Hagstrom Swede's?

[cdub66]

Hi all!
Anyone have much experience with the Ultra, Super or plain ol' Swede?

I'm new to the guitar world, bought my first one about a month ago. At the time, the choices were (still are) mind boggling, but I decided on a MIM Strat and have been happily learning away on it.
It doesn't take long to "need" another guitar though does it? One of the big decisions on my first was single coil vs. humbucking pickups and I went with the strat-now I'm pretty sure I'd better have one of each.

I like the look of the LP style guitars and my surname suggests some Swedish heritage, so the Hagstrom Swede's have caught my eye.
I'm thinking I'd spend $300-$400 on a second guitar-ebay seems to have plenty of good (looking) examples.

What's your view-decent guitars, or should I re-focus?

(or maybe I should post up in the sale/trade forum and see if anybody's looking to sell something in my $$ range-never know what might come up, I'm not hooked on the Hagstroms specifically, and I think the level of trust is quite a bit higher here-ebay makes me nervous sometimes)

Any opinions welcome!

[Bubb]

Hi..you said any opinion...here is a useless one.

I haven't played a new reissue of the Swede,but a buddy had one of the originals from the late 70's,and it was a great LP style guitar.

Of the new Hagstroms, I have played one of the semis with the humbuckers(Viking maybe ?) and it was a pretty decent guitar for the $500 new asking price.My shop is a little pricey too.

A used one should be a decent deal for sure.

[david henman]

I haven't played a new reissue of the Swede,but a buddy had one of the originals from the late 70's,and it was a great LP style guitar.


...i had one of those. unfortunately, due i think to the particular wood used in the neck, it could not be tuned. the neck was that unstable. you would tune a string and, by the time you tuned the next one, the first one would be out.

frustrating?

:mad:

-dh

[Bubb]

...i had one of those. unfortunately, due i think to the particular wood used in the neck, it could not be tuned. the neck was that unstable. you would tune a string and, by the time you tuned the next one, the first one would be out.

frustrating?

:mad:

-dh

bugger...I've been kinda watching ebay for a while for one of the old ones.maybe not so much now.:eek:

[david henman]

bugger...I've been kinda watching ebay for a while for one of the old ones.matbe not so much now.:eek:


...i wouldn't worry. as far as i know, that guitar was an "isolated incident".

but, it certainly left a lot of techs scratching their heads back then.

-dh

[Bevo]

Ring music in Toronto has them and are worth the look. The Viking is a very nice guitar and the Swedes are different than the other LP clones out there.

I tuned up one for friend and delayed its return for a week so I could play it, very nice and worth the look.

If you looking for a new guitar and are still a bit new to the game the best advice we could give you is to try them all. Every guitar feels different not to mention sounds different. Buying off the Net is not the way to go, hit up every shop and educate yourself on the different feels. Make sure you also find out the specs of each that you like, you will find a patern after a while..Use that for your next purchase.

If you do find a guitar off the Net that you want make sure you find a shop that has it and take it for a spin. Then you know what you are getting.

I bought a Strat unseen that I was GASing for, played it for 5 min and hated it..sold it right away. Tried a cool looking Ibanez when I went to get some strings, bought it and never put it down..

Bev

[Maxer]

I've been able to check out a Swede pretty in depth for two years... we had it as product placement for a now-cancelled TV series. It was wine red, MIC and probably dated back to 2004 or 2005. A very nice guitar... great action, nice smooth fretwork, great binding, solid as hell. Rang very sweetly even without being plugged in. I came away very impressed by Hagstrom's new stuff. Sometimes we're able to score gear cheaply at the end of a season, but for some reason at the end of the season in December all our guitars and amps and other gear went back to the distributor. Too bad - I was all set to buy that Hagstrom; I love the shape of the headstock and their take on the classic LP profile. We also had a few other Hagstrom models kicking around the studio too - forget the model but they looked like a cross between an SG and a Strat. Some of them were quite ordinary players, some felt great right off the bat.

Definitely a name worth checking out, but your mileage may vary from model to model.

I've never personally played the old Hagstroms but it seems they're held in pretty high regard. I saw an old early 70s model on Craiglist the other day, in natural mahogany. Looked pretty cool.

[cdub66]

Thanks for all the replies-most helpful!

I'll line up the nickels, see what I've got to spend, and take it from there!

Cheers,
Cam.