hondo 2 #732

Hello, I have a yellow Korean made Hondo 2 # 732, all original. Was a gift to my sister in '81-'82. Still plays and sounds good. Hard to find info about this guitar. I am wondering what a fair value of this would be. Thank you for your thoughts. I tried submitting this info to the online guitar museum, but for some reason, the web site did not work correctly.

£49.99

Thanks for the info.

Yeah, not very common, and I have seen prices from around $60 AUD to $395 USD. Mine still sounds great and yours still has all original parts by the look of it. The hard case has retained the quality quite well.

I took mine recently to play with friends and they were quite impressed and offered to buy (not for sale though, my Dad gave it to me when I was sixteen, too sentimental).

Yeah, I have posted mine up on Guitar Museum along with a few others (bright red one).

If you play or have a family member that plays guitar,do not sell it. They ARE appreciating slowly but surely.

I have lent mine out to friends and it always came back with an extra chip in the paint, or a broken bridge or tail piece.

I have fixed it a few times and it still sounds great, especially in a chunky Marshall amplifier. It gives the same sort of growl a Gibson Les Paul does (same sort, not better) and I bet putting some Gibson Humbuckers in it (Burstbucker 2 in neck, and burstbucker 3 at the bridge) you would have a killer guitar that still look original but sounds awesome!

Keep it, they are cool! Great action and easy to play with that nice fat neck!

Love my Hondo, never realized how good it was until this year actually. Take it to a good player you know and plug it into a decent amp and you will be amazed!

Oh  yeah, the day I played with my friends, we had an excellent Gibson Les Paul, Paul Reed Smith, Gretsch G6120 and many other guitars to compare it with that day. We also had some excellent musicians on hand to show us the differences. The Hondo did surprise everyone.. I reckon though, if a Hondo has survived to this day, it was one of the good ones and not a lemon. I am watching to see if a Hondo Stagemaster 70 is going to become another Hondo legend when it gets its new tuners and strings.

There are many people that are brand loyalists. I would just like to say,every guitar IS different, and everyone should open their minds as some guitars are good for some types of songs, and others are good for other types of songs. Every guitar has a place in the sun in my mind. Just like you and me!    

what were the stock pickups in these? not Dimarzio oem I know.

I suspect, with this model, just some generic Korean make. Knowing the Chinese are putting some pickups in their guitars these days stamped "Epiphone" that ring out and scream like a stuck pig due to microphonics issue, they seem to be better quality. I would say they are just an un-badged variety made locally or even made by the factory that makes the bodies, as commissioned by Hondo at the time.

I played mine with friends last night through a Marshall Lead 100 MOSFET amp and compared it with a 1960's Harmony with Seymore Duncan Pickups fitted, a Gretsch G5120 with Filtertrons fittes and a budget grocery store strat style guitar. These guitars have a great powerful sound with a lot of low end growl. Not as much output as the Harmony with Seymore Duncan pickups though. I have a dilema, should I replace the pickups or not to make the guitar even better than it is? Or keep it all original. It's a 31 year old guitar now, and it seems changing it too much may devalue it to some degree. It would certainly still look the same though.

Thanks Matty and Sgt. for the feedback. This Hondo is the only guitar I have had with humbuckers, I always have preferred the sound from humbuckers than single coils. When I got this out a few months back and cleaned it up and gave it a new set up, I never thought about pulling out the pickups to see who made them. Recently I was reading some Hondo's were fitted with dimarzio's. One of the pots was scratchy, but electric cleaner solved that problem. I have thought about putting new pots and humbuckers in it, but am reluctant because for my purposes the sound is fine. Like Matty, this has sentimental value now.  Thanks again for sharing your thoughts. Lonman