Hondo H1

Original 8o's H-1 Guitar very basic One Humbucker pickup at the bridge and a vloume control. It doesn't get any maore basic. Nice vibrato bridge that actually stays in tune and intonates very well. My tuners have held up very well and have no slip as others have said. Passive electronics, 6 bolt neck, Basswood body maple neck and a nice rosewood fretboard. The truss rod is very easy to adjust as well as the bridge to suit your style. Built in Japan it is a high quality Guitar at a steal of a price.

This Guitar sounds very aggressive. No tonal variations except with your amp or effects it is a Balls to the wall Hair band, Cock rock Guitar. The unigue body style almost an Exployer type with a deeper cutaway allows you to get to the lower frets with no problems. This is a Metal or shred Guitar. If you are looking for a Blanced Rock or Blues Guitar buy a Les Paul or a Strat. Your amp and effect settings change the tone to give you a variety of sounds from a Basic rig.

I bought used in about 1987 and it was set up perfect. I have adjusted the truss rod and lowerd the action since I had it and it is a breeze to do. I was shocked at the quality that this Guitar had put into it when it was built. It was probably built around the time when Hondo was buying Charvel/Jackson. The Frets are in great shape after years of playing so they are tough. The fretwire is cut just right and the electronics are very quite.

This Guitar has stood the test of time. Everything is original so I would say it is very reliable. I did change the stap buttons to locking Schallers because of the odd shape of the Guitar and they seem to be very rare just check the net for info and I would not want to drop it. You never Gigiwithout a backup but it hasn't failed me yet.

Never had any dealings. Hondo is now a Korean company so it's not even the same group that built this Guitar.

I have been playing 29 years and play in an 80's Hairband Tribute called Major Mullet. If this Guitar was lost or stolen I would have a hard time to replace it because they are rare. The reissues do not stak up tio the original. I chose this Guitar because of the simple electronics and the ease of play. If you ever find one buy it.

original 1980's hondo H1 not the recently released H1 (they are not the same) they appear the same, but with some differeces. I bought this guitar in 1990 in a pawn shop in georgia when i was in the army. for about $75 guitar has 24 pickups. it originally came with 1 dual coil pickup. and one volume knob. since then it has been routered out for 2 dual coils, 3 position switch and one tone knob.

sounded cheap when i bought it. sounds ok now after modifications. you can shred on this guitar. played clean it has no chance but it is an 80's metal guitar and is perfect for that.

when i bought this guitar it was setup very nice lots of action great for pinching harmics. over the years the tuners have lost alot they are very loose and worn.

this guitar is great for playing at home or in the garage. I take it out now and then to play live when i want to make ALOT of noise. it is more of a novelty because of it's shape.

i have and play 5 guitars. a bc rich warlock. a fender strat. a peavy predator. a gibson les paul standard. an ibanez desroyer. the hondo is not the best guitar i own but it does turn heads. hey for $75 over 10 years ago. it was a good deal

I got this Guitar and the Matching Amp (Hondo H20), for about $175 (That covered shipping too). Not Sure what year it is, but i know it is very new. It was made in korea i think. I took the sticker off because it looked gay. I think it has 21 Frets. not sure, to lazy to count em. Its got a Volume Knob, Two Tone Knobs, and a 5-Way Selector. Not sure on the pick up configuration, All i know is that it has two strait ones and on slanted one. I wish i knew what the model of the pickups are, so i can take em off and sell em, so i can get some new ones. The Neck Is some sort of crazy wood. Its very soft, you can find this wood one Computer stands and stuff (the ones with the wood sticky crap on the outside. Im not sure on the frets, all i know is that they buzz like hell and it is very anoying. And i know its not me, because my freinds get the buzz too, and i don't have the money to get it fixed.

I really Don't like the sound that much. I like to play Blink 182, something corporate, and new found glory. And it really doesnt fit my playing. There is a lot of fuzz and buzz on it when i play. I really really hate the sound on it. And when ya play, it does a little vibrato thingy. It will get High and low. I dunno if it is suppose to do that, it doesnt do it with my freinds guitar.

The Guitar was set-up Like crap. The pickups wernt even, they had to fix the truss rod and all of it. The bridge was put in pretty good. The Guitars Wires had crappy soldering on them. I lost my input thingy inside it, so i had to take the thing off and i didnt even pull it out far and they broke. So i have it doing a little knot around thing. There was Some small small scratches that was on there when i got it. Nothing that is very noticable, but im not gonna pay to get the thing shipped to em so they can repaint it. The Pickup Selector is very noisey (if it means what i think it means) It rattles a little bit, and when i selct diffrent pickups, it makes a weird noise in the amp. Then i didnt even have it for a week, and a layer of the pickgaurd came off. And then a few weeks ago, another layer came off.

