sparquelito Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 New Guitar Day. Picked up this 1980 Hondo II HD990WA (in Walnut finish) for $115 at a local pawn shop the other day. She cleaned up real nice. Feels really good, sounds fantastic, and (for a single humbucker pickup-equipped guitar) it's amazingly versatile. Nato body and neck, and she features an original DiMarzzio K-10 humbucker. She weighs 8 lbs, 4 ounces and has a 24 ¾ ” scale The small switch is described as a Series/Parallel Mini Switch. It's sort of a coil-tapping feature, unique for a barely post-1970's guitar. (I'm sure the electronics experts will educate me on the fine points of that item.) I just know it sounds great in both distinctly-different tonal options. I am really digging this old guitar! I can't wait to gig with her.😙 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle fester Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) That looks exactly like my very first guitar, bought new circa 1980 for about $150 or so. Now I miss it! Enjoy! Question, would you ever gig with it? Edited February 22, 2020 by billroy fineman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merciful-evans Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, billroy fineman said: That looks exactly like my very first guitar, bought new circa 1980 for about $150 or so. Now I miss it! Enjoy! Question, would you ever gig with it? yes he would 🙂 nice find! Edited February 22, 2020 by merciful-evans Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdgm Posted February 22, 2020 Share Posted February 22, 2020 You've done it again! Congrats, looks just the job; I'd love to find something like that..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparquelito Posted February 22, 2020 Author Share Posted February 22, 2020 Yes, We will be playing a 'Bike Week' gig at a local bar in early April. Planning on bringing this Hondo, along with my white Strat, and maybe my Firebird. I'm experimenting with the tonal options with the mini switch. Seems useful enough, for sure. 🙂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tx-ogre Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Looks like a great find. Congrats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marky Forrest Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 She looks very well taken care of. Congratulations on your great score! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01GT eibach Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 I had a friend with an early 1980s Hondo II Les-Paul-Custom copy. I know a lot of people really like those Hondo guitars. My friend's guitar was absolutely beautiful but played and sounded horribly. Just not good at all ... It sounds like yours is much better than that, so I am happy for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihcmac Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 (edited) On 2/21/2020 at 2:52 PM, sparquelito said: New Guitar Day. Picked up this 1980 Hondo II HD990WA (in Walnut finish) for $115 at a local pawn shop the other day. She cleaned up real nice. Feels really good, sounds fantastic, and (for a single humbucker pickup-equipped guitar) it's amazingly versatile. Nato body and neck, and she features an original DiMarzzio K-10 humbucker. She weighs 8 lbs, 4 ounces and has a 24 ¾ ” scale The small switch is described as a Series/Parallel Mini Switch. It's sort of a coil-tapping feature, unique for a barely post-1970's guitar. (I'm sure the electronics experts will educate me on the fine points of that item.) I just know it sounds great in both distinctly-different tonal options. I am really digging this old guitar! I can't wait to gig with her.😙 Very fun guitar to play, LP style do lend them selves very well to bolt on necks but I think those tuners may cause you more grief than they are worth.. Edited February 24, 2020 by mihcmac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparquelito Posted February 24, 2020 Author Share Posted February 24, 2020 14 hours ago, mihcmac said: Very fun guitar to play, LP style do lend them selves very well to bolt on necks but I think those tuners may cause you more grief than they are worth.. I'll definitely keep an eye on them, sir. For right now they seem to be holding the guitar in tune fairly well. My brother and I were in the music room yesterday, fooling around with some originals, and I was on drums for half the day. Stacey was playing the Hondo for a stretch there, and it sounded like it was holding pitch. I'm a very strange person about keeping a guitar bone-stock, and thus far (from what I can find on the internet) this Hondo II looks to have all the original factory bits. 😃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twang Gang Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 Cool find. Wonder if Hondo ever got into lawsuit issues with Gibson? I mean that really does look like a LP Jr, down the stop tail and bridge. Nice finish and a great find for $115. I am no electronics wiz, but since it only has one pickup I would guess it's just switching the coils between being in series or parallel. As long as it provides some tonal difference that's all that matters. Quite a few pawn shops in my area, and I've never gone into one, with these repeated finds you've gotten, I may have to start browsing just for fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 2 minutes ago, Twang Gang said: Cool find. Wonder if Hondo ever got into lawsuit issues with Gibson? No. The "lawsuit" has been greatly exaggerated over the decades as a way to inflate the value of copies. Ibanez for Fender and Tokai for Gibson bore the brunt of it, and it wasn't much of a brunt. Valley Arts was the last one sued, late 70's. By the time this guitar was made the companies had all changed headstocks and logos to avoid further slap fights. rct Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mihcmac Posted February 24, 2020 Share Posted February 24, 2020 (edited) 11 hours ago, sparquelito said: I'll definitely keep an eye on them, sir. For right now they seem to be holding the guitar in tune fairly well. My brother and I were in the music room yesterday, fooling around with some originals, and I was on drums for half the day. Stacey was playing the Hondo for a stretch there, and it sounded like it was holding pitch. I'm a very strange person about keeping a guitar bone-stock, and thus far (from what I can find on the internet) this Hondo II looks to have all the original factory bits. 😃 Nothing unusual about wanting to keep it stock, if the frets are good on a possibly 30yr old Samick made Hondo its very likely the tuners are still good too.. Pretty guitar... The Samick factory that built quite few sought after Epiphones models in the 90's Edited February 24, 2020 by mihcmac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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