anyone here familiar with Hondo guitars?
 

saw this ad on here, and thought it was a decent looking guitar. Nice shape, found a little history on the brand, and noticed they are becoming more of a collectors guitar.

But see if anyone here has more info, or anything on this guitar:

1980 Hondo Black, Maple Fingerboard Strat. - Red Deer Musical Instruments For Sale - Kijiji Red Deer Canada.

They're junk. Don't buy it. Even if you wanted it for resale value, there are much better options out there, like any number of old Teisco and Matsumoku guitars. Its definitely not one you'd be sorry to pass up.


Its also not one of the more collectible models, even for Hondo, and its incomplete. Its missing locknut pads, the pickup poles are rusty, and the finish isn't in fantastic shape. Oh, and that big lump of metal on the back of the headstock? Thats to hold the allen keys to adjust things, and they're missing, and so is one of the lock screws for those.

And the front of the headstock is missing string trees.

And the headstock has a number of dents in it.

Only an idiot would consider this guitar collectible.

The seller didn't take a picture of the first couple of frets where there is usually fret wear caused by cowboy chords. If I saw it in a pawn shop where I could play it and look it over I might consider it. But if you get it and worse comes to worse and it's useless as is, being a black Strat body, it would be a perfect candidate to turn it into a replica of Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstein guitar. But I don't know if you want to be caught up with a project guitar, so don't let what I say influence you. There will be other finds.

Yeah, I figured so.

Never expected greatness. But info is appreciated.

Might work as a project guitar as well. Might try it out and see if what it sounds like. But chances are even for the price, probably not worth putting anything into. Just better off to buy an actual good guitar. Just was looking at this as something that is not seen often, and i like the look of it. But in the end, probably not even worth time.

I owned a Hondo for about 3 months back in the day when I first started playing. I could tell it sucked even as I was struggling to change between G C and D still. At least the price is 'reasonable' though I'd still start my offer closer to $100.

The main thing I remember is how heavy it was. Mine was a different model than the Strat clone in the link but still double cutaway (double humbuckers for sure, maybe even HSH). The main 'feature' was a 1/4 inch of super heavy plexiglass across the top as well as a Floyd Rose bridge and Grover tuners.

A Google search refreshed my memory - it was a Formula 1 model, apparently one of their 'higher quality' models. It was still a piece of crap I never missed for even a millisecond after trading it in for a discount on my Mexican Stratocaster.

If you're into junky / collectable guitars like the old Silvertone and Teisco brands etc. then it might not hurt to pick it up as an addition to your collection, but if you want a unique piece of quality gear I'd definitely keep looking.

You can get a WAY better project guitar than this for less money.