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NBD - £60 charity shop Hondo II Professional


lemmywinks
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Been on here years and seen you lot snagging vintage bargains, well today was my day as I spotted this old thing for £60 in a charity shop window. 

 

It's a Hondo II Professional with what I assume to be a Dimarzio, no Made in Japan on the neckplate so is this Korean/Samick or a later MIJ Tokai or something? Serial is 0110454.

 

Sounds impressively loud unplugged, looks all original (to my untrained eye anyway) aside from the janky knobs. Pickup housing has cracks but not completely broken, parts rusty and definitely showing its age but should clean up to a less ratty state and the neck is straight. Some weight to it, given the rust and the fact I found it in the port town of Fleetwood I wonder if it actually has been used as a boat anchor at some point.

 

Obligatory rubbish car seat shots.

 

IMG_20240316_120356.thumb.jpg.9a2b8be1c058194cbbdf8f9a7e05a331.jpgIMG_20240316_120406.thumb.jpg.4c0b3e0550c55453a725d6cdad84141a.jpgIMG_20240316_120413.thumb.jpg.411423a8acfdf0d42a20e524d2d2aba3.jpg

Edited by lemmywinks
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Posted (edited)

Plugged it in and it sounds brilliant, bought it with the intention of flipping it on eBay for a profit but want to keep it now. Don't really have anything else here that does big old school sounds as well as this.

 

Looks like the H-1015 here, says Matsumoku apparently, made from 1980-1981:

https://samick.fandom.com/wiki/H-1010#H-1015

 

I take it that serial number means it's from 1980? Kinda gutted if so as I was born in '81!

Edited by lemmywinks
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Steal. Probably Matsumoku - my Westbury Track 2 has that style of plate & apparently those were all Mats. Pickup almost certainly a DiMarzio (stick a hex key in a pole piece, should be Imperial so metric won't fit) and worth the price on its own.

 

I love the fact that deals like this still come up. B|

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Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

Steal. Probably Matsumoku - my Westbury Track 2 has that style of plate & apparently those were all Mats. Pickup almost certainly a DiMarzio (stick a hex key in a pole piece, should be Imperial so metric won't fit) and worth the price on its own.

 

I love the fact that deals like this still come up. B|

 

It has the hex key pole pieces, I checked that before I bought it as a bit of insurance just in case the rest of the bass was junk. The bridge is starting to bow a little but given the age it doesn't look too serious.

Edited by lemmywinks
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Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, neepheid said:

You jammy b'stard

 

I've sat here seething at all the posters on here snagging £20 Arias, Greco and El Mayas from car boots for years, gimme a break!

Edited by lemmywinks
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I love these type of basses.

I was low key on the lookout for something like this when an S D Curlee came up for sale at a good price, with the same Dimarzio pickup. Not as good a price as your Hondo though, bargain! 

 

As an aside, there's Honda II and Aria Pro II, is there Hondo I and Aria Pro I, or was it marketing to make the sound more advanced? 

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Posted (edited)

Have removed the stars and stripes from the aftermarket knobs, they also had protruding plastic stars around the edge which I removed with a craft knife. Look like regular black speed dial knobs now, much better although I might get some dark amber ones.

Edited by lemmywinks
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1 minute ago, Paul S said:

Absolute bargain.  Necks on these are simply fantastic. 

 

Measured it because it felt shorter than usual, it's a bit over 32". Feels great despite some issues with the lacquer, just makes me want to play old Sabbath tunes on it all the time which is mainly what I've been doing this afternoon.

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I had one of these - the body was too heavy for me to manage but I liked the neck so much I kept it and had it transplanted into a lighter bass.  The medium scale is great, also the neck width and profile just seem to be right for my hands.  Lovely thing :) 

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2 hours ago, Maude said:

As an aside, there's Honda II and Aria Pro II, is there Hondo I and Aria Pro I, or was it marketing to make the sound more advanced? 

 

I've never been entirely sure 'Hondo II' was actually a thing. The logo started appearing on Hondos from the early 70s & I'm inclined to think the part that looks like a Roman numeral is (or at least was originally) just a bit of the design, but it sort of stuck as a name. Later Hondos have a couple of different logos that don't have a number.

 

Aria Pro II was a rebrand/update of the Aria brand, so the Pro II bit was meant to suggest improvement/advancement - although unlike Hondo (a US brand originally owned by International Music Corp) it's proper Japlish & therefore borderline inexplicable. The Aria & APII brands continued side-by-side & have been known to appear on the same instruments, so it's anyone's guess. The parent company is Shiro Arai Co, so at least you can see where it started!

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I've owned one like this. 

 

It was a medium scale with a great even sound across the fretboard. Also it was a heavy f%cker with poor balance. 

 

IIRC I had to replace the 3 point bridge as it had warped and cracked like you'll see on many Japanse basses with this type bridge.

 

Definite bargain here, it's a lot of quality for little cash.

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1 hour ago, PaulThePlug said:

Nice... Twin Cut, Maple...

I wouldn't of left it.

 

I originally did have a quick look, then walked on to do my shopping. While stood at the checkout I realised I was being an idiot so went back and bought it.

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12 minutes ago, SurroundedByManatees said:

I've owned one like this. 

 

It was a medium scale with a great even sound across the fretboard. Also it was a heavy f%cker with poor balance. 

 

IIRC I had to replace the 3 point bridge as it had warped and cracked like you'll see on many Japanse basses with this type bridge.

 

Definite bargain here, it's a lot of quality for little cash.

 

 

This one is 10lb 6oz or 4.7kg in new money, definitely heavy for a small bodied medium scale bass. Balances fine though, can sit it on my right knee and it stays in the same position without any hand support. There's a fair bit of wear to the lacquer and on the edges of the board, looks like it may have seen some moisture at some point but the frets have plenty of life left in them and overall it just looks like a heavily used 40+ year old bass. Lots of little dings and dents all over, don't think it's ever had the luxury of a decent gigbag or a guitar stand!

 

The bridge is also bowing slightly, will replace it if I end up playing the bass a fair bit, which bridge did you buy out of interest?

 

Will be giving everything a proper clean tomorrow evening and putting it back together.

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5 minutes ago, lemmywinks said:

 

The bridge is also bowing slightly, will replace it if I end up playing the bass a fair bit, which bridge did you buy out of interest?

I bought an Epiphone bass plate and re-used the original bridge saddles from the Hondo to retain the correct fretboard radius.

Edited by SurroundedByManatees
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