Hagstrom III

Well on this one there really aren't any options, but that is what makes this guitar so special. Some one took all of the tone switches out of this. So there is one knob for each pick up and that's volume.

This feeds back excessively so I think that I'm gonna buy a volume pedal! I use it throug an old crate vintage club with 3 10 inch speakers. This guitar sounds just as warm as my 71 les paul custom!

This has got to be the best neck ever.

I just got it. I think that I would fully depend on it!

Out of Biz

If this were lost or stolen I go nuts, I'm on a lifelong mission to collect hagstroms

Black body, black pickguard witha white outline and a maple neck, rosewood fingerboard and the look of a cross between a Strat and an SG, this '66 Hagstrom III tripple single coil pickup guitar is actually quite handsome. One volume pot and the rest of the controls are swiches. Made in Sweden.

This was my first electric, purchased for me by my parents. I had no frame of reference back then, so, I suppose I thought it sounded good. And, for early seventies pop-rock, I supposed it did.

It didn't matter what amp I played it through, it was just did not cut it for electric Blues. Weak pickups, ungainly controls.

Excellent fit and a wonderful maple neck: quite thin and well made. Sweet action and feel.

Notwithstanding cheap plastic switches, this guitar seems fairly well built.

Who goes to Sweden?

Since I rewired it like a Les Paul using a PAF mini Hummer and an early Firebird pickup, I love this guitar - great natural sound, good looks, nice fit and feel and a sweet neck. It's actually quite a conversation piece now. I have my eye on another one so I can rewire it as well.

Mine is a "transitional" H III model, dated by serial # as a 1965. This has the rounder "strat" style body similar to the Futurama, as opposed to the later "SG" style that is more common. There is an on-off selector for each pickup, plus tone, mute and top (like bright) switches. It is all original, minus the trem arm (like many). Original tuners, and Kings neck (adjustable). It came with a very battle-work soft shell case.

With individually switchable pickups, plus tone/mute/top, this guitar has the broadest range of sound of any I have ever played. Beats the usual 2 or 3 pickup arrangement with a toggle or 5 way switch. Pickups have that vintage tone, and I can get sound from very high treble to a rumbling bass. Sound does not distort as much as my other guitars, even with gain all up on amp. I occasionally use Dano minis for variety - distortion, reverb, chorus. Has a great range and variety of sound - could not possibly ask for more!!

Excellent action for a 35+ year old guitar!!! Hagstrom used to advertise itself as "World's Fastest Neck" and they were not lying. Neck is extremely thin and flat, but arrow straight. Action is as low as any I have ever played, especially up near the nut; fretting any chord takes no effort. Frets are smaller than jumbos that I am used to, but great action makes this easy to deal with. Finish was another story. A previous owner had made a poor attempt to refinish this one. These models came with a polyurethane finish that is hard as nails, which the previous owner had roughed up with a bad sanding job. Neck had that "sticky" feel of old finish. I refinished the body with candy apple red laquer (close to original color). It looks great, but it is not a "professional" refinish; I am very happy with it though. I cleaned the neck as best as I could, but did not want to risk ruining it, or the original decals. It looks great now, in addition to being a great player. My combined "9" for this category is an average score of 11 for action/fit and a 7 for finish.

This guitar seems more fragile than it is, but it is all original, so I must be tougher than it looks. I am not a pro musician, so dependability is not an issue with me. The original finish was a disappointment though. It's no wonder that this polyurethane shell was never a popular finish. It offers good protection, but does not age well.

Hagstrom went out of business in the early 80's, but I have found several sites maintained by HAG afficianados that were helpful. The best of these sites is: http://www.hagstromusa.com. The webmaster here is a great guy - very friendly and helpful when it came to dating my guitar. He also offered excellent advice about refinishing and restoring my HIII. THANK, YOU KWINN!!!

I began playing as a teenager, but a wife and 2 kids cut into my playing (guitar as well as golf). Now 20 years later, I have rediscovered my interest. I have owned nothing but "made in Asia" copies, and I always wanted to own a vintage guitar. This was an excellent choice. It is a fantastic player, with a great sound. Refinishing it made it a great looking, fantastic player. If it was lost or stolen, I wouldn't hesitate to replace it with another Hagstrom - whether it was the III or another model. These are fantastic old guitars!!!

