During the mid-80s - at the height of the "pointy guitar" craze - a family of related guitars hit the market under the Hondo and Mako labels.  For convenience, I'll refer to these as the "Death Dagger" family of instruments.

Hondo had an amazing catalog of guitars by the early 80s - with literally hundreds of models of guitars and basses available.  A great number of these were copies of US vintage guitars, including of course the typical Les Paul, Strat, P-bass and Jazz Bass knock-offs, but also more obscure copies of Melodymakers and Danelectros, etc.   But where Hondo really hit their creative stride was in catering to the blossoming metal guitar market.

Hondo not only started selling outrageously shaped instruments but also all sorts of wild finishes, including prism/hologram finishes.

Hondo's build quality also varied widely - with the cheapest instruments being bolt-ons almost guaranteed to end up with a warped neck within a year or so but with other lines having set-necks and Dimarzio pickups and even all mahogany construction.  The cheapest models tended to come out of Korean factories whereas the better models were sourced from Japan.   I'm not going into all the details on Hondo - there are various articles on the topic online - and its a big complex topic!

But the set-neck Japanese Hondo's are pretty fine instruments - and can be real bargains.  I still regret not buying a set-neck Hondo Korina Explorer copy that had a loose pickup for $99 back in the mid-90s - later realized it was probably a VERY well built Japanese instrument.

The Death Dagger

The Death Dagger family was built in Japan - probably in the same Matsumoku plant where the better Aria and Westone guitars were manufactured - and were sold under the Hondo label as the one humbucker H-1 and the dual single pickup H-2.   Initially, the H-1 was dubbed the "Death Dagger" - and the H-2 was the "Metal Master" - even though H-2's electronics and tremelo were better suited to playing surf-instrumentals!!

Here's an example of a H-1 Death Dagger in metallic blue - it also came in red and black - and perhaps other colors?

Here's a metallic red example - with blue trim - as pictured in the print ad.

There was also a Death Dagger bass - I missed buying this beauty on Ebay - it sold for less than $200 - and it looks to be built just as well as the H-1 guitar, with decent hardware and finish and a similar form-fit hardcase.   This is the only example I've seen of this bass - I'd love to acquire one if anyone out there has a lead on one !!

The Hondo Sting 

The Hondo Sting appears to be a further evolution of the Death Dagger but with a headstock-less neck. Maybe too many lead singers were getting impaled or blinded by the Death Dagger headstock ?  Or more likely - Hondo was jumping on some sort of "Steinberger-bandwagon".

I've never seen one of these instruments in person but they appear to all be set-neck as well but with some very flashy paint jobs added - as well as body mounted tuners of course.  "The Sting" was printed on the lower part of the body - and there was a bass version as well.

If anyone has more info on these - or other variants - please let me know!

Mako XK-4

The H-2 was also sold as the Mako XK-4 - which appears to be identical except for the headstock logo.  The brand Mako doesn't appear to have anything to do with Hondo, so this was probably just an example of the manufacturer selling the same instrument to two different companies, who then applied their own brand.  There's a more detailed write-up on this guitar in an older post, here.

Note the form-fit case - with a sheepskin-like lining material !!

Bolt-On Neck Death Daggers

A little more research (mostly via Ebay auctions) has revealed that Hondo also marketed bolt-on neck versions of the H-1 and H-2 - presumably a few years after the set-neck versions and I'd guess as a cost-saving measure.

These had the same body and headstock shapes but in both cases had the neck attached with 6-bolts.

The Hondo brand went into hiatus sometime around 1987  (though it did re-emerge a few years later) and I'd guess that these bolt-on models are from around the end of the Hondo's existence - probably 1985 to 1987.

And the bolt-on version of the H-2, which looks like its also had its "points" softened a little bit - maybe a safety improvement ?

read more →

During the 1980s, guitar design really got abstracted - with "pointy" guitars becoming the norm, as well as various experiments with head-stockless and even bodyless guitars, such as the Steinberger and associated knock-offs.

As a "vintage guy" - I always have kind of looked down on these instruments - maybe because I associate them with the 80s "hair metal" bands that were all over MTV - and LA when I lived there from 1987 to 1989. It took me a while to warm up to even the Gibson Flying V and Explorer - and those two instruments are from the late 50s!

But now that some time has passed - and hair metal is for the most part in history, I'm looking at some of those designs, especially the more extreme ones, for their creativity and artistic merit. And .. a lot of those instruments were really well made.

I stumbled upon the Mako while browsing around on Ebay for a Takamine Explorer copy (as Michael Wright has documented in Vintage Guitar, Takamine made some very high quality set-neck, solid body guitars during the mid-80s) - I originally saw a stripped "project" example, but missed the end of the auction - but I made a note to myself to keep an eye out for another one. I have to say, I'm glad I waited!


The example I found was all original, with the amazing fitted, faux sheep-skin lined original hard shell case - the only thing missing was the back cover for the tremelo cavity.


The guitar is of set-neck construction with a high-quality metallic red finish and a rosewood fingerboard. Construction quality appears high - I couldn't tell what kind of wood its made of, though some comments online refer to a laminated body - a small edge chip showed what looked like mahogany, but its hard to tell.

The hardware is a bit unusual for such a "metal" looking instrument - two single coil pickups and a non-locking Strat-type bridge - more a set-up for a surf guitar than a shred-monster.



The headstock is also surprisingly conservative - looking more like some cheaper early 70s Japanese guitars in style. The stock tuners are Grovers, indicating at least a decent level of components. The aforementioned hardcase is also well-built, and specifically made for this instrument (check the pics!) - again implying that this wasn't an entry level instrument.


The guitar plays well - though the nut seemed to be cut a bit high (it may be a replacement since it wasn't yellowed at all) - and the two pickups are fairly high output, but more along the lines of a Strat than say a Charvel. The neck is dead straight and the frets show little if any wear.

The tremelo was set up very stiff - with 4 springs installed and the anchor screwed most of the way into the body. I did notice that the tremelo arm sticks up at a pretty steep angle - and I saw other comments to this effect online - maybe loosening up the springs will change the angle. The trem works just as well as any Strat trem - not for dive-bombs, but good for wavers .. again more surfy than 80s metal.

As far as the origins of this guitar, it is Japanese, but beyond that, information is at best sparse. The general consensus seems to be that Mako was a line of instruments produced by the Matsumoko Company, who are better known for producing Aria, Vantage and 70s Epiphone guitars. Matsumoko also apparently produced some of the higher quality Hondo instruments - probably the set-neck models from the early 80s.

As an additional clue, I did find a few pictures of the Hondo H-1 - which has some strong similarities to the XK-4, especially in the shape of the body around the neck joint.




I also found a reference online implying that Mako's were distributed by Kaman (makers of Ovation instruments) in the US from 1984 through 1989. I have found images of a number of bolt-on neck Mako's - either Strat or Les Paul style - and some mention that some Mako's were made in Korea and some in Japan - much as with Hondos.

The guitar now belongs to my friend Melanie, who was working out some Metallica tunes on it last I checked. The guitar may get a "reversible mod" - a strat-size GFS double coil in the bridge position - and a repro back cover plate.

If anyone else has more definitive info on where Mako's came from, or remembers them in stores, has catalogs, etc on what other set-neck models were available, I'd love to hear - email me directly or leave a comment on the blog - thanks !!



read more →