 2008, long after my initial purchase date of 1984. I think that fact alone speaks volumes. I have never used a back-up guitar.

The strap has come off a few times, but that is because it was a cheap tourist camera strap for the longest time. That is not the guitar's fault. The buttons are quite solid.

The finish is definitely not like it was, but that is because I abortionized it to "fly in the face" of the multitudes of rock and roll wannabees. I have no doubt that if it was left un-marred by me, the finish would still look just as good as when I bought it.

Warranty? It had a warranty? I would be surprised if Hondo was still around.

I have played many other guitars, but I have never found one that compares to this one. Everything seems just right for me and my style. If it were stolen, I would hunt down the individual, and hire a hoodoo to send a few curses along the way for additional help.

The only thing I would change would be to add a single pick-up in addition to the dual humbuckers. It would make it a little more versatile. I may do that someday.

As I said before, I could never bring myself to get rid of this beast because I love it's sound. I have had several musicians I have met from time to time try to buy it from me, but have never wanted to sell it. Some of them have even offered ridiculous amounts of money for it. I could never live with myself if I sold it.

I have a red Deluxe Series 775 Explorer copy that I bought from a pawn shop for $150.00 and I am extremely happy with it. it had to have been built in the early 80s because it looks "classic". (I have been playing for a lot of years, since I was 12. I was a prodigy. I have always been drawn to Gibson for the clear crisp clean sound they can deal out, and being a Heavy Metal guitarist The Explorer has always been my dream guitar.) I have to say that this "copy" is as close to the real thing as I could have hoped. it has the basic equipment like a string through body tremolo bridge. single humbucker in the lead position,A decent Maple neck with a truss that is straight as an arrow to this day! the body is solid and there are only one volume and one tone controlls. other than that I do not know a lot about the guitar, I am pretty sure the pickups are active. What I do know is that it is clean and it freaking screams! it has great harmonics and it stays in tune with little problem even when I use the tremolo,and I DO use it! if anyone can help me find out more about my guitar I would be grateful. Contact me at: dwuester2007@yahoo.com THX

Beautiful! even with a little 35watt amp this baby screams, pick squeals and everything. it has some buzz when cranked but I think that is just a bad ground that I intend to have checked out. it is almost as clean and fast as it's originator and I am most pleased with it. It is my baby. Love it.
P.S.. I plugged it into 120 watts of power and JAMMED, Later the nabors wanted to know if that was me or the stereo! Righteous.

Being that I bought this guitar at a pawn shop and that it has obviously seen some use it took a little tweaking to get it squealing, but I did not replace anything but the strings and in short order was blowing riffs. This guitar has held up exellently and I am impressed. It may just be that I got lucky and found one of those one in a millions, but I hope that anyone that appreciates the Explorer style guitar could find one of these.

Give me a break. An axe that stands alone. no problem!

Too old for that people.

I've said it all I think. I do plan to Beef it up a bit in the future but for right now I am verry happy with her.

First off i dont know where it was made. It was definately made in the '80s. It has 21 frets on a beautiful fat(described by my friends as a "Louisville slugger" type) maple neck. I dont know the brand of the tuners, or the pickups, but the tuners keep the tuning great, and the pickups are HOT. A three way switch lets you go through a very wide range of tones. The guitar has two knobs, volume and tone though i rarely use either. The guitar has a very thick finish on it, which has yet to be "dinged". This guitar came with a very nice hard case with a color matchin interior.

Sound is GREAT. on my amp( Peavey Bandit 112 w/ audiotronics speaker), it is clear and there is no noticable buzz unless you crank it past 7. The distortion through my amp is sh*t but sounds great on the clean channel with all of the pedals ive tried. I mostly play pop-punk/rock and sounds perfect for both styles. Ive also had my friends play some metal on it and it sounds awesome.

When i got the guitar, it was perfect except for the fact that one of the tuners were broken(quick fix: took it off of my other guitar). There is a little bit of crackling when adjusting volume and tone, but as stated above, i dont use those much.

I cant see this guitar needing fixing anytime in the near future, unless i drop it off a roof(i would NEVER do that. This guitar has NEVER fallen off of the strap. it has a very nice glossy red finish with NO flaws at all. Very attractive guitar. I would perform live with this guitar with no worries at all.

Hondo has customer support? It needs a warranty?

