Hondo Guitar Serial Numbers

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Vantage Dating and Serialnumbers

This late-70??s vintage Hondo II Les Paul copy is an absolute beauty! It??s hard to find out much about this guitar??s history as they only started using a proper serial number system from 1981 onwards. That said, it has all of its original hardware and electrics. A good example of a vintage guitar, without the vintage price tag. Hondo was founded by Jerry Freed and Tommy Moore in 1969 with the aim to produce guitars in Korea. Source: Michael Wright The Hondo brand was replaced by JB Player in 2005. Source: wikipedia Timeline from wikepedia 1969 Hondo.

VANTAGE serial numbers (electric guitars/basses)

1978?/79:
V-100 model: “V-100”-sticker, no serial

1979 models:
VLP Spirit: six digit ser.nos. 05xxxx

Vantage Standard – VS: five digit ser.nos. 6xxxx

Vantage Performer – VP: five digit ser.nos. 7xxxx
700VP

Vantage Artist – VA: five digit ser.nos. 8xxxx
VA-800

Ghost (VP-750):
no or hard to read serial number.
1979 models: 4 digit serial number.

Hondo Electric Guitar Serial Numbers

1979/1980 (until 4/80):
6 digit serial numbers: 0xxxxx

1980 (April) – 1984 (June?):
7 digit serial numbers
First digit = year of production (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984)
Digits 2 + 3 = month of production
VS-650
0040415 = 1980 – April – 0415

Hondo Acoustic Guitar Serial Number Lookup

1980/81:
VA-900 series: 6 digits:
First digit (0 or 1) = year
Digts 2+3 month
VA-900
006108 = 1980 – June – 108

7 digit # for late ’81 models

Guitar

1981/82:
“Special” series of VP and VA models: five digit ser.nos: 71xxx or 72xxx(VP), 81xxx or 82xxx(VA) (following the number system of their ’79/ ’80 predecessors)

1984 – 1988:
Letter prefix serial numbers:
(A-L)xxxxxx: letter=month
– A=January
– B=February
– C=March
– D=April
– E-May
– F=June
– G=July
– H=August
– I=September
– J=October
– K=November
– L=December
First digit=year of production (unconfirmed!)
33B-XF
J500338 = October – 1985 – 00338

Hondo Electric Guitar Serial Number

1990 – 1998 (Samick models):

Acoustic models (THis information is not verefied!!!)
Matsumoku didn’t produce any acoustic guitars themself. Their were set out to other factories.

Here’s a list of producers with the code:
S = Samick
C = Cort
K = KWO
F = Fujigen
P = Peerless factory in Pusan Korea. PA = Acoustic and PE = Electric Sia bird set free mp3 download.

Samick history in short

Hondo Guitar Serial Number Dating


Hondo Guitar Serial Numbers

The Korean company Samick Musical Instruments Co. founded in September 1958, is one of the world's largest producer of musical instruments. Samick started producing acoustic guitars in 1965 and electric guitars in 1972. Good quality copies, including the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul, were made in 1976 and released under the Hondo II brand.
Samick builds guitars under his own brand name but mainly under OEM license for several major brands such as Fender/Squier, Gibson, Epihone, Gretsch, Ibanez, Jackson and many other brands.
Originally, founder of Samick, Lee Hyo-Ik, was the Korean importer of Baldwin Pianos. Around 1960 he also started building his own pianos, first from imported parts and later from homemade ones. The pianos were sold in his shop right next to the factory.

Lee Hyo-Ik
Success came quickly, and in 1964 Samick exported pianos to the USA. A year later guitars were also built for the Korean market and for export as there was a lot of demand for cheap Asian guitars.
In the early 1970s, Samick had grown into a company with more than 3,000 employees.
On January 20, 1978, a Samick branch was opened in Los Angeles and on December 11, 1980, a branch office in Dusseldorf, Germany, to introduce the brand to the European market.
On 9 June 1989 there were opened a branch in Harbin, China and on 2 March 1990 a branch office in Tokyo, Japan .
In March 1992 a factory was opened in Cileungsi near Bogor, Indonesia (PT Samick Indonesia). The vast majority of instruments are built in this factory.
Sales of Samick instruments in the USA were so successful that on
July 1, 1987, an American subsidiary, the Samick Music Corporation (SMC), was opened.
The range for the international market was expanded considerably
by developing a line-up based on American examples such as Gibson and Fender.
In 2006 Samick moved the complete production to Bogor, Indonesia and production in Incheon was discontinued.
The main reason for this was the increasing labor costs in South Korea.
Hondo
In 1969 Samick entered into a joint venture with the American company International Music Corporation (IMC) in Fort Worth, Texas and the Hondo Guitar Company became a reality.
Under the brand name Hondo they started to produce cheap guitars with modern manufacturing techniques, but with the American
quality standards.
The productions initially consisted of acoustic models.
In 1972 they also started producing electric electric models and from 1976 also mandolins and banjos.
At the end of 1976, under the name Hondo II, models were released that were based on the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul.
From 1978 these were equipped with DiMarzio pickups.
In 1979, more than 790.000 Hondo guitars were sold worldwide.
Until 1989 Hondo guitars were mainly produced at the Samick factory in Korea.
In 1995 Hondo Guitar Company was sold to MBT International, Musicorp. With a now renewed production line, after 46 years the brand name Hondo was replaced by the name J.B. Player, of which Musicoprp also owns the proprietary rights.
SPG
As early as 2003, it was feared that Korean production would disappear. By a group of Samick employees the company became SPG (Sound Professional Guitar Co, Ltd company) established.
After production ceased in Korea, Samick's factory was bought by SPG.
As a result, the quality of the products was maintained and many brands continued to outsource their assignments to SPG.
Greg Bennett
Greg Bennett was a former guitar builder at Gibson, and was approached by Samick to design a new guitar line.
This new line of instruments includes acoustic, archtop guitars, basses, mandolins, ukuleles and banjos in addition to the electric models, and was released around 2011 under the 'Greg Bennet Guitars' label.
The electric models feature Seymour Duncan-designed pickups, Grover tuners and Wilkinson bridges.

Greg Bennett

Some electric models designed by Greg Bennett:
Avion, Ultramatic, Torino, Formula, Lasalle,
G series