I would not Recomend playing this guitar live. If my other guitar wasnt an old guitar (gibson es-125C), i would use that one, and i don't trust myself, and neither does my mom, to go to the school and play for talent shows with that old guitar.. The finish on the body hasnt came off yet, ive been taking good care of it. I had to replace the strap buttons cause they broke, I was playin at my freinds house and the button had a crack in it some how. And it just snapped off. I got straplocks now, so im a lot safer. I cannot Depend on that guitar. If i had a backup guitar, i would use the backup, and keep the hondo as my smashing guitar, because it is crap.

I hate hondo. I would send them an email telling them what i think of them, but im afraid i will say something stupid and get a lawsuit on my hands. They don't even put a standard strat pickgaurd on it, so i have to order a custom one for it because this one is falling appart on me. I think it has a one year warrent on it. not sure.

Ive been playing for 10 months. I wish i could have played the piece of junk before i played it. If it was stolen, i would thank the guy who takes it, and lock the doors so he can't give it back. then i would get a gibson :-). I hate the entire thing. I wish it would go to hell. I wish it had some semour duncans on it so i could salvage it.
NEVER BUY A HONDO. NEVER BUY A HONDO. NEVER BUY A HONDO. NEVER BUY A HONDO.

This is a total frickin metal stick that rocks the night sky like Yngwie on 'shrooms. I bought this from one of the many used guitar stores in the bay area for 150 a few years ago. It was an impulse buy and nothing more. It is an elongated explorer that I call the "fireshark." It has one humbucker, one volume nob, a basic tremolo bridge, 24-frets, and a neck through design. As far as woods and all that stuff, I'm no authority on that. I'm only concerned on such things for my premium guitars. It has shock value on that, I wouldn't want a spend too much on a guitar of this shape. So I'll give it a nine for the fun of it. If you're curious about what it looks like, look up "hondo" in e-bay and look for H-1 or HS-1. Hondo has reissued it. Mine is an orignial 1980's dipstick. The elongated explorer part is quite swordlike.

If you're looking for a les paul tone, then its not here. It's a stock humbucker that does the job for a cheap price. If you feel so inclined to upgrade, go ahead and throw in a seymour duncan. This guitar is for shock value and nothing more. I'll give it a seven for what it is, for sound I go with my holy trinity (les paul, tele, strat)

The actions fine, you can shred, I call pull off my bitchin e-prhygian minor runs. I'm not taking it to my jazz lesson. The finish is kinda cheap metallic blue with a red border. I'd prefer all black or some pro flame stuff but what can you do. I bought it because I could do all that legato phrasing on it that's hard on my USA Tele

Be careful playing this live. It's very thin-sounding and one-dimensional. Be careful where you play it, people might want to beat you up. This is a sense of humor guitar and not everybody has a sense of humor. Some people get the joke, some don't. Bust it out for that metal solo but nothing more. Other than that, it'll hold up.
I've only brought this to one improptu college party jam. I got a lot of "yeah-dude's" with the devil sign, and also a lot of people saying, "woah dude, that's a slayer guitar." I'm going to give it a ten though for the hell of it.

It's cheap, why bother

I have been playing for 11 years. I own six electric guitars: 1998 Gibson Les Paul Standard, 1982 Fender USA Telecaster, 2000 Fender American Series Stratocaster, 1991 Fender Japan HSH Stratocaster, B.C. Rich NJ Series Bich, and the Hondo Fireshark. I play through a Fender Performer 650 and a Traynor Mark III Head through a Marshall 1960B cab. I started playing rock and metal but have mellowed to a blues-jazz-rock hybrid. I also have a six piece Tama drum set, an Ibanez bass, and renting a tenor Saxophone. Since I'm exploring jazz, the lack of a neck pickup is crucial, also I would not dare take this to any session or lesson that emphasized Jazz. If this was stolen, I'd move on. My immediate needs are a good jazz box, good Combo amp (Fender Twin) and my own saxophone. I liked the shape and nothing else so its cool for a collection. Its a "get a load of this f#^&ing guitar" kind of guitar. This isn't even a backup guitar. But hey if you got a few bucks and a sense of humor and bought the tab book to Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force back when Guitar World had cover stories on Marty Friedman, then go to town!