Goya Standard 80

I bought this GOYA Standard 80 used in 1963 for $80.00 in New York.
It is black throughout with white binding and has the so-called HiFi unit with 2 SC pu's and 4 push buttons. It came with a dedicated hard case (now long gone); the slightly scalloped fret board is white with the frets imbedded in clear acylic; body style is somewhat LP inspired; the bridge is somewhat :tune-o-matic-ish with a claw-type stop piece (which recently broke btw); workmanship is very "accordion-like" (the Goya was the US label for Hagstrom). It is a semi-hollow body and is extremely light. It has the obligatory plectrum/pick clip on the back of the neck. Thetrust rod is a special H-beam extrusion (it has never been touched in over 45 years and the neck is straight as an arrow! Action had always been hard and high until recently (when, knowing the guitar's current value, I paid more attention to it).

It can be shimmery (bell-like) and with heavy, too heavy for my taste-strings the bass is quite deep, but the sustain is so-so (but read on); the tone pot has quite a range and the pu switching (3-pos.) offers variety. I used to have a LaFayette LA75(?) with tremolo and an outboard spring reverb, then a couple of home brew amps and now 2 Twin Reverb's (one home made Black Face and one 69 vintage SF--no master volume-- and Black Faced by its previous owner (e-bay purchase); I was able to find a NOS tail piece and a reproduction "cheese grater" grille that is typical of this model (as the original, being glued on was lost a long time ago).

I learned to play on this guitar, but the action was so hard that I never advanced until recently (I have Strats--one genuine--, a Burns Marvin, and others that I built) and now I'm over 60!

When I bought it I was a kid and had no idea what "action" was (I have learned since then:)); with the restauration done, I put ultra light strings (and of course worked on the action); I was stuned at the results; the GOYA is truly great now; weight is verrry light, and the sound is amazing. The pickups are clean (not very loud, though--as opposed to a strat) and are "mellow".

This is a 40+ year old guitar and the wood has "moved"; only really visible flaws are in the binding (not too bad, though) which has cracked in a few places; the original tuning machines (open gear wit mother of pearl knobs were notoriously weak on these; ;i replaced them, since one was shot, with after market items about 30 years ago;
I recently swapped them with some that looked a bit more like the original (Klusons); a good polishing job did wonders (along with very few touch-ups).

It has lived for over 40 years! the restoration I did was minor.

Hagstrom probaby does not even know about these; however there is a (very) limited amount of New Old Stock parts for these. GOYA STANDARD's have become extremely collectible. Sometimes e-Bay has related items.

I've been "playing" on and off for 4 years, mostly Shadows and Spotnicks stuff but also stuff I wrote, never in public though except in school.

This guitar is irreplaceable, it has extreme sentimental vslue: I had it in school and college in the US, the French Army in the 60's, and it's still here!--and, as I found out, extremely valuable.

How does it compare with other guitars? I have 4 Strats (3 I built from parts, including a 12-string), a Burns 40th anniversary Hank Marvin, recently a $250 Kona ES35 (kind of a Gibson semi hollow clone) which is Fantastic looking and playing--look it up--...The GOYA is rather basic, if esoteric; but the sound is really great; bends are easy and the action is light (now, anyway); this senior citizen remains in tune, whatever you do. I kind of wish it had a tremolo (and sometimes you can find them and they would be "correct" for the series as these guitars were sold kind of "a la carte" by Goya in New York--little did I know then!

This is a small guitar, weighing in at next to nothing...but with about a Les Paul string scale, a Les Paul-style body, and 22 small stainless steel frets set into a clear acrylic/pearloid fretboard with standard black dot markers. The body is covered in white pearloid celluloid, with a red sparkle celluloid top, just like an accordian - the company originally made accordians. The neck is covered in black plastic on the back and pearloid-under-clear-acrylic on the headstock, matching the fretboard. It was made by Hagstrom in Sweden in 1961. From what I understand, these guitars were labeled "Goya" just for the USA, and stayed as "Hagstrom" in Europe. This model is equivalent to a Hagstrom P-26, as it has the 2 single coil pickups and 6 pushbutton switches: one for the bridge, neck, both, as well as two independent volume switches set by a control pot on the innovative pickup unit...Oh, and an OFF switch to mute the guitar. Also on the pickup unit is a master tone and volume knob. These pickup units could also be changed out with different ones to achieve different setups...the dual humbucker-style unit, known as the hi-fi unit, was the top of the line. The neck has an innovative H-bar truss rod instead of the standard round rod...the neck is still straight as an arrow! The bridge is a Gibson tune-o-matic style, with a tune-o-matic tailpiece - I believe mine was modified to use a Gibson-style bridge and tailpiece, instead of the original claw-type tailpiece and Hagstrom "tune-o-matic" - but I hear that the original bridges have little intonation adjustment range, anyway. Oh, the pickguard is nicely shaped and is hazy clear, but with a white outline! Lots of features!!! All I can say is that someone really had a vision when this guitar was being designed...

Contrary to what I expected, it sounds awesome! I thought it was going to be all show and no go, but I was wrong. It can achieve some shimmery tones that I've never got out of a guitar before. It must be those single coils. Actually, I hear that the single coil models sound way better than the humbucker models...but I'm a single coil guy anyway! I usually leave it set on both pickups, with the treble turned up on the amp...that's the sound!

Well...hmm. My only gripes with this guitar is it's small small small frets that are small. It seems that they got a little too carried away with staring into the clear acrylic/pearloid fingerboard during the construction that they made it too thick and the fret peaks ended up somewhat low in relation to the fingerboard surface, which appears to be ever-so-slightly scalloped when looking at it closely, by the way. I've seen another Goya up close, and it too was just like this. I made up for this by raising the action up just enough so I can get my fingers under the strings for bends. By the way, I use 11s, so maybe lighter strings wouldn't need the high action. After that, it actually doesn't play bad at all now. It would be just perfect with just another few millimeters of fret height, though!

Definitely a delicate instrument. There are areas of the celluloid that have peeled up and have separated from the wood. Nothing some superglue can't cure...but you have to be careful, or that celluloid will crack right off! I've since touched up a few spots of missing celluloid with some mixed colors of model enamel, which turned out great. But it stays in tune really well, and I've played the better half of a gig with it already and it totally rocked! It's so light that you just want to kiss your Les Paul goodbye and buy another Goya...unfortunately, it gets kinda tiring to play, since I had to raise the action up a bit. I also have hit the pushbuttons with my wrist on accident many times during rocking moments...

Yeah, go ahead and call up Hagstrom now and ask them about a guitar they used to make that they've never heard of...

Actually, there are quite a few places online that support these guitars, but the parts are expensive and rare...especially for NOS parts. The pickup units alone are like $400-$500 if you can find one. I've been looking for two replacement tuners for mine, and I've had no such luck so far...couldn't even find any full sets.

I've been playing for about 12 solid years, although I don't think it shows sometimes, lol. I am no Jerry C., although that shredding stuff isn't really worth the effort in my opinion...I know from experience, dude...Oh, the Metallica days... I play this thing through an Ampeg Gemini II with a few pedals here and there...all kinds of music can be played with this thing. Well, I'd think attempting to shred on this thing may be difficult, which is why I haven't even tried it, just some jazz, blues, and rockabilly so far. I have no regrets about this purchase, though. The guitar is so beautiful and fun to hold, even if it is a workout to play for extended periods...I use my Silvertone H-1454 for that stuff! If you're a collector at heart like me, go waste some money on one of these, no matter how bad the celluloid's condition is...you'll never regret it! Just don't pay too much for one like some people do...I thought I paid too much, until I saw what others paid for their's.