Hagstrom Swede

I have 2, both natural finish, one came with a nicer bridge than the other, but otherwise their identical, both mid 1970's. All mahogany, ebony fretboard, one came with the original Hagstrom tags and tool kit! Very sharp looking axes!

The stock pickups are dead, not much output for overdrive sounds, perhaps that's why some pople use them for jazz fusion, like Daryl Stuermer( who used to live up the street from me and gave guitar lessons in St. Francis, Wisconsin), so I kept one stock, and modded the heck out of the other. But it's sweet sounding cause of the mahogany top. I think the 3 pick up black beauty Les Paul also had a mahogany top and similar sound.

The neck is great for a bolt on, the floating fingerboard is a bit strange. The nut was a joke, cheap plastic, I made a nice bone one. The finish is great, action can be set very low with no buzzing, I use 9's on one and 10's on the other. The stock tuners look great, but suck, so I got a set of Grover Imperials and fit the original tips onto them. One warning, the peg head holes are not standard, you'll need a tapered reamer if you want to put in new machineheads.

25 years and still great, what more can you say? I installed straplocs.

N/A

Been playing since I was 18, I'm 42 now, and I still suck! But I enjoy it, it's a hobby for me. I have a 1936 Gibson L50, 1983 Gibson Explorer, had a 1975 Gibson 175 & a 1992 SG custom(stupid wammy bar threaded body inserts stripped out, got it repaired under warranty and sold it,) a couple of beaters not worth mentioning, and I'm looking at a Guild X700 right now.

The Swede I modded has EMG triple blade Mother-Buckers in it, fully selectable for 1, 2, and/or any of the 3 coils, with phase, parallel & series switching, so it'll sound like a Tele, Strat, Les Paul, or grunge guitar with the flip of a switch! I play a bit of blues, jazz, heavy rock, all on the modded one. It's my daily player, I prefer my Gibson Explorer for its overall neck feel, action, and ease of playing, but not by much, and its not as versatile.

ATTENTION, the secret tone switch has 2 disc capacitors to modify tone, it does nothing for phasing.

I can't think of any other Les Paul type copy out there that is made as nice as this is. They seem to be going up in value on the used market now too.
That about covers it.
Greg Horn

1974 Hagstrom Swede with a solid Mahogony top, two Demazio pickups, Passive tone switch, Volume and tone controls for each pickup. UNBELIEVABLE neck with Ebony fingerboard.

I'm a blues player and this guitar is unreal. I can get everything from a really chunky Les Paul to a Mellow ES-335 all the way to a funky thin Strat sound from this puppy. Everyone that hears this guitar is amazed at what sounds I can get out of it. With the Tone Switch (it seems it works as a hi-pass, by-pass, low-pass) and the individual volume and tone controls on each pickup you have a wide range of tonal colors you can create.

What can you say. It's a Hagstrom! This company made probably the best neck in the guitar industry. The action is low and smooth, the thin mahogony neck with ebony fingerboard feels great. The finish is flawless. I own a Fender Thinline Tele, Gibson Nighthawk, A Vintage Gibson SG, Les Paul and I have to say that the Hagstrom Swede is my Favorite guitar to play!

This guitar is over 26 years old and it still looks like it just rolled off the assembly line. The finish is top notch! This is one solid chunk of wood! I have have no problem using this as my only guitar without any reservations.

I wish Hagstrom was still in business, with the quality of the instruments they made they would have been quite a contender. But they are long gone, but they still maintain a website and there is some limited parts and support available. Which considering how long they have been out of business is pretty amazing.

If this was stolen .. I would have not choice but to hunt down the SOB and castrate him! I would hold this guitar up to any Les Paul custom and it would definately hold it's own. I plan on buying a few more of them such as the Super Swede and the Swede Deluxe. If you find one for sale BUY IT!! If you don't buy it .. let me know and I will buy it! This guitar is probably one of the best secrets around and they can be had for almost a song. But don't expect that to last for long. Sooner or later people are going to catch on to this gem and the price is going to shoot up there.

Beats me when this guitar was made -- it doesn't have a serial number. Most Swedes were made in the 70's, I'm told. It is a funky Les Paul-and-then-some guitar. Weighs a ton. The true funk-factor comes from the coil-splitters and out-of-phasey sounds made possible by the deeply mysterious wiring system.

Well, the Swede doesn't sound like much of anything else. The pickups are very touch -- weak for much of the range of the pot and then, by gum, they are ON! I typically play it through my Fender Super Reverb ('68ish). It is a scorcher through my pignose, though. It is capable of a very wide variety of sounds, but (strangely) excells at Jazz, Fusion, and pretty serious rock. I'm mainly a blues guy, and I don't use it much for playing blues. I've been told that a Swede refitted with PAF humbuckers is a guitar to be reckoned with, but I thing the guitar's strenght is in its incredibly distinct sounds.

This guitar is beautifully made. A guitar of this quality would cost a mint if offered nowdays. I bought it used, and can't vouch for factory set-up, but I suspect it was well done. The guitar is just plain beutiful wood-wise, though the neck-to-body joint could be more artistic.

The main weakness hardware-wise is the tuners. They just plain suck. If they weren't such an import part of the Swede's visual appeal, I would rip them off in a moment.

Industructo! This guitar would stop bullets... big ones. Years of playing and it has never let me down.

There ain't none.

I've got a couple of strats and a 335 knock-off, and I tend to play them more than the swede -- but it is always a joy to play and it ALWAYS attracts attention at a gig. I wouldn't sell it, and if anybody stole it they would be in REALLY BIG TROUBLE if I caught them.

this guitar was designed by master guitar maker jimmy d'aquisto,,the craftmanship is impeccable,,,the guitar palys and sounds like a dream,,no wonder larry coryell played them for so long,,sounds better than most les pauls i've played,,it was good enough for alan holdsworth and dayrl stuermer to use on the now fusion classic "enigmatic ocean" by jean-juc ponty,,,what a meaty tone holdsworth has on that album,,,certainly no strat,,but yet listen to how thin it can get when used by struemer,,,i rate this guitar very high

rich and full,,,real meaty,,,great jazz guitar,,yet can get quite lite and thin on top,,,when using it right the guitar just sings thru the amp,,,what tone,,simply great

you can tell it was a d'aquisto,,just by the headstock,,the craftmanship is high on this guitar,,red stain mahogany body(almost 13 lbs.)very heavy,,binding work and enlay are excellent the tuners are special design and the neck is ebony not rosewood

altough i'd play another guitar on the road as i wouldn't take it out really except for special ocassions i believe it would handle thge rad quite nice,,being such a thick piece of wood

altough gone now,,,certainly not forgotten i am a beleiever in hagstrom products as i now have 6 hagstroms,,but no waranty on a 28 yr old guitar but thge craftsmanship of it still holds to this day,,any way there is quite a data base out there to wich you can find parts and info on these guitars

been playing 30 years,,this guitar is what i've been looking for for years,,if it were stolen,,i would want another,,,i say check them out,,especially one that is in working order

Probably made around 1977 or so, in Alvdalen, Sweden. 22 frets, and