Ive been playing for about 2 years, but ive played TONS of guitars. I wouldnt pick a different one.

Picked it up in 84 and lets see it is 2003 and still cranks! It originally came with s/s pickups. I recently upgraded those to SeymourDuncan Hot rails, tough to get a pickup to fit but they work. Unfortunetly the body was plywood but the neck is all maple. It has an acrylic black finish with 1vol 1 tone with a 3 way. I think I bought it for $100 from the house of guitars.

I currently have a 73 Les Paul, 03 Les Paul, Wahburn Acoustic D100 and a violing and Fender Mandolin, but for some reason I really like playing this Hondo. With the upgrade of the pickups this thing screams on my Crate G15 Amp. I did have to replace the pots and that actually fixed the hum I got. The new pickups totally eliminated that all together. I worked a little with it with a Digitech RP100, but the normal sound is what I prefer out this baby.

Oxidation....the damn neck corroded with in a year. I constantly have to clean it. I did have to adjust the pickups everyonce in a while along with some fine tuning but, hey that is part of owning an instrument. The neck action was slow. The frets tended to be longer than the neck is wide. The dremel took care of that.

This guitar did stand up to live playing for years. As a hardcore punk band in the 80's it definetly got kicked around. Hell we were doing shows just for the beer! Strap....never stayed on...got those replaced but I usually replaced those as soon as I get any guitar. I never had a backup till a few years ago. Now I always have a backup, I just wish I could find another Hondo Explorer. I have yet to repaint it but that is on my list to do this year.

I never took to a repair shop. I do it all myself and no I never called Hondo for anything.

If it was ever stolen, I would go after everyone till I got it back! I have never really compared it to other guitars, cause it was its' own baby. I wish it had a temelo and 1 more pickup. It is really light. When I compare it to a solid body Les Paul. The Paul is like a brick!

Finish: Rainbow prismatic film on front, fading to black around edges. Black sides & back.
Single humbucking pickup in bridge position.
Vol & tone controls on a chrome "teleplate" design.
Plug & endpin are on rear side.
Maple neck & fingerboard (a little fat), 6 inline headstock design.
Bridge is strat design w. routed back & cover plate.
Year unknown.

Basic vol & tone controls are okay (could use a blast of pot cleaner)
Pretty warm sound when tone is rolled off & played with some drive.
I plug it into my PC to record, and it does pretty good.

As I bought it second hand from a friend that didn't play it a lot in the years he's had it, it's pretty playable, but not really a "lightning rod" neck.
As I don't have the bar attached, it stays in tune quite well.
The pots could use a blast of cleaner.

Once I get the nut fixed, not a problem. It stays in tune well, the bridge doesn't buzz. Simple electronics make it easier to get into playing the strings for the overtones rather than flicking switches.
Not to mention, it's LOUD in more ways than one. The finish throws off rainbows, and really refracts well. It's a well-suited look for the explorer body design.

N/A

been playing for 30+ years, sometimes having to borrow, but not for a while.
Been told that I could play professionally, and some even call me a "pick up artist", as I can catch the gist of a song pretty fast. I'm mainly a bass player when jamming, but like to strap on the ol' six string and do some fretwork, too.
I currently have the rainbow explorer; a black, single-pickup Epiphone hollow body bass guitar (ES335 looking); a Hohner steel string acoustic guitar (darker woods, made in Indonesia) that a friend calls "the Hohner that thinks it's a Martin"; and a 12-string Harmony that my Dad bought in '67, and wasn't played for 30 years (with the strings still tuned a 3rd below E (CFBbEbGC). The guitar is "playable" up to the 5th fret, but the neck needs to be reset. It's a "classical" style, with the neck & body meeting at the 12th fret, and the slotted headstock style. Trapeze style tailpiece, saving a lot of torture on the bridge.

A very heavy laminted Explorer body finished in the ugliest aqua blue. It had a Fender style six saddle hardtail bridge, covered tuners ( not die cast sealed tuners ) and a 3 way toggle switch. All hardware was gold. It had 2 volume and one tone controls. The knobs were like Gibson Speed Knobs in an amber-gold color. The neck had a kinda flame to it. It was maple with a maple fretboard and 22 small frets like on a MIM Fender Strat. The face of the headstock was the same color as the body and it had the gold Hondo logo on it. I wished it had a trem. A 6 because it had no trem.

