Hondo H720R Mustang

The family that sold it had inherited the instrument from granddad. It came from the attic and had never been played. Granddad had bought it as wall decoration. Looks like a Fender Mustang, red with competition stripes. Plywood body, maple neck, 2 singlecoils like the Fender with black covers, 2 switches, 1 volume and 1 tone knob. Strange tuners, ivory colored plastic and all 6 fixed together like on an accoustic guitar. Strange tremelo, not like the Fender, but it works. Rod accessable from the body. 21 Frets. Big head neck, nut at the very, different from the Fender nuts. Odd looking bridge, old jazz guitar style, tailpiece with tremelo and chrome cover. It came with a funny looking red leather strap, very very much 60's. Very light weighted guitar. I had never seen this from Hondo before. But it draws attention. A real looker. It looks like the Fender Mustang with the short neck. Only at close range the differences catch the eye.

It came in poor shape and a bit rusty. Five remaining strings - high e was missing - had been on the instrument, probably for 40 years. The neck seemed very hollow and the only sound coming out once it was plugged in was a high buzz, painful to the ears. After cleaning the electronics, some contact spray, good isolating and a solid new grounding, the authentic 60's sound came out of the old Fender tube amp. Reasonable output, surprisingly good sustain. I had not expected that from a plywood body. This guitar sounds bright and is not noisy at all (or not anymore, I don't know how it sounded before the clean up, isolating and grounding). It is very good for playing the songs of the guitar groups from the 60's, like the Shadows, Spotnicks a.s.o.
Better than my Fender strat en tele (USA, mid 90's) because it sounds more authentic. It makes a nice change every now and then. I play humbucker guitars usually, bit jazz and blues.

There is no way to tell what the factory did originally. When I got it the instrument was absolutely unplayable. The neck was too hollow with lots of space between the neck and the strings. I removed the strings ofcourse, took the neck off the body and let it rest for a couple of days. After that I put everything together again and started tuning according to the book. I had to do the same thing three times, eventually by adding a ply to the neck. Very gently turning the rod and adjusting the bridge resulted in a smooth action. The frets are positioned well. No wear at all since no one has played it before. This neck has to be of surprisingly good quality. It is no longer hollow. I have to say that it plays remarkably easy. The first week it kept running out of tune, probably because of the new strings, the tremelo tailpiece and certainly because of the weird bridge. The bridge seems to be of pour quality and is hard to adjust. The high e broke after 2 days. But after the first week everything seemed to have settled and it stayed in tune reasonably. So the action is fine now, but I flatter myself with the thougt it is by my doing. Though the alignment was good from the beginning and the tremolo works fine, simple as it may be. The bridge is really very poor quality.

Whether this instrument will withstand live playing is uncertain. Those days are long gone and I use it purely at home. The hardware will last I guess. Strangely enough there is a hughe difference between the finish of the neck and the body. The neck is superbly finished. Very hard nitro cellulose. The body however is just sprayed (very nice red, closely resambling the Fender Mustang), but no sign of any cellolose or varnish shielding. The strapbuttons are very solid, the odd strap never comes off unintentially. I think it will Withstand live playing if it is used every now and then, but it may lack durability if it is used all the time.

Chances are that no one in the factory nowadays (if it still exists) remembers ever having build this guitar. Anyway, the guitar proved to be very easily restorable.

I started playing as a teenager in the 60's and have done so for two decennia. Recently I picked it up again. Other gear: black Fender Strat and sunburst Telecaster USA made mid 90's, Ibanez headless (fits underneath every planeseat), Gibson LP classic, Challenge SG, accoustic Japanese Kodaira and an old Harimu sg, but completely remade. I knew Hondo guitars in the past and their quality varied strongly. When I saw this guitar on the picture that accompanied the advertising I fell for its looks. But nobody could tell anything about it and I had never seen it before, althoug ofcourse I knew the Mustangs made by Fender. Unlike the Strat, this model was clearly not copied as much. For a while it looked like I could pay less, until an anonymous other bidder set his mind to it as well. Eventually I was offered to buy it for 90 euros, altough the other guy had gone to 120 euros. The sellers told me they wanted me to have it because I had been the first one to react when no one did. If it were stolen or lost I would shurely miss it. Since I have never seen another one it could only be replaced by a real Fender Mustang. But that would not be for 90 euros. I have come to appreciate this guitar in a very short while. Although vintage looking, it does not make an old fashioned appearance. Even my kids love it, because of the chrome ('bling' they call it), its warm red colour and the stripes that give a difference. But they ofcourse have seen Shakira with her real Mustangs. The instrument is a player now, but could be improved. The bridge is shabby and nowadys better machineheads and nut are available. But apart from adjusting the instrument I did not change anything, thinking that a vintage looking guitar can better stay unchanged.