Hondo H75

Strat copy, single humbucker p/u. One volume knob. Rumour has it that Hondo used Di Marzio p/u's in their early 80's gats, but don't know if this model has them. Hondo were Japanese made in the late 70's and early 80's before production shifted to Korea til the late 80's. Hondo was then mothballed but resurrected in a different incarnation in the early 90's. This H75 model is an an early to mid 80's model. Very very simple, rosewood neck, unsure of body. Good tuners, slim neck. I'm giving a 5 because the feature are so simple, they are however good quality.

This guitar has a limited sound with only one humbucker (and no tone control!) but it a distinctive one, very good for rock/punk. I've given a 6 for lack of versatility but I do really like the sound it produces. P/u seems to be of very good quality. I use a Marshall VS265.

I adjusted the action and the p/u and once I had done so, the guitar was mint. Frets, tuners, bridge etc all excellent.

20 years old and counting- still rocking. No obvious flaws and no obvious replacement of anything either.

N/A.

I have been playing a few years and have a number of guitars, including a Gretsch Synchromatic, a Japanese-made explorer type, telecaster, etc. I got this for its sheer minimalist, original style as it was only $100. A steal at that price I think. Were it stolen, I would try to get another, but if I couldn't, I'd settle for another obscure 80's strat style.

I have no idea when this guitar was made, probably the mid-80's I would wager. I've been able to find bugger all information about it online thus far and was suprised to see it hadn't been reviewed here as such. I purchased it from NZ's own version of Ebay, Trade Me for the paltry sum of $58 and to be honest, I got a bloody good deal.

Here's the lowdown:

- Strat clone style body, with Hondo style headstock (less rounded)
- Strat-style tremolo bridge, string through body
- Non locking tuners, 6-in-a-row
- 21 frets, maple neck, rosewood fretboard
- Single bridge humbucker and lone volume knob
- Not sure, but a mahogany body, I think
- Thin neck, medium frets
- Strat style input jack

To get an idea of the appearance, check out the the Tom Delonge Signature Strat by Fender and that's pretty much what the deal is here, strat with a solitary humbucker, not much in the way of bells and whistles. However, I was after a pretty cut'n'dried guitar, no major messing about and this fitted the bill.

My H75 started out life red from what I can see, but the guy who owned it before me sprayed the body silver, and did something of a poor job, it looks okay from far, but nasty up front, spray-can paint jobs always look grim, this one appears like it's just covered in primer paint. Even more bizzarely, the white pickgaurd was painted....white? Go figure...I don't get the logic, but I don't really care for the price I paid. I intend to either cover it in insulation tape or have my flatmate paint it up a storm, being a bit of an artist, failing that, it will go punk-rock style and be adorned with stickers.

Overall, it's a pretty standard affair, but for what I wanted, it's a good guitar. Most suprisingly of all, the most simple of setups on this guitar have been quite effective, but I will detail that further in this review. For the most part, the electronics work very well, but more below. A tone knob or even coil-tapping would of been cool, but I can set it up to coil-tap on my own relatively easily.

I play lead guitar (though I'm traditionally more of rhythm player, but I play more stand-alone riffs that the other guitarist) in a five-piece indie-garage-emo-rock band part Franz Ferdinand, part Weezer, and with a bit of Foo Fighters and Further Seems Forever thrown in. My primary guitar is a '61 reissue Gibson SG with a Kent Amstrong Hot Rod Vintage pickup in the bridge (similar to Gibson 500t) running into a Marshall DSL 100 and quad. Of course, the Hondo was never going to beat the SG, but this cheap-ass guitar actually gives it a run for the money.

The huge redeeming factor of this guitar is the stand-alone humbucker - it's a tad hotter than the one of my SG (which is rated at 15k DC resistance and is pretty sizzling anyway when you consider the average PAF 'bucker is around 8k) and has been overwound a fair bit, it will distorted a mild gain signal very easily and shreds on high gain! Interestingly, I'm aware of the fact that Hondo actually used DiMarzio units on many of the guitars from this period, and though it is unmarked, I would hazard a guess to say this may actually be a DiMarzio pickup of some description. It just sounds far too good to be a stock unit!

I was very surprised by the tone of this when I plugged it into the stack and let loose, it's a very trebly tone, with a definite but slight mid-scoop and lower bass (the EQ graph would probably be U-shaped with a higher rating on the treble than bass), sounds very 80's metal, which would factor into the age of this guitar. Intriguingly the volume knob acts much like a tone knob when not running at full/10. Below 7, there is a sharp cut in treble, and below 5, it sounds like fat, bluesy neck humbucker. Unfortunately, this odd feature means you can't clean up the gain by rolling back on the volume too well, but I'm happy enough to switch channels.

