Is this just a cheap bass or is a hondo 80's p bass?

[-Asdfgh-]

80s Hondos aARE cheap basses.

Some of them are perfectly decent players, though. Some of them are damn heavy too.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Bridge looks right for a Hondo of the early 1980s based on ones I've seen.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Bridge looks right for a Hondo of the early 1980s based on ones I've seen.

 

[SteffanB]

Snag it dude!!!

 

[-Asdfgh-]

The saddles are bottomed out so check out if it just needs shimming and the neck is still adjustable.

 

[Bass V]

that was obviously somebody's #1 long time lover, no BS relicing here. worth the pesos, and more.

 

[SMG]

The neck looks like at may be one piece. If that is the case, it is not a "cheap" neck, or a stock Hondo or Lotus as maple fingerboards on almost all inexpensive basses other then Squiers are separate pieces of wood, and don't have the "skunk" stripe over the truss rod in back.

On a side note, last summer I was in Mexico City and saw a jazz player (doing an afternoon outside gig in front of restaurant) playing a bass with what looked like a Fender P bass but he had a short scale, fretless, 60's Framus neck on it. Since it was fretless, if you know where the intervals are for the scale and disregard the side dots, the bass will play in tune. Maybe he had the body that the neck came on!

 

[ScottsTheLimit]

I like it because the wear is real and not fake relic'd. Someone poured some real heart and sweat into that over the years.

 

[Clark W]

If the neck is straight, and the truss rod works, buy it, throw some EMG GZR pups and pots in it, enjoy!

 

[Herbie Chesnutt]

That bridge is exactly like the one I had on my very first bass, an Epiphone AccuBass back in the mid 90s.

If it's an epi AccuBass it is plywood. However I've never seen an AccuBass in that color. Only seen black and white. So, it might be a body made by the same factory that the Epiphones were made.

See pic of one on Reverb right now.

 

[Herbie Chesnutt]

Yeah, wish I saw this first before I posted. Yep, that's exactly what I had but in black. String thru. Same bridge and hockey stick headstock.

It's a player for sure. If I were the OP I'd scoop that up and have fun with it.

My Epi is a string through.
View attachment 3461624
View attachment 3461625

 

[RickC]

View attachment 3461458

One of the best clues I would think is the narrower-than-normal neckplate. Do 80's Hondo/Lotus have a neck plate like that? If not, what does?

/rick

 

[Williethump]

@Clark W
Maybe the hokey puck older Accu-basses were string through and the bat wings were not.
And mine was red, the one on the left.

 

[RickC]

One of the best clues I would think is the narrower-than-normal neckplate. Do 80's Hondo/Lotus have a neck plate like that? If not, what does?

/rick

I found a Hondo II Pbass with the same narrow neckplate. Doesn't have the through-holes though

 

[okcrum]

I had a hockey stick headstock Korean Accubass, and it was string though. It had the same giant brass bridge. Great bass for the price.

The biggest problem with that bridge is that the steel saddle adjustment screws tend to seize inside the brass saddles.

 

[bolophonic]

I’d buy the hell out of that thing.

 

[ajkula66]

The neck looks like at may be one piece. If that is the case, it is not a "cheap" neck, or a stock Hondo or Lotus as maple fingerboards on almost all inexpensive basses other then Squiers are separate pieces of wood, and don't have the "skunk" stripe over the truss rod in back.

Some Hondos from the early 80s - which I believe this is one of - had a solid maple neck with a skunk stripe. My old Explorer-themed bass and many others that I've come across also sported the same bridge as this P-clone.

 

[bassliner50]

Buy it. Then sell those meaty oversize tuning machines to me!

 

[Sub-hoo-fer]

@JuanLL97 - So did you buy it? Hoping the lack of follow up post indicates you’re playing the heck out of that thing!

 

[dan1952]

Hondo and cheap are not an either/or situation. 80's Hondo = cheap...