1964 Hagstom III sunburst I bought new when I was a teen. Had a exceptionally thin high quality neck and great action and sound. Many controls and 3 good pickups, could ge all kinds of sounds, plus a sway-bar. I loved this guitar. I would still have kept it to this day if it had been stolen from me years ago. I wish they still made them, I would buy one. The price was very good for the quality of the guitar.

The dound was "flexible" we played everything from pot, to country to Rolling Stones type rock.

thin neck. great finish. great action.

unfortunately, I did not have the guitat long enough to know it's long-term durability. But for the short/sweet time I had it, I had no problems at all.

I have been playing for over 40 years.I was atuned to values of the time and this guitar was recomended to me as a good guitar for the price, comparable to some better know domestic guitars but much less expensive. I would still have it, but it was stolen. If they were still made, I would buy another. It had everythying I needed and could ask for.

Not sure of the year on this one, sometime in the sixties, but I haven't researched the serial number or anything at this point. Tobacco Sunburst (really just black w/ a tobacco colored inside), 3 single coil pickups (all original or at least true to the guitar)One volume knob, one on/off switch for each pickup (labelled "L," "M," and "H," for neck, middle, and bridge, respectively, plus three additional tone switches, "Tone," (like a bright switch on an amp" "mute," (just what you would expect), and "top." (not able to make out a difference in either position on this one, so it may be broken. When I bought it the guy said never to use it anyway, because it didn't really do anything for the sound, so I didn't worry too much about it." Also has an on/off switch for the entire guitar, which works about half the time. Luckily, when it doesn't work, it just means the guitar is still on with the switch in the off position. It'll probably need to be rewired someday, but it's fine for now. I'm not sure what type of wood these are made of, but it's a VERY lightweight guitar, both because of whatever wood it is, and because it's got a very thin body. It sort of looks like a strat, but with shorter horns, kind of like an asymmetrical SG. very cool looking, in an understated way. The finish on mine is really shot, so it adds to the whole effect of the look. It just plain looks old, and not too showy, and the fact that it weighs next to nothing means you can really swing it around, which counts toward the overall appearace in my book. It has non-locking tuners, which again look to be original, but hold it in tune really well. I don't havethe arm to the tremar, which seems to be a really commong thing, and they have a weird way of setting it up, so you can't just throw an arm off another guitar in there, which is kind of a drag. I went to the hardware store & bought a length of 3/16" steel, and cut it down to about a foot or so, and then bent it to shape, which was kind of tricky, because you have to curve the arm out away from the strings in a funny way. I haven't been able to find a set screw that will hold it in yet, so I don't know if it's going to work without draggin the guitar out of tune. It seems to stay un pretty well right now, and I play pretty hard, so I'm not too worried, and it sounds really nice even without the trem, so i haven't exactly broken my neck replacing it. it has a nice thin neck, which is fairly narrow and very easy to play, although the finish on mine is badly worn, & needs to be redone at some point. The scale feels a little short than a start's, but not as small as my Silvertone. The frets are small, but easy to play, and worn, but there's a minimum of buzz to the thing. basically a workingman's guitar. it's been around a number of blocks, and wound up with me, and I think it'll be staying a while. The only deductions I could think to give it would be the weird trem that you have to sink extra effort into to replace, which is outweighed by the whole being different factor, and, and the switches, which don't seem to be too reliable even at their best. The tone switches are more or less worthless as far as getting new usable tones, but the pickup configurations are nice, and I'm not one to switch pickup midsong, so the fact that they're really small doesn't bother me. It's a simple guitar, but very good, and who needs a bunch of junk that gets in the way, anyway?

