Current Model Hagstroms ....... Any Thoughts or Experience?

[KD]

Anyone have experience with the current line of Hagtroms? Harmony Central reviews seem to be very complementary. The fit and finish look pretty darn good. All premium woods, set neck, real MOP, binding, some with Duncans. I'm looking at a new Select Super Swede LP facsimile with coil spitting capability at about 2/3 of list because the 3-way switch is bad. Thinking about putting in my Super 70's left over from my AR30 mod. The Viking Deluxe (335 clone) looks pretty nice too. Parts are manufactured around the globe and shipped to China for assembly from what I can tell.

http://www.hagstromguitars.com/selectseries.html#

[Roland_G303]

I tried a new Hagstrom Swede and personally didn't like it at all.  I found the neck to be WAY too thin.  It made my 2387CT feel like a baseball bat.  It affected the overall sound of the guitar IMHO.

Just my 2 cents,

Patrick

[holmis63]

Well, noo, i don´t like them! I´m swedish and would like to like them but.. The older ones that actually where built in sweden was nice guitars, played them alot back in the 70:s and 80:s.

[KD]

Couldn't help myself, $380 for a $600 +/- guitar. Long scale 25.5". If it doesn't work out, I can always turn it around for what I paid after fixing the switch.

[Roland_G303]

That looks nice KD.  You'll have to show us the finished product after you mod it.  You do some great work.

Patrick

[KD]

Received my Hagstrom Select Super Swede about a week ago. Nice looking guitar, good feel and balance, about the weight of an LP. Set neck, the connection to the body looks good. The inlays look OK, a little errant stain here and there. Thats were it ends though. The wiring was absolutely horrible. Burned insulation, potential shorts, input jack too close to the tone pot and the 3-way switch was pure crap. The cavities were shielded with shielding paint but not connected together so they were useless. Couldn't tell you what the pickups sounded like as the 3-way was broken. If I had payed more that $379/Free Shipping (knowing the switch was broken) I would have be pi**ed.

I have completely rewired and replaced the 3-way and coil splitting switches. The tuners were Grover knock-offs and the bridge a Gotoh knock-off. I replaced them both with the real thing. The nut is graphite and the strings the right height but too much material above the strings so I filled it down.

I intended to use Super 70's, however, they don't fit because of the 3-screw mounting makes the mounting flange too wide for the routing. So I used some chrome covered Lace PU's I had laying around, D100 and D150 (12K/14K).

The strings were terminated on blocks resting on an acrylic pad so I made a pad out of aluminum to hopefully get some better transfer.

Couple of things to do to put it together. I'll let you know how it turns out. Some picks before I disassembled it included.

[KD]

She's done. Sounds and looks good. As long as it stays mechanically sound, I think I made a good investment. Time will tell. Nice sustain and ring, especially in single coil. I think the metal plate under the stop tail makes a big difference. No noise, very quiet.