Check out this bad boy [NGD]

So my wife just acquired this in a facebook swapsies. Its a c1983 Hondo Deluxe Series 785 (BICH).

It features DiMarzio pickups (apparently) and is supposed to have grover tuners, but someone has swapped on some Gotohs. Apparently these were made in the Samick factory in Korea. It's styling is...erm.. unique, but I do like an oddball guitar....

I've literally just got it, so still working out what's what. It appears to have number of coil taps setup. Its got a set neck and quite a wide fretboard, which looks like rosewood and a Fender style bridge. May also be powered, it looks like there is a compartment for a 9v on the back.

Anyway, thought I'd share some initial pics, needs a good setup, new strings anda good look over, but it's a lot of fun already :)

https://i.imgur.com/8paEnlpl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/CWXXHK1l.jpg

Ooooh, me likey - though I'm not totally sold on that particular headstock shape. Love the rest though

I have a feeling those Gotoh may be OEM on that Hondo... which, by the way, I heartily approve of! And it could very well have DiMarzio p'ups onboard - many Matumoku and Hoshino did in those early 80s...

I DO like that shape... herein mine, an APII U-60T Urchin...

Attachment 24600

Quote:

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Originally Posted by corsair5517

I have a feeling those Gotoh may be OEM on that Hondo... which, by the way, I heartily approve of! And it could very well have DiMarzio p'ups onboard - many Matumoku and Hoshino did in those early 80s...

I DO like that shape... herein mine, an APII U-60T Urchin...

Attachment 24600

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Hah rad. Yeah they could be factory its hard to tell. I've just given it a really good clean, It has had a least a partial paint touch up as there is some orange peel in a few spots. But its a very good match to the paint in the cavities and the headstock, so I might give it a cut back at some point. There are a couple of little chips, but that doesn't bother me.

The neck is dead straight. Some of the frets were pretty worn, so I've given it a good dress and polish, oiled the fretboard, new strings. Its got 9's on it and the action is incredibly low (even by my standards) without a hint of fret buzz. So happy, the rusty strings that were on it were sitting miles off the board so I was prepared for the neck to be buggered.

There are no identifying marks on the pickups I can see, anyone else go any ideas on how to ID?

https://i.imgur.com/WEr1RdOl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/pCuu2A0l.jpg

It has a pre-amp, which works great and splittable front and back coils. The 3 way switch stalk is broken so I will get a new one of those.

https://i.imgur.com/ZdnCeN2l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yuL2uIal.jpg

I also found the whammy bar from the old bridge in my washburn is a perfect fit.

https://i.imgur.com/ZrNoDKxl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6Ap43FTl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/rxtzKN2l.jpg

Time to grab some beers and annoy the neighbours I think. I'll need some leopard print and hairspray as well.

Gotta love the weird ones. :D

Yeah I reckon, I've seen enough LP's and Strats to last me a lifetime.

I just spent all afternoon thrashing it. It sounds nice enough. Whatever pickups are in it do pale a bit compared to some of the other guitars, but wind it up through some effects and its great fun. I actually really like the way it plays and feels. It's light and pretty versatile.

It's not really a very pretty guitar, but it's a fun addition to the gang.

It does occur to me that there is a possibility this came out of the same factory as my Washburn but around 10 years earlier.

Looks interesting there sonic any plans on this one or is it just going to get a little spruce up.

No, sorry - can't help with IDing the p'ups, though I know the DiMarzio equipped guitars I've owned have had identifiers on the baseplate, as do the Matsumoku cloned pickups.

Weird shaped guitars certainly turn heads onstage, eh; I love taking my more extreme instruments along to open mike nights and the like....

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Originally Posted by Grubsta

Looks interesting there sonic any plans on this one or is it just going to get a little spruce up.

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I'm probably just going leave it at the moment. It may get a refurb at some point in the future, but I like the history it has

Quote:

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Originally Posted by corsair

No, sorry - can't help with IDing the p'ups, though I know the DiMarzio equipped guitars I've owned have had identifiers on the baseplate, as do the Matsumoku cloned pickups.

Weird shaped guitars certainly turn heads onstage, eh; I love taking my more extreme instruments along to open mike nights and the like....

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Yeah I've been thinking about taking a few of my builds down to an open mic for people to have a play. I've lined up a guy I know is a bit of a guitar freak to check them out in a couple of weeks. I'm pretty interested to see what other players think.

