Product: Hondo Fame Mastercaster
Price Paid: #40 (Great British Pounds)
Submitted
09/11/2003
at
01:50pm
by
Chris
Email: blandomagic<at>msn dot com
Features
:
9
I think that this was made in about 1983/4. I got a feeling that it was made at the tokai factory in Japan, cos i know that a lot of early Hondo's were. Its got "enough" frets (its a strat....wadd'ya expect?). The body is one peice of solid ash, varnished in a really tasty honey coloured finish. I love it. Very "seventies".Usual strat configuration.one peice solid maple neck. Kahler flyer tremelo. Grover machine heads. Quality stuff all the way. Neck is nice and slim. Very fast, but imparts a deadly classic plunky strat tone. this guitar is one of the BEST strats Ive ever played. Light years better than those horrible Japanese modern things, and the mexican cardboard ones.
Sound
:
10
I use it with a Marshall 30 watt combo and it sounds about as good as you would want. Its just so versatile witha vast range of ultra dynamic options. One minute soft and gentle "chorus" on the neck pick up, and then straight into screaming distortion overdrive on the bridge pup. This is a very "dynamic" guitar whos natural harmonic quality's just leap out at you from the very first strum.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
A very well put together axe considering Fender were making dog guitars at the time that this was made. No wonder they were worried.
Its 20 years old now and still in very solid nick. The gold platings started to wear, but hey.....so am I!
Reliability/Durability
:
10
This is a PRO guitar all the way. You can tell that when they decided to put these together they sat down at a little meeting a drew up a criteria of what guitarists would DEMAND. Not require. DEMAND!
And then went to work. This is a guitar that was built with quality and NOT budgets in mind. They must of locked the bean counters in the cupboard for the few months that they made these axes!
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Ha Ha.
Overall Rating
:
10
Ive been playing for 30 years. Ive owned about 20 guitars in that time. Mostly Fenders. This is a honey when compared to them. As good in every way, and a lot better in most. The thing with "Eastern" guitars is that they mass produce, but every now and then decide to make a little batch of pro guitars. This is one such axe. I love it.