Back then I didn't care what guitar I had, just as long as it was cool looking and electric. It sounded ok I guess. If I had it now I would probably say it sounds like shit. I've been cultured since. I had a cheap amp with a real 12AX7 tube in it. It did what it was supposed to do.

I got it used for next to nuthin back in 1987. It was set up and in mint condition, but used.

Explorers fall off of straps period! This one fell and landed on the neck. It cracked down the back. It had to be a flesh wound because it still stayed in tune and didn't seem to hurt it at all. I'd say very durable. I was impressed. Hell! I still am.

The body was laminated. I didn't care realy. I bought a used neck from a local shop. It was a Kramer type neck with a maple 22 fret board. It bolted on easily and tuned up well. I got a jigsaw and cut the body to a Charvel Star shape. It wasn't easy, but I got it done thanks to my woodshop teacher. I filled in the neck humbucker hole and sanded it the rest of the way down. Next it was routed for a Floyd Rose copy and the tone, one volume and 3 way switch were filled in. I painted it white and threw shinny red paint at it and the next thing you know I had a star shape guitar with a DiMarzio Distortion bucker, Floyd and one volume with a good neck. It sounded killer. I traded it in later for a much better guitar ( Kramer Baretta ). I did have to pay the difference though.

This little treasure has one humbucker, and a volume knob. It came with a custom hard case,and looked very cool, painted metallic silver, with red trim and black side and back.

I play a lot of metal, and run my guitars through a fender twin with the distortion way up. Sound tech guys at bars where I've played have taken me aside and asked me what kind of magic guitar I had, and what my secret to sounding so good was. They're blown away. This thing is made to play heavy metal and that's it. Anyone who tries to play blues or country with this thing would have to be a serious moron, I have plenty other guitars for that.

This thing has a super-low action, allowing me to play really fast, impressing young girls ;). I've had no problems with the one pickup, I keep having to open up other guitars and clean out the wiring, cuz dust causes them to cut out all the time. Since it has no whole for a pickup selector, and really no switches at all, not a lot can go wrong.

I've played nicer, more expensive guitars, and had them fail me. The nut broke on my SG during a show ruining our set, and it was humiliating. Hell, I had a strap button pop off a Washburn during a practice. I bought the Hondo while the SG was in the shop, cuz I needed an emergency replacement for cheap before our next gig. The SG has been collecting dust since, and the Hondo has been or stage probably 30 times, no problems, other than the odd chip from hurled beer bottles when playing particularily seedy joints. Also, it stays in tune very well, Which I like, being a lazy bugger.

I've played for about 9 years, and I own 4 various electric guitars, an acoustic-electric Warlock, acoustic Washburn, a Fender bass, and a Banjo. When I want to play serious heavy metal, I use the Hondo every time. I have other instruments for blues, country, and folk. I've found I can play faster on my Hondo than on anything else, and since it has a lot of treble, the band doesn't sound muddy when the bass kicks in. This thing is cheap, simple, and reliable. If someone stole it, I'd hunt down the bastard and kill him. After getting out of prison, I'd hunt for another. That is, unless I somehow lose my urge to rock.

Ok this guitar has 24 frets, a volume knob, 1 humbucker(real cheap) Think its plywood body, rosewood fingerboard, it has one cutaway and is painted green, it has a floyd rose on it, real crappy tuners, Didnt even come with a bar for the floyd and is so freakin banged up its not even funny. got it for $30 at goodwill.

all right i play rock and blues, by blues i mean jimi, john lee hooker, bb king, and other stuff. by rock i mean good rock not fucking shitty nu metal or death metal or pop crap. for blues, it royally sucks, for rock its allright for leads, i intend on putting a locking nut and an emg 81 in it. the twang stick is allright but the nut sucks. i play through a piece of solid state shit. crate.i run it with a morley wah wah and a tubescreamer, with the wah it aint that good, it sounds better with the tubescreamer, but you get what you pay for. its actually quite quiet even with the highest distortion, but feedbacks a little bit. it has a mellow sound, good for rhythm work. i am a lead guitarist though so its not that good. hopefully the emg might help. the guitars tone pallate is quite limited because of one shitty humbucker and one volume knob. I dont know if i can put a tone knob on the guitar but i would like too. it looks badass though.

i got the guitar from goodwill so i dont know in what shape it was stock but if it looked like this new, i would smack the guy who made the guitar.