Yeah I'm not sure about the pickups. They do have the allen key pole thingy on them, but I would have expected some kind of markings from a brand name set. They sound OK, but they aren't blowing my mind or anything.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnH

Ooooh, me likey - though I'm not totally sold on that particular headstock shape. Love the rest though

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Yeah me either to be perfectly honest re the head stock. But that pointy look was very 'in' at the time I suppose.

Looks like you need a new battery connector clip as well. That one looks rusted beyond recovery.

Being of a certain age and seeing them in shop windows, I know Hondo weren't known for being expensive guitars, even their top-lone models, so having DiMarzios and Grovers (both all-US made brands) at that time seems unlikely to me, especially for a Japanese made guitar. Gotoh, being Japanese, sounds more realistic. Some of their better models may have had DiMarzios, but that doesn't mean that all the models had them.

Standard DM Super Distortions certainly had an ID stamp on the back plate. On the other hand, these have the distinctive hole pattern on the top of the bobbins that the early Super Distortions had. But then SDs had a braided single wire connection lead, so they aren't SDs. They may possibly be Dual Sounds, which were 3-wire versions of the SD (the two coils were linked at the pickup end, with a tap wire running out for single coil operation, rather than taking leads from both coils out as happens in a 4-wire pickup) but they always had black leads. Also, I've just noticed the extra blue lead coming out in addition to the grey lead, which seems very strange to modern eyes. So I'm erring towards these being Japanese Dual Sound style copies.

That guitar definitely looks like a bad boy for sure, in a good way that is, very 80's metal.


Dave Mustaine from Megadeth used a BC Rich manufactured version at the start of his career, then he went over to the Jackson King V.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

Looks like you need a new battery connector clip as well. That one looks rusted beyond recovery.

Being of a certain age and seeing them in shop windows, I know Hondo weren't known for being expensive guitars, even their top-lone models, so having DiMarzios and Grovers (both all-US made brands) at that time seems unlikely to me, especially for a Japanese made guitar. Gotoh, being Japanese, sounds more realistic. Some of their better models may have had DiMarzios, but that doesn't mean that all the models had them.

Standard DM Super Distortions certainly had an ID stamp on the back plate. On the other hand, these have the distinctive hole pattern on the top of the bobbins that the early Super Distortions had. But then SDs had a braided single wire connection lead, so they aren't SDs. They may possibly be Dual Sounds, which were 3-wire versions of the SD (the two coils were linked at the pickup end, with a tap wire running out for single coil operation, rather than taking leads from both coils out as happens in a 4-wire pickup) but they always had black leads. Also, I've just noticed the extra blue lead coming out in addition to the grey lead, which seems very strange to modern eyes. So I'm erring towards these being Japanese Dual Sound style copies.

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A bit of wd40, steel wool and elbow grease and the battery plug works fine. I do have another one to go on but it isn't broke so I'll leave it for now. While a lot of them were made in Japan this is almost definitely a Korean one going by the various sources I've read.

I am pretty sure they are just generic pickups. It's clearly been fiddled with over its lifetime so I'm still not sure what is original and what isn't. The black tuners and everything else chrome or cream coloured is a bit odd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hondo_(guitar_company)

http://samick.wikia.com/wiki/Deluxe_Series

http://samick.wikia.com/wiki/Hondo

This most likely incorrect blurb is where I saw mention of Grovers - seemed possible if they had a deal with Dimarzio, but the ones on mine are clearly Gotohs and they do make more sense.

https://reverb.com/au/item/805692-vi...1983-black-mij

Hah. Nice. My first “real” guitar was a BC Rich “Son of a Rich” in bright yellow.

Needless to say, I was a fan of the spandex at the time (1984)!

Looked like this:

https://images.reverb.com/image/uplo...hy8vc8ddjp.jpg

Yeah, you can totally see this is a copy of that design.

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Originally Posted by tommycarlos

Hah. Nice. My first “real” guitar was a BC Rich “Son of a Rich” in bright yellow.

Needless to say, I was a fan of the spandex at the time (1984)!

Looked like this:

https://images.reverb.com/image/uplo...hy8vc8ddjp.jpg

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I'm so into that!

If not genuine Di Marzio Super Distortions they sure look like a damn good copy. Thin sound may be due to shape of guitar and lack of timber in all the right places.

I had an Ibanez Flying V with a Di Marzio SD in the bridge position and whilst you could dial in some good sounds the whole thing sounded a bit thin and shrill. Dropped the PUP into a Strat Richie Sambora style and wow, huge sound and made a massive difference. Need to remember that a lot of DM's of that era were mostly mid range boosters and sounded awesome, mostly in LP shapes.

Tend to think body shape may be contributing.