Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I would be interested in hearing from those in Sweden who have followed the Hagstom line over the years. I recall seeing my first Hagstrom in 1965 and finding it to be of excellent quality. I am not sure if this line is still made in Sweden but the quality seems to be first rate. As an example of the tone I off the following clip.

I like Hagstrom as a brand......but I wish they would ditch the overdone ES-335 copy Viking series and reissue THESE instead:

Bring back the Hagstrom I ! The "poor man's (teenager's)" Strat!

I just picked up a 1966 Hagstom II for $100. I'm in the US, and I'm looking forward to getting back into playing condition. It's at the tech now. I'm leaving it "as is" for now.

My mint 1969 Hagstrom eight-string.

Cool! Looks dead mint!

I just got my Hagstrom II back from the shop all fixed up. New jack, sliders and volume knob.

Looks great, Jeff!

Thanks. I spent a little time with it with an AC15C1 and an AC4TV. It's definitely different from any other guitar I have played and the tone is unique. I am not a real guitar player - I do this just for fun. The bridge pickup is pretty bright and the neck pretty dark. The tone switches aren't that useful, but the volume knob is. Each pickup sounds better on it's own than together, but that's with only a few minutes of messing around. It takes pedals well, but I could see not using much more than a compressor and just a bit of OD. It feeds back very nicely - controlled. I like that. And it's very light. The neck is great - just as advertised. I'm in it for about $200 now, so I think it's a keeper!

rkbsound wrote:Each pickup sounds better on it's own than together

Sounds like a candidate to stereo-ize!

So today I get an email in response to a Craigslist ad I have had for a couple of months for a newer Dano 12 string. I just wanted to sell it, but the guy offered me a trade for a '64 Hagstrom II. I thought it was some sort of spam, based off of my recent purchase of the white Hagstrom II. Turns out to be legit, and now I have 2 Hagstrom II's! All of the sudden I'm a collector, I think. The only other Hagstrom I'd ever seen was Brenda Sauder's bass, from The feelies.

I had one of the Hagstrom F-12 (?) 12 strings for a while. Although beat to heck, it played great and sounded lovely. The neck was very thin, but quite wide (and a huge contrast to the 330/12 that succeeded it).

The various older (Swedish) ones I've played have all been interesting, while the reissues are, in my experience, not so much so.

I always associate Hagstrom with Bowie/Ziggy and Mark Arm (Mudhoney) and Elvis' 68 Comeback.