Hondo II Ric copy - value?

Paul_C

A customer brought round an old Hondo II copy of a 4001/4003 bass which she bought because she felt sorry for it  

A friend of mine took a huge fancy to it, but none of us know what it's really worth.

I've not posted a picture but a google search will give some idea - it's fireglo-ish with a bolt on neck, inlays rather than dots etc. 

Any suggestions ? 

prowla

£150-250, based on condition. 
They're made in Korea, have plywood bodies, and a 34" scale. 

prowla

I have one.

Funkfingers

I'm 99% certain that HarrySeven also has one … and a Shaftesbury copy.

prowla

Funkfingers said:

I'm 99% certain that HarrySeven also has one … and a Shaftesbury copy.

That's a bit like saying vintage Japanese instruments exist.

ICBM

Isn’t that the Peter Hook model? If so it’s probably worth a fair bit more than a typical 70s Jap faker.

Kittyfrisk

ICBM said:

Isn’t that the Peter Hook model? If so it’s probably worth a fair bit more than a typical 70s Jap faker.

This one? (though with Bernard not Peter).

ICBM

Kittyfrisk said:

This one? (though with Bernard not Peter).

Yes.

Kittyfrisk

Just the job for the bass playing Joy Division collector.

suspiciousminds

My favourite band ever Joy Division,
you can see hooky playing his on this clip:

https://youtu.be/5R5PPSc3bf4?feature=shared

prowla

ICBM said:

Isn’t that the Peter Hook model? If so it’s probably worth a fair bit more than a typical 70s Jap faker.

Yes

Not really, but you might be lucky and get a Joy Division fan with more dollars than sense.

NB. It's Korean, not Japanese.

thermionic

Considering that Hooky used that bass as early as 1978, would his have been Korean made? I thought that the Japanese brands didn't shift production to Korean until a few years later, like mid-80s?

A quick google shows that a similar one sold on Reverb for £550 about 4 years ago.

prowla

thermionic said:

Considering that Hooky used that bass as early as 1978, would his have been Korean made? I thought that the Japanese brands didn't shift production to Korean until a few years later, like mid-80s?

A quick google shows that a similar one sold on Reverb for £550 about 4 years ago.

Whilst the majority of fakers of the time were MIJ, this particular contemporary brand was MIK.

It did use the same MIJ hardware, though.

Does the Reverb ad show the actual sale price? (I don't know, but I've always taken Reverb asking prices to be about double reality.)

thermionic

Interesting about Korean production that early, I only became aware of Korean manufacture when I bought a Squier Strat in around 1990 and up til then I thought of Squiers as Japanese.

Here's the Reverb listing, not sure if they indicate a lower offer was accepted like ebay does:

https://reverb.com/uk/item/42402602-hondo-ii-hrb-2-electric-bass-1979-fireglo-peter-hook-joy-division-new-order

Paul_C

Just to finish this thread, the lady who bought it paid £75, I offered her £200 and she happily sold it to me. 

I swapped all the pots (very crackly) and added shielding as the pickups were a bit noisy, bought a single tuner from ebay so I could pinch the bush as one was missing and found some nearly new strings from my box of old strings. 

Set it up and gave it to my friend for his birthday.