I play a lot of turned-up-too-loud, slightly dissonant pop, and noise rock, and it's perfect for both styles. It has a sort of stratty sound when it's played through an ultra-clean amp, and I'm not too into that, but add distortion, through a pedal or just amp overdrive, and things get interesting. It's a very very bright guitar, but with a surprising amount of bass to it for something that weighs so little. You're not going to get death metal out of it, but you wouldn't expect to by looking at it. Anything that lets all te strings ring sounds really gloriously and messy, sort of like a jazzmaster, but brighter and not quite as on the verge of disaster,and with a thick distortion on it, you can get really nice beat frequencies between all the strings for a big, full sound. Single note stuff is neither really great nor terrible. I don't notice a lot of noise when I'm not playing, but there's definitely a lot when you do play. It's not a guitar for someone who's looking for distinct separation and interplay between notes, but if you're someone who really likes to hit a guitar hard, you';ll be really won over by what you get back. It sounds a lot cheaper than it plays, so you can get that sort of garage sound out of it, but still depend on it to stand up to what you do to it, and stay in tune. the pickups are not super hot - I played one show with it where I was using our guitarists rig (I only play guitar on one song), and he uses a new telecaster. I should have turned the amp up before I started, because I got a little bit lost compared to the volume level he was at, but it's the same sort of thing - it's a guitar you want to play through a loud amp. There's doesn't seem to be much in the way of mids out of this guitar, but you won't miss them. I really can't say enough how happy I am with the sound of this guitar.

It's a 35 year old guitar, and it looks it. The finish is very badly worn, and doesnt look like it was ever really much to sing about. It's (the finish, not the wood) is cracking in really long straight lines running from the base of the body toward the neck, and it's a pretty cheap sunburst. The pickups sit perfectly in the body, but who knows whether they did off the production line. All the parts are the ones that came with the guitar, or appear to be, so the most you could say is someone got into it and touched stuff up quite a bit, though a look at the back of the neck seems to indicate that's never happened, so I'd have to say it was constructed really well originally. It's a poor-man's Fender, and it shows, but it's not a shabby guitar by any stretch of the imagination. it's my band's new back-up guitar and I feel totally comfortable carrying it around and bringing it up on stage. It's very solid & dependable, and the only question mark I can think of would be the switches. Since they're not really designed to be flipped in-flight, you can basically pick the configuration you like best and stick with it, and sort of avoid the problem at all. (I personally either leave them all on all the time, or go with neck and bridge, but most configurations sound good, as long as you have at least two pickups switched on at once. Any single pickup sounds kind of weak). Oherwise, though it's obviously not a top of the line instrument, it's a very sturdy and well built axe. Compare it to a Teisco or Harmony (the tone is the same kind of vibe as either of them), and it suddenly feels like a very very fancy guitar. Besides, Swedish Guitars, man!

I have no fears about taking this guitar anywhere, or playing it any time. I would never hold back on my playing style out of concern for its safety. The finish is whipped, and is bound to get worse, but that's the way it is with old guitars. If you want a really cherry looking one, you can probably find it, but why concern yourself with the extra worry or taking care of it. This is a guitar for rocking, and it will put up with much rock.

They haven't guitars in 18 years, which is really sad, and the fact that they're in Sweden seems prohibitive, so I honestly wouldn't know. The store I bought it from is really good though, if that's anything.

I've been playing guitar for about five years, and this is by far the greatest instrument I have ever owned. I really really mean that. I honestly can see myself buying nothing but Hagstroms from now on (though the oddball Japanese guitars are fun and cool, and a jazzmaster is always a nice dream to have)& being totally happy with that. If you're into loud, off-kilter music or big wiry distortion, this is definitely a guitar you should seek out. I put it through a 25 or 30 watt Musicman amp with one 12" speaker, and it sounds absolutely gorgeous. I rarely use any effect beside amp overdrive, and rarely feel any need to. Excellent high pitched crackle across the high strings, and good but not obnxoious bottom end. You have to turn up loud, and you have to put all your deep and bright switches on the amp on, but you'll get such a huge, warm, real sound, and the guitar is so easy to play that it's a small concession to make. This is not a guitar for virtuosos, in my opinion, so if you're of the Yngwie/Vai &c vein, you'll probably want to keep walking, but Pixies/Helium/maybe even MBV sound is very possible. This guitar makes a big mess sonically, but it has a huge, beautiful, warm heart. If it were lost or stolen I would cry my eyes out for days, and then I would start looking for it or another right away, and i wouldn't rest until I found one. It's the kind of guitar that lets you know right away whether you're a match or not. It took me a total of three chords to make the decision myself. I'm not saying that will happen to you, but I have never bought anything else where there wasn't the slightest degree of buyer's remorse. None at all. Play one, and if you love it in the first few minutes, you will love it forever.