I would NOT play this live because it goes out of tune like a bitch. the floyd is rusted so i dont give that much time. i wouldnt use it on a gig. Period. I would use my trusty squier for that.

look ive been playing for 2 years, and i might not be fucking EVH or Jimi but i still reserve the right to look down on a piece of shit. with new... everything this guitar might be allright. If it were stolen now, id laugh at the dumb fucker who took it. If it sounds ok with new pickups and some one steals it, id kick their ass, cuz it looks ok.

This is a follow-up to my review.
My local Guitar Center had an '82 Gibson Explorer. It turns out that the neck on my Hondo copy has the same profile and dimensions (as far as I could tell from playing the Gibson). It seemed like I was playing my guitar instead of the Gibson. Balance, weight, action, all seemed about the same - I didn't plug it in.
The only differences I could find were that the Gibson had a three-ply pickguard (Hondo has one ply), the strap button on the Gibson was on the back of the guitar near the heel (Hondo has it on the body side just above the neck), and there was a strange ridge on the bottom of the heel of the Gibson. This last would not interfere with playing. It looks like it's there deliberately but I have no idea why.
I would not be surprised if some evil person has forged a Gibson name on the headstock of a Hondo Explorer at some point. Checking out the Gibson has made me appreciate my Hondo even more. No doubt in a few years there will be a booming market for replica guitars like the Fernandes, Tokais, and this one.

I bought this used around 1984. It is probably Japanese, 22 frets, and it looks like it has a 15-ply body just over 1.5 inches thick. It has two humbuckers and Volume/Tone/Tone controls against the Volume/Volume/Tone controls of the original Gibson. Usual three-way pickup selector, and the tuners resemble mini-Schallers. The neck is glued on. Nice glossy cherry finish overall.
There are no identifying marks on the pickups (in fact the Hondo logo on the headstock is all that identifies the guitar - no serial number or model name). There's a Tune-O-Matic bridge and the usual Gibson-style tailpiece.
I prefer volume and tone for each pickup, but if you only have three controls two tones and a volume beat the original in my opinion.
I just looked on Ebay and there appears to be a later Hondo model of the Explorer with the same headstock design as the Hondo Strat. This isn't it. It's a replica of the Gibson, with the long black headstock and the white pickguard going up the lower horn. Mine (apart from the neck width) looks exactly like the one Dave Grohl (?) of Foo Fighters is playing in the latest Rolling Stone.
I would guess that because it's a replica and because Japanese copies of the seventies were generally better than those of the eighties, it was made around 1975-80.

I now have three guitars - a Squier Strat, a De Armond M65C, and this one. This has probably the widest range of tones of any of them. The downside of this is that the pickups distort in that when you play a chord the individual notes tend to get lost far more quickly than when you play chords on the other two. This isn't a big problem for me.
It's quiet, versatile, and balanced; overall plenty good enough for a low-priced guitar.

The guitar is showing its age a little, probably more due to my neglect over the years. The metal parts could do with a good clean.
The action is remarkable, even though it's probably the worst of the three guitars. I had a store do a fret job many years ago and the action is low over the whole board.
My biggest dislike of the whole guitar is the neck. It's not like a typical Gibson neck; it's more like a Fender neck, narrow and deep. The neck on the Squier has a nice feel whereas to some degree you have to fight this neck. However, as my playing ability improves and my fingers loosen up I find this much less noticeable.

Most of the signs of age on this guitar are from lack of use, rather than overuse - dirt rather than wear. Nothing's wearing out or giving up. I sprayed some lube into the pots and that cured a little crackling and made the movement smooth.
The only problem is that the design makes it longer than a Precision Bass, and it's very easy to hit it against things if you don't watch out.

I'd be surprised if Hondo exists any more.

Hondo guitars get a bad rap generally, and I notice that Daddy's Used Gear By Mail (www.ugbm.com) doesn't seem to have any for more than $100. I think that this is unfair on this guitar.
My plan was to sell it once I got the De Armond, but after comparing the two I'm going to keep it. I prefer the De Armond overall, but the Explorer has enough going for it that I don't want to give it up.
If this was stolen (or more likely lost or damaged) I wouldn't get another because they're rare. But if I had never owned this guitar and saw it in a store for $140 (which is what I paid for it) I'd be sorely tempted.