The clean tone is manageable, but this really shines for distorted tone and after a bit of earthing and tweaking the electronics, it doesn't feedback or hum too much at all. String definition is nice on the pickup too, it never gets too fuzzy or muddy unless you overdose the gain to ludicrous levels, and really sings for lead tones and distorted rhythms.

It's kind of a one-trick pony; producing a very powerful, stinging and bright overdriven tone, but it does that one trick well. I usually have my EQ setup like so:

Treble - 5
Mids - 10
Bass - 8
Presence -7
Gain (dirty channel) - 7
Gain (clean channel) - 3

It balances out will with that sort of setting and doesn't become ice-picky. The trick is to keep the mids up - whoever scoops them below five is just killing their tone, the mids are where all the really power is at, and with a healthy midrange dose and presence over 5, you will find you cut through more in a two-guitar band.

Overall, a very impressive sound from such a budget guitar and way more powerful that you'd expect. It's easily comparable to more upper-mid range guitars for dirty tones, though the cleans nothing too grand, but passable.

Can't comment for the factory setup - but from what I can tell, this guitar has had a bit of a rough time in its life. Plenty of scars and nicks on it, but none of them are structural, all cosmetic, which was one of the reasons I got this guitar (as well as the ludicrously good humbucker) in the first place.

The neck is rather thin and plays well, easy to wrap a full hand around (and I have small hands), barre chords are simple and the action was set low enough to play fast runs without compromising for fret buzz (there is a tiny amount, but on the upper register of the guitar, doesn't come into use much). The frets are nice to play, but have a few dead stops on the E up near the 17th, but a setup should solve this. The fretboard itself is flat, has a couple of chips in it, but none that affect fretting itself.

I was most impressed by the neck joint and lack of warping; on a guitar this age which has obviously not been treated pristinely, you'd usually see some cracking or strain but there appears to be none. The only place I can see where there might be a bit of movement is on the fixed bridge, which I think may require to be screwed in better, but other than that, surprisingly good condition.

The only minor compaint I have about it is the fact I am not as used to a strat bridge as I am to a Tune-O-Matic/stopbar, which is far easier to play for muting and resting a hand on. The pickup too, whilst powerful, loses a bit of bite when not played directly over it, sounds a bit rounder when played over the neck joint, which is okay, with the volume down, you can almost simulate a neck-humbucker tone.

Regardless, it's done well in it's 20-odd years of life considering the moronic repainting and obvious lack of maintenance.

I tried the Hondo last night with my band and it held up very well. It was much brighter and more trebly than the SG, and in comparison to the rhythm guitarist's stacked-humbucker Fender Strat, it was on par, if not better IMO. I got comments from my bassist and singer on how good that pickup sounded distorted.

I don't think it will crap out, even though the wiring is a pretty poor job done by myself (not soldered, just twisted together!), I even managed to earth it very well so there's not a lot of feedback unless standing close the amp on high gain.

Can't comment on the finish; it's already destroyed! I did have to replace the strat buttons as one was missing and the remaining one was tiny, I have taped my strap on it it for now and the guitar suits that rugged look.

I wouldn't gig alone with this guitar exclusively, but I bought it to be the backup to the SG, though I can see now it will be used on some songs that are distortion the whole way through and with no leads (the SG works well for clean/dirty and rhythm/lead) - this is more of dirty rhythm guitar IMO.

It could use a proper setup, but I trust is more than my first guitar, old Squire Strat and I wager it would gig just fine. The irony is that I bought it so I wouldn't care if smashed or broke it, but now I've developed a bit of an attachment to this haggard axe!

Ha. I could barely find any info on it online apart from this site and it's second or third hand, so no joy.

Been playing some years, seriously in bands for the last two or three. I've had a horde of guitars in the last two years - Les Paul Studio, Vester Tele and ES335 copies (suberb, Vester is another cheap brand that should be regailed as on par with Gibson/Fender), Epiphone SG's x2, Fender HM Strat, cheap Flying V copy, Squire Strat and a Tokai Firebird, though my '61 reissue SG remains my only keeper.

For the price I paid, I got a great deal on this guitar. What I love about it most is the superb pickup and nice neck. I am not super fond of the current cosmetics of the body, but this is far easier to fix than a warped neck or cracked headstock. If this guitar was lost/stolen, I'd be gutted about the pickup mostly - it would be the only thing I'd want to salvabe if it were broken beyond repair.

I would strongly suggest that anyone who spots one of these buys it if the price is right - simply for the stock humbucker alone. It's easily on par with DiMarzio/Seymour Duncan stuff. I intend to do something about the body at some stage and maybe the frets and tuners, but I don't want to put too much into this guitar, would probably rather put the neck (love the headstock shape) and humbucker into a Tele style body to give it a bit more bass in the sound.

Overall, the best cheap guitar I have ever bought - if anyone scores one, you're in for a treat!