I had it dated by serial number, with some help at the Hagstrom Discussion page. 1967, black, 3 pickups, with individual on/off switches (3) and low med. and high tone switches. One volume knob and trem arm. This guitar is complete, fully functional and plays very well.

I get a wide range of sounds, power output is not as much as my strat pickups but it is still clear as a bell. I have disabled the trem because the guitar was constantly going out of tune. These older models also have a single piece bridge with little saddles for each string sitting on top of the bridge. Adjusting the intonation is difficult and painstaking.

Thin neck is nice but it also has very narrow frets. I did a fret job on the neck after staining it a deep modern mahogany. It was originally maple with a rosewood fingerboard. The fingerboard shows wear on some frets. Maybe the previous owner(s) never clipped fingernails before. But the action was great last time I checked.

Despite cracks running from the pickguard and input jack mounting screws the guitar is still solid as a rock. The finish is extremely thick, and I can't see wood yet in any of the chipped areas. Sure the guitar can handle live playing, just don't drop it on the concrete, but that goes with anything, right?

Never dealt with the company, they stopped making guitars in 1982. But there are websites that have valuable info about "Hags".

I've owned this same guitar on 3 separate occasions. I first bought it in 1984, the previous owner was in a country band. You could tell by the fretwear in the areas where the more common "country" chords are played. I played it for a few years, then sold it to a friend for $75. He had it for about 8 months until I dropped by and found it sitting in the corner, covered in dirt with strings missing. After much verbal abuse (from me)I bought it back from him for the same price. I then sold it to another friend in 1989 and he converted it over to left hand playing. He then bought a lefty Kramer and actually GAVE the Hag back to me with a hardshell case. So, after 3 separate occasions I figure the guitar was meant to be with me. I have severely modified it since then. It now sports a solid maple Ibanez neck and flat wounds with high action for slide guitar playing. I had to drill the body to reset the bridge to get the proper intonation. I still have the old neck with new frets and the guitar can be put back into its original condition anytime. I figure its a good all around guitar. You can select ANY pickup combination adding to its versatility.

This guitar is from the mid 60s and was built in Sweden. It has three single coil pickups and a bunch of slide switches that are actually usable. It also has a weird tremelo thing called a Tremar, but I am missing the arm. The body shape is like and SG but with a touch of strat shaped. It is very tough and 60s looking

This is the guitar I have been looking for. It is perfect for garage punk, surf and rhythm and beat music. Basically it is good for raw type sounds, ala Link Wray and Billy Childish. This guitar goes from ear piercing treble to deep bass sounds. The only qualm I have is that the pickups are microphonic, but It doesn't bother me. It is, after all over 30 years old and it still works and sounds great. It may not appeal to the hi-fi "musican" types.

Hagstroms are known for really thin necks, which I didn't think i would like but I do. I am missing the original bridge and currently there is a plastic one just jammed under the strings, but it works and stays in tune. There is hardly any fret buzz and it plays really well. I have been looking for a original bridge for it, but no luck yet. It didn't work electronically when I first got it, but i just openend it up and sprayed contact cleaner on the pot and slide switches and voila! it worked.

This guitar will be my main guitar fron now on. I am retiring my 68 SG which is about to completely fall apart. It seems solid enough. It is a vintage guitar so their is some worries I suppose.

Hagstrom is out of business, however there is an official Hagstrom website that is run by Albin Hastrom and supposedly you can order spare parts from him. I emailed him but havent heard back yet. The address is www.albinhagstrom.se

I have been playing for a while. I also own a 68 Gibson sg and a 60s Teisco Del ray. I play through a Vox AC-15. My only wish is that I had all of the original parts. It suits me perfectly though.

Made in Sweden, 1965. The body is shaped like a SG guitar, but the headstock is strat-shaped. The 22 fret neck is ultrathin, while the distance between the two E's is smaller than normal. The electronics feature a volume controller and seven(!) switches. First there is an overall on/off switch. Secondly three switches (H, M and L) that correspond to the three single coil pickups. There are three switches that allow you to colour the sound further: the TOP switch, that gets all of the power present in the guitar out. The MUTE switch, which cuts some high frequency. And finally the Tone switch, that creates a warmer tone. The guitar is equipped with an original Hagstrom tremolo, with a range of approximately 3 halftones down.

The most beautiful thing about this guitar is the enormous range of sounds you can get out of it. With all the switches on, its sound is warm and Jazzy. On the other side of the tonal range is a super-crispy sound, when only the L and the TOP switch are turned on. This is my personal favorite. Not many guitars can sound like this. The only drawback is that the signal is very weak in comparison to other single coil guitars.

It is difficult to tell what the state of this guitar was when it was new. The only thing I can tell, is that it can only have been even better then it is now. There have never been any extensive repairs or alterations. So I guess the guitar was in a rather good state when it first saw light in the 60s.

The guitar certainly scores high on the durability. In 33 years of intensive playing it hasn't needed any big repairs. There are some signs of old age surfacing, however. The finish on the body still looks great, but the finish on the neck has deteriorated a bit. The pickups turned 'microphonic', i.e. they pick up vibrations too. You can actually talk into the pickups and they will pick a bit of it up. This is qute, but playing loud with lots of distortion is allmost impossible because the pickups are now extremely apt to give feedback. I can live with this flaw because of the unique sound of the pickups. The tremolo doesn't respond as well anymore as it would have back in the 60's. I've played Jazz on this guitar for years now and it has never let me down during gigs, so I never bring backup. Despite of the flaws that time has brought in, the overall experience of playing this guitar hasn't suffered much.

The factory doesn't exist anymore. I suspect the warranty would be over after 30 years anyway...

In general, this guitar is unique in allmost everything. The shape of the neck, the tremolo arm, the electronics. It offers a huge variety of sounds. Some of them really beautiful. It can't handle loud distortion anymore. For that purpose I use a Stratocater. The Hagstrom III is irreplaceable for me. I've never seen another guitar like it. I wouldn't trade it for any other guitar.

The features are what makes this guitar stand out from the rest. on the part of the guitar closest to yor chest there is an on/off switch, which can act as a standby switch. Near the jack is a volume control. Next to that is a switch labled TOP. I am not sure what this does, but I think it acts as means of switching to the neck pickup or all three pickups at once. When on the guitar is much louder. There is no 5-way selector. Next over is MUTE, this soften things a little, and seems to take out some treble when on. Next is TONE, this helps to add warmth. Next over goes your H, M, L switches. If all of these are off, the guitar turns off as well. There is a tremolo arm attached to the metal palte where the string notches are. The body is SO SWEET. It looks like an SG as far as the but end of the guitar, but the bass end cutout is further up the neck. As for wood?? The neck is probably maple, but the fret board is Rosewood. I love how thin the neck is, i even think that the distance from high E to low E is less than you standard strat, which is a plus. 22 frets. Red body w. black pickguard that is pointed like the cutouts, top and botton. The headstock is strat-like.

Tone, great tone!! It suits my music perfectly, blues,rock. I use a Peavy Blues Classic, and it can get an awsome full warm sound, ( with all the switches ON ). I have recently found that this can give a sweet "Albert King tone", with only the H(igh) and TOP settings on. I like to go from all the switches on to this setting if i am changing from a rythem part to a lead, where I just want to cut trough with some high end.

If this were brand new, it truely would be a work of art. However i have put some chips in the paint. The finish is still shinny!

I have yet to gig with this guitar, although hopefully I will soon. I t might be good to have a backup for this guitar, but I wouldn't think it's needed. I have been playing this guitar for almost 4 years, and the only thing that has been fixed was some wiring and tone features needed replacing. This no doubt was due to the fact that I found this guitar in a basement of a building, and who knows, it might not have been played on for 30 years. Oh yeah, the pickups have been a slight problem. When looking at the pickups what you see are actually seeing are metal caps that were glued ( i suppose) to a contact going to the coils. In playing to hard on the strings, the caps would be lifted magnetically, and I have lost 7 already. As far as i can tell this doesn't seem to alter the sound, because that contact is only about 2mm more away from the strings

The company had gone out of business

Great guitar all around. The switching can take you from a full warm sound to a great blues sounding high end. Maybe it would have been cool to see the H,M,L as pots, but its ok.