I have a Hondo II Les Paul copy I bought at a pawn shop several years ago. There is not one single reference to HONDO II serial numbers/model numbers and dating. Hondo Guitar Serial Numbers. HONDO PROFESSIONAL (H9. Hondo guitar serial number. I have a Hondo II Les Paul copy I bought at a pawn shop several.

What Hondo did do in the 80s was enter into a partnership with the Korean manufacturer Samick and all Hondo branded guitars were made in Korea after this time with the possible exception of a few extremely budget instruments seemingly being made in Indonesia. There are suppositions that Hondo worked with engineers from legendary Japanese manufacturer Tokai to get the Korean operation up to standard, though I have not been able to substantiate this. Trp Ratings Of Television Serials.

Tokai did make Fender copies for Hondo in the late 70s so their involvement is possible. At this time, Hondo tried to differentiate themselves from these other importers by partnering with DiMarzio, the first company to offer off-the-shelf replacement pickups. The standard pickups on these guitars were often very poor, the humbuckers in particular being single coils housed inside a humbucker casing. Hondo became an OEM for DiMarzio in a deal not dissimilar to modern gutiars with 'Duncan Designed' pickups today, and offered them as an option for many Hondo models to help improve the sound with reasonable success. In the late 1970s, Japanese guitar production took a massive step forward. This culminated in the so-called 'lawsuit' era when certain Japanese instruments were said to be of such a high quality that they rivalled their American counterparts to a point where the Japanese companies were hit with cease and desist letters. (Long story but the lawsuit didn't actually happen, it basically just threatened the Japanese companies if they continued to make guitars with Fender or Gibson shaped headstocks).