Honey SG-5B

Yep, another blog about Honeys. You know I love these things so here we go again.

I recently wrote about the wonderful SE-DX B but I have a written many blogs before about the range of guitars that came out of Japan in the late 60's made in the Teisco-Gen-Gakki factory for the brand name Honey.

I've had a couple of these Rickenbaker bass copies through over the years and like the guitar version, they always amaze me. This factory made everything from entry level to reasonably high-end guitars until it closed in '69. They made several of my favourite vintage Japanese guitar brands. 

This bass, like the guitar version is made from a hollow laminated body and is the same body as the guitar. Because Ric bodies are so big it feels substantial as a bass body. 

The thin neck is set in and like early (pre 70's) Rics the fretboard ends at the body. You can see in the pics, but this neck is narrow and the string spacing is tight although still really comfortable and playable. It's a beautiful feeling neck and is a short 30" scale.

The fretboard is a nice piece of rosewood and has dot inlays and a zero fret. 

The pickups are typical vintage Japanese affairs from this period and have a real Ric or even Hofner tone to them. The hollow body gives it a great bass response while keeping the trebles nice and punchy.

The bridge is the usual Tune-O-Matic based Japanese bridge, and the trapeze tailpiece gives the impression, tonally at least, of the original "R" tail used on Rics. The electrics are a 3-way switch with master volume and tone for each pickup and master volume. 

I'm a huge Ric fan and although these aren't exactly Rics, they do a great job of looking like them and pretty good job of sounding like them at a much cheaper price which of course was the original idea of them. If you're a vintage Japanese fan like me these copies are always cool especially when they did them right, and this factory could do them very right.

This one is all original and still has the wonderful "BEE" logo on the scratchplate which has been rubbed off so many over the years.