Hondo H784KT

Guessing this was made in the 80's? Hondo Formula 1 bound mahogany explorer body with flame maple top finished in dark transparent red. Passive s/s/h config with three off toggles, splitter for humbucker in bridge. Gold hardware - Grover tuners and Genuine Kahler Flyer tremolo. 22 med-jumbo frets on thin mahogany neck with triple binding.

I replaced stock humbucker (fell apart when I removed it!) with a gold top DiMarzio Super 3. Remaining single coils are stock.

I can't believe this is a HONDO! So i'm giving it a 10.

I didn't like the sound of the bridge humbucker when I first got it and the fact that it fell apart probably explains why. The Super 3 kicks *** in it's new mahogany home and the single coil at the neck sounds like Hendrix's "Little Wing". The mid singl;e comes through very weakly. The electronics on this guitar were/are messed up. I cleaned it up as best I could and some contact cleaner got the frozen pots moving again. It needs some attention from a real tech but even so, the Super3 and neck pickup play great. Sounds great for metal and blues.

When i got this guitar the neck was separating from the high e side of the fingerboard all the way down to the 7th fret. The GBE strings buzzed so badly on the fingerboard they were unplayable. This is an expensive fix so I tried it myself. I got a glue syringe from Rockler woodworking and squeezed some Titebond into the crack. Clamped it for three days and restrung it. There is a tiny bit of separation around the 5th fret that makes the GBE strings buzz slighty near the third fret but it is not noticable at volume.

I got a gold Kahler Bar from www.kahlerparts.com very nice bar with a very nice feel to it. The Kahler works great.

Apart from that - the action is awesome! The neck is thin and fast the body is perfectly balanced. New this must have been something. I can't believe Hondo made it!

This thing is a tank! The frozen controls lead me to belive it was left sitting for a long time. The cavity control cover is twisted as if exposed to heat. This leads me to belive it was left in a someone's garage in the Phoenix heat. Considering that it survived quite well.

The finish has it's share of scratches and scrapes. There are a couple big dings in the binding but it is still an attractive guitar. I'm absolutely planning on gigging with it once my tech sets it up.

I've been playing for 20+ years. I own a Randall half stack, Gibson LP Studio, Shadow superstrat, Warmoth fender. I play metal and blues.

There is a pawnshop by my house that has all their guitars in a pile. I literally pulled this out of a stack because the explorer shape caught my eye. I saw it was a Hondo and groaned. Then I saw it had gold Grovers, a genuine Kahler, diagonally-split block inlays and a set neck and I was really confused. It wasn't untill I got home and cleaned all the grime off it I realized it was a solid mahogony body and not plywood as I assumed.

I never heard of a Hondo H784KT but John Carter's description below is the closest description I've found of my guitar. Mine isn't marked H784KT anywhere only "Formula 1". The only difference is mine has 22 frets.

If you find one - BUY IT!! If you do email me - I'd love to learn more about these guitars.

This is an add-on to my first post, the 784's neck scale length is 25.5 like a stratocaster, kind of unsual for an explorer. The top of the back side of the guitar has also been carved ala a Fender stratocaster as well. I guess Hondo was pulling all the stops on this one. The neck has triple binding on the fretboard as well.

1985 Japan built Hondo H784KT Formula 1 explorer. 24 Fret, solid mahogany body with thin flame maple verneer. Mahogany set-neck with deep neck tenon. Rosewood fretboard with really nice diagonally-split block MOP inlays, resembles Gibson parallelogram style inlays. pointy Jackson style headstock common for the time. Authentic Kahler flyer bridge with Kahler locking nut. Grover tuners, all hardware finished in gold. Humbucker/Single/Single pickup configuration. Originally had 1 master volume, 1 master tone and a pushpull coil tap. Also features much like other 1985 guitars ala Charvel model 4 & 6 or Gibson 400 series explorers, 3 individual mini on/off toggles for each pickup and lastly a 4th mini toggle for a series parallel on the bridge humbucker. Neck is fast and slim, frets medium.

Great explorer mahogany and humbucker growl with all the miniswitches you can get a multitude of sounds. Orignally this guitar had the stock X13 & X14 Hondo PU's in, but when I got it had EMG Actives; not being a big active kinda guy and since the general shape of this rare beauty was lacking as the joker before me abused this gem I felt motivated to do it right. I rewired to 500kohm pots with a Master Volume & 2 Tone controls, installed new input jack, threw in a .047 UF Tone cap and a Dimarzio evolution in the bridge and a Dimarzio HS-3 in the neck. The mid is an Ibanes HS-2 knock off, not really gonna be used so who cares. She's all passive and the mini switches are nice after rewiring; I made the fourth mini a coil tap. My Peavey XXX is lovin this 80's metal beast. Natural harmonics are all over the neck, dislikes hey it's an explorer watch the furniture when you turn with this battleship you just might put someones eye out. Actually it's quite well balanced and a real joy to play. Just lower the middle pickup as it gets in the way if your used to Les Pauls.

Seriosly after I found this baby in an old 1985 Hondo Christmas catalog on a certain vintage guitar site, and saw the retail price in that era 1985 were talking $630 bucks, yeah right for a Hondo, no kidding. This was billed at that time as their TOP OF THE LINE, Ibanez flame-top destroyers went for guess what right $620-$650. Clearly Hondo wanted respect when they built this rolls royce. I've never seen another anywhere not even EBay as more than likely just like the GIbson 425-400 Plus Explorers in 1985 ala Charvel these axes were only a very limited run possibly only for 1985

This guitar after all the electronics and rewiring plus a good general setup and fretboard cleaning and fret polishing all done by yours truly is killer. The Kahler and Grovers function just fine even after the treatment from previous owners, and structurally aside from few dings on the front and rear cutaways the neck is straight as an arrow and the joint is rock solid, this guitar was over-built and has held up. Wouldn't think twice about playing her live without a backup. Recently put strap locks on just to keep a tight grip on this one. The finish is polyurethane clear over natural cherry stained mahogany and of course the flame verneer still looks great polished up.

Oh Boy here's where the ride ends, forget it Hondo is defunct and has been since who knows. They probably wouldn't believe they could build a guitar this nice anyway.

Overall I dig this guitar and rate it outstanding because, first if I ever see another one I'd be really surprised; as I've surfed long and hard to find this. Upon seeing the old Hondo catalog ad,it really sparking my interest and I actually found it being auctioned by one of the super-seller music stores on EBay. Probably pawned or traded after years of neglect and abuse for a squire strat or some piece o crap, guy had no clue what he had, whatever. I've had an Ibanez Flametop Destroyer from 1983 and quite frankly it ain't got nothing on this baby. Lost or stolen, go ahead and kiss it goodbye, if Hondo made more than 150-300 of these I be shocked, I'll never find another,if anybody out there has one of these email me and tell me about it, I think the original finished were like mine NCH natural see-thru cherry, blue transparent finish or black see-thru all with flame tops. Thanks