Product: Hagstrom HJ 800
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
10/01/2008
at
02:39pm
by
Ged Peck
Features
:
10
Firstly, here's the spec: a solid spruce carved top with 5 ply flame maple sides and back; the neck is North Eastern American hard maple; the fingerboard is a resinator wood with Hagstrom pearl block positioning; the truss rod is known as the H-Expander (worth looking up on Hagstrom's official website as it's quite different from what you might expect); the machine heads are Hagstrom 18:1 die cast; the scale length is 25??? or 635 mm; there are 22 German nickel silver frets; the pickups are Hagstrom's Custom 58N and Custom 58B with a three way switch; the bridge is their own 'Jimmy' design again made of resinator wood; the tail piece being a Hagstrom trapeze with a very nice-looking crest. It has the usual 2 x Volume and 2 x Tone configuration.
Like all guitars, they come with the usual crap strings. But why do they manufacturers do this? It just undermines an excellent product.
Sound
:
10
As a jazzer, I wondered whether it would match up to the warm sounds that I like. I listened to their 'sound analyzer' on their website and thought it sounded a bit too good to be true. But, even with my less than perfect amp (a Vox - I want a Fender Jazz King) the sound was easy to achieve, although I had more trouble with the shop amps. As I said, I don't go in for many different settings and prefer to make the music the inspiration but it was obvious that the HJ 800 had a lot more to offer than I wanted. You can therefore get pretty much whatever sound you want. I've got other guitars which are good at the top end but less than impressive in the bass department. Not so this one. I can honestly say that it's better than some Gibsons I've recently played in this area.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
9
The action can be set really low if you like it like that. The only point of contention was that the bridge, being free-floating, needs to be moved to just the right place (which is not specified) otherwise your octaves are 'out'. But no matter, it's a simple operation of trial and error. You've got to be pretty dumb not to be able to do it.
As for the pickups, everyone should experiment with them although they certainly sound fine and well-balanced.
Apart from that, absolutely no complaints and no flaws. The nut is one of the best I've seen and the neck matches my old 1964 Gibson ES345 in 'feel'. It is very comfortable and only reaches the body right after fret 16 instead of the usual 14. Had to get used to this but it's great for the high chords. The standard EMaj7 fingering at fret thirteen is easy. The fingerboard - I think using the resonator wood idea - is also one of the smoothest I've ever seen.
I also love the block between the guitar table and its back. It really gives you the warm sound I mentioned earlier and makes it sound substantial.
Reliability/Durability
:
10
Like anything, if you bash them about they don't like it but the HJ 800 gives me the impression that it could take it. The finish is superb and clearly thick. The strap buttons are both in the usual sensible places where there is a good lot of wood, so no problems there.
You could use this guitar singularly at gigs simply due to its versatility.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
It comes with an owners card and an encourgement to register the serial number. You are also given an email address for any problems or issues
Not had to use the customer support and I seriously don't expect to on this showing.
Overall Rating
:
10
I've played guitar since the late 1950s; semi-pro, pro, semi-pro, and for my own enjoyment. I also own an Epi 175, a Ibanez Artcore, a Washburn acoustic, another Epi solid (for quietly practising scales while watching TV!), a Paul Fischer classical guitar made for me in 1976, and another classical made by my friend Dante Longaretti. Also had many others. No longer have the Gibson. Sold it in 1972 for...wait for it...??150. Yes, I know it would now be worth thousands but I needed the money for a Ramirez classical and it wasn't worth that much then.
I originally wanted a single pickup Gibson L5 and whilst there is no obvious comparison, the HJ 800 is less than an eighth of the price and incredibly good. I'd hate to lose it.
Unless I was simply lucky with a good Hagstrom, I would undoutedly recommend it as one of the best I've seen. However, always try one out in a shop first, and if the salesperson bothers you after you've done a two hour 'gig' on it, tell them to *********! (He didn't actually, and was great).
