When my wife's sister's boy friend (I know that sounds like a meme, but he's a super cool guy) offered me this guitar body, I thought it would make a fun project --- a completely gutted Hondo Revival Flying V from (what I've read) the mid-80s.
On an older Reverb.com ad (here, and then the same guitar again here), I read that these were built in Korea by Samick, and came with a pseudo Strat vibrato tremolo. The hole in the body looks right although the mounting hole-pattern is different, being a four-hole pattern versus a six.
I wondered if anyone on Project Guitar had ever fooled with one of these Hondo Vs, and could say one way or another if a Strat tremolo system would fit (with filling and re-drilling the mounting holes, of course). It might sound crazy, but I had the idea to turn this into a completely badazz shredder, and am willing to throw some cash at it over time.
I've no idea what I'll do pickup or tuner-wise yet, but I have come across this Strat replacement tremolo bridge by Babicz (no idea how to pronounce that, I just say bay-bitch) that I think would look killer on it, and restore it's vibrato abilities. They're a bit pricy. They do have some lower cost models than the one I linked to, but I like this one. I just don't feel the standard Strat bridge would look awesome on this.
I mentioned it needs tuners and pickups. If anyone is familiar with replacing these on this Hondo, I'd really appreciate a heads up on what to expect. For instance, I restored an old 70s Ventura LP (law suit guitar) a couple years ago. When I went to install the tuners I discovered the mounting hole pattern was completely different (vertical versus diagonal) and the holes for the peg were too small (drilled the head out to accommodate). I doubt that would be an issue with this head as these holes look enormous to me.
I'd entertained the idea of putting a '58 style pick-guard on it, but haven't verified the dimensions of the pickups etc. That might have to be a custom job. Where I work we make lamacoid nameplates out of lasered plastic, so I could do something along those lines (I use AutoCAD and can make the drawing). But I like the finished edge of a '58 reproduction guard, so it'd be nice if I could mod one to use on this. Or just leave it off and forget it.
Any ideas or suggestions (except to forget it, because I'm going to definitely do something with this body) are welcome!