The Hondo is in the shop

**caeman** · Sep-24-2010, 8:11am

With my J-74's ordered and received from JustStrings.com, I took the new-to-me old Hondo to the shop to be cleaned up, set up and re-strung. It was in need of some TLC by a qualified luthier. The frets will all be checked. The bridge is going to need some fixin'. The neck adjusted. The fret board is mighty dirty.

Even in its current condition, with the ratty old strings and poor setup, it had good sustain on the open string strums.

**Perry Babasin** · Sep-24-2010, 10:52am

I used to own a mid-80's Hondo acoustic guitar that was a copy of a D-28 (complete with Herringbone and Martin copy logo). It played fantastic and sounded great, and I'm pretty sure the Spruce and Rosewood were solid, matching grain and such, but most of all it was a real boomer. When it came time to replace and step back up to a better guitar nothing had a good enough sound to my ear (that I could afford) but an abused HD-28 that I rescued from a pawn shop that I nursed back to health and still own... I couldn't bear to sell it so I passed it along to a family member.

I've seen pictures of some old Hondo's and have been tempted, let us know how it is after you get it all worked over...

**caeman** · Oct-24-2010, 6:05pm

The old Hondo is back in my hands. The tech did what he could, but it is far from a perfect instrument. It will suffice to learn me the basics and satisfy my mando yearnings. The new strings are a definite improvement. It has spots where it buzzes. Unfortunately, I have no budget for a new/used high quality mando. Someday.

**Folkmusician.com** · Oct-25-2010, 9:54am

Hi Chad,

I just worked on a customer's old Hondo a few weeks back (the nut was crumbling and had to be replaced). It had a few other minor issues as well, but we left those as is and just made it playable. It was actually a fair sounding mandolin.

**caeman** · Oct-25-2010, 10:19am

The old Hondo worked very well enough as I sat around the camp fire working on some basic mandolin techniques. Ya know, that whole up-down strumming thing isn't a very natural motion for me with a pick, not yet at least. Thank God it uses the same tuning as my fiddle, so I am not completely lost on tunes to play.

**Calusa** · Oct-25-2010, 11:16pm

Hey Chad!

I also have a Hondo, and I believe it's from the '70's (not sure). It's loud and full of sustain, but could use a little attention to make it easier to play. I am going to visit a local mandolin doctor in a week or two and get the action lowered a little. Here's a photo: