Here's another 1980s offering from Hondo guitars - reviled in some quarters and loved in others. It's a Hondo II H-1 from the 1980s with body styling obviously based on the now legendary Gibson Explorer but with the pointiness factor taken to the extreme.
Hondo guitars offered a budget range of instruments made in Japan and Korea. The company was originally formed in 1969 by Jerry Freed and Tommy Moore of the International Music Corporation (IMC) of Fort Worth, Texas, working in conjunction with the Samick Company.
It's interesting to note that Hondo was one of the first overseas companies to offer American-made DiMarzio pickups on their guitars - that surely would have made the purchase of a Hondo guitar all the more attractive to the prospective buyer with a strict budget in mind.
The H-1, looking perfect for hair metal bands, is almost certainly a Korean-made Hondo coming from the latter part of the 1980s (Hondo moved guitar production to Korea in 1983). I think if I had a bandmate who played one of these, I'd keep my distance through fear of being impaled.
G L Wilson
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Maybe I have a weird taste in guitars, but I absolutely love this. It's so tacky and ridiculous, and that's exactly how metal is supposed to be.
ReplyDeleteWith a locking trem and a Duncan Invader, this thing would be a weapon of mass destruction.
I'm kinda with you there. I'd buy it. I'd just love to turn up at guitar club with something like this and watch the jaws drop.
DeleteYou'll have someone's eye out with that!
ReplyDeleteTry the Hondo "The Sting". its a headless version of this. My step brother had one about ten years ago but sold it before I could come up with the cash.
ReplyDeleteI love it. In that red it's just so right. I think you would have to be a pretty flash player to get away with using one of these in public though!
ReplyDeleteWell, I wouldn't play one of these myself! lol Although I can definitely appreciate the crazy- yet strangely aesthetically pleasing- design.
ReplyDeleteThe size of that case also worries me...I can see people getting to a gig and not being able to fit it through a door or something!
Have always loved this guitar for its sheer extremeness !! There is also a bass version out there. I wrote a post on this family of instruments in my guitargarage blog recently and I'm pretty sure the set-neck versions are actually Japanese made along with some of the higher quality Hondo set-neck instruments from the early 80s.
ReplyDeleteMy H-1 has a less exciting black finish and needs a little neck work to be a true shredder, but overall is really solidly built. The case is amazing too - fitted and lined with fake lambskin !