Guitar Info

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If one particular budget guitar brand from the 1970s and 1980s has earned more scorn and derision than any other maker, then surely it must be Hondo. Hondo guitars were for the most part produced in Korea (you could even say that they were the original Made in Korea guitars), although a few of the high-end models were made in Japan. (See The Story of Hondo Guitars).

I personally couldn't comment on why they have such a bad reputation today, but have heard stories from many former owners and others about what dreadful instruments they were. Of course, there are those who still have their old Hondos and love them dearly, but such people seem to be in the minority. I have to wonder if much of the scorn comes from people who didn't actually ever own a Hondo, but are just repeating negative comments from someone else. They were cheap guitars - everyone knew that - and I guess they were one of the few options available to the budding guitarist on a tight budget, and possibly the butt of not entirely fairly-earned resentment.

Playability aside, Hondo certainly produced some interesting looking instruments. For example, this very pointy Hondo guitar - currently listed on eBay with a starting price of $0.99 - is very reminiscent of the Matsumoku-made Mako Exotec XP-4 we looked at back in November, and surely must come from the same designer. Here's what the eBay seller has to say about it:

Kind of a wacky Gumby looking body w/ 24 fret 6 bolt neck. This is a very interesting and nice playing & sounding old Hondo (not Hondo II). Hard to find much good info on this but it my understanding that the Hondo II Logo starts around 1973 so I am calling this a c. '72. Any inaccuracies are not intentional and if you have info,I'd love to know more about this strangely appealing old thing. !! Anyhow,very good condition,well preserved and ready to go. (Well it could use some fresh strings) Has a straight neck, good frets and everything works. Nice overall cosmetic condition. [...] just a great looking guitar that doesn't even have a lot of pick wear or other scratches. Features mahogany body, maple neck,and rosewood fingerboard with 24 frets. Both pick ups work great & sound clear and there is a 3 way select.

OK, first off I'd say forgot all that Hondo vs Hondo II rubbish. That is a total red herring. There is no way that this guitar is from the 1970s, let alone as early as 1972. I've already drawn the comparison with the Mako Exotec XP-4 which was available from 1984 to 1989. I'd expect this Hondo to be contemporary to the Mako. Furthermore the styling is NOT 1970s, and is very much consistent with the 1980s, the era of hair metal and very very pointy guitars. Note also in the link I've just given, the photos of the Hondo H-1 produced around the same time and almost certainly a sibling instrument to our Hondo Gumby here. Alas, I can find no database of Hondo guitars so as to make an identity. The closest I came to was this, which alas, has too many blanks to be filled in.

I also clearly remember that logo (pictured above) being used on Hondo guitars in the 1980s. I suspect that the Hondo II brand actually reverted back to being simply "Hondo" in the 1980s.

If anyone can fill in the blanks anywhere in the story here, then please comment below. They may not have been the most salubrious instruments in the history of the guitar, but Hondo guitars are a very relevant part of the bigger picture.

G L Wilson

EDIT: MartinF tells us that it's a Hondo H-2 "Metal Master" (see comments below). I note now that the auction has been taken down. Did someone tell the seller what the guitar was? Maybe he'll re-list it.

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Something about this Teisco EP-93T hollowbody electric guitar makes me think it would play like an absolute dog. I'd imagine it would be boxy-sounding and the cheap hardware would make it rattle and buzz, and sure, there's three pickups, but did you ever try those pickups? They were hardly the best; "muddy" is the word I'd use to describe the tone. However, despite all that, I can't help liking the guitar. I like the shape and the general design of the instrument, not to mention those crazy slider controls - you just don't see stuff like that on guitars any more.

Perhaps I'm letting my prejudices have too much say, and maybe - just maybe - this is a great player. Still, I wouldn't like to be the one to shell out the $549 eBay Buy It Now price so as to find out one way or the other.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Ergonomic guitars don't usually come very cheap. They are specialist instruments and are very often luthier built. It's little wonder that many people have sought to build their own, which is where the resources available at the Building the Ergonomic Guitar website make themselves invaluable.

The one design that crops up time and time again is that based around the Klein guitar as designed by Steve Klein (no doubt using the Ovation Breadwinner as inspiraton). Kleins have long been out of production with existing examples changing hands for many thousands of dollars, so it's not surprising that the design has been appropriated by other builders.

The above pictured guitar, however, is currently listed on eBay for $199 Australian dollars, which is approx £132.40 GBP, and a little over $206 US dollars at the time of writing. The body design, although a bit "blocky" and under-sculpted is copied from the Klein, although unlike the Klein guitar it is not headless (note the cutaway area behind the bridge - that's where the headless tuners would be on a Klein). The bridge, pickups and controls are borrowed from the venerable Telecaster.

Now, at this kind of price I couldn't comment on the quality of the guitar, but suspect that seeing as it utilises readily available Telecaster components, that it could be upgraded very easily and may well appeal to those on a strict budget wanting to experiment with guitar ergonomics.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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Premier/Multivox started making these carved scroll mahogany solid bodies in 1958. The very earliest version was set-neck, going over to bolt-on pretty quickly. The shape of the treble-side horn evolved from long to stumpy to the version seen in this 1959 example, with its elegant outward curve echoing the wave shape of the scroll side, the perfection of the design. The later Premiers covered in Italian cellulloid are nice in their way but part of a downward slide in quality, materials, and looks throughout the 1960s.

The neck here is solid perfectly vertical tight grain Brazilian rosewood that sustains like nothing else and rings like a bar on a marimba.These earliest necks have an angled scarf-joined headstock (made with a “V” notch cut under the integral fingerboard; a less desirable non-angled scooped headstock with string retainers came shortly thereafter. In Premier's world at this time truss rods were a tone-deadening frill, unnecessary on a good quarter-sawn Brazilian neck. This neck, after almost fifty years of string tension — some of that with hulking flatwounds — had only a slight bow, easily brought to perfect minimal relief by a compression fret job. By the way, the position markers are just cut from aluminum rod, though most people assume they are mother of pearl.

On the down side, the binding on Premiers often deteriorates and the fret spacing is oddly erratic for an otherwise extremely well-crafted guitar with bound body, fingerboard, and headstock, and gold plated hardware standard. You can even see the bad spacing in the upper frets of the 1964 model you posted. I corrected fret spacing problems and replaced the binding when I refurbished this one, which I bought in deteriorated but complete condition in 2005. Unless the frets are repositioned it is only good for slide, and Ry Cooder (see picture) has been known to play this very same two-pickup early model. The “Franz” pickups (as used also on early Guilds) are like dream P-90s. To top it off, it has catalin knobs, a big appliance-style pickup selector switch and a flashy pickguard that leaves no doubt that this instrument was made for show business.

Mark

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

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OK, this isn't the usual sort of thing we show you here at Guitarz, but please bear with me. This is a short animated video that I made over the last couple of weeks. Yes, the animation style is very Monty Python/Terry Gilliam, although that wasn't a conscious decision, it's just the way it worked out.

"But what's it got to do with guitars?", some of you might well be asking.

Well, I actually recorded the piece of music used as the soundtrack several years ago, and believe it serves quite nicely to demonstrate the sound of the legendary Energy Bow or - as it's more commonly known - EBow. For this piece, I actually used a Bass VI guitar (I think it was an earlier version of the EBow too, rather than the EBow Plus model as seen in the photo here), but if you're not already familiar with the EBow you still get the general idea of what it can sound like.

G L Wilson

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Bertram

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

© 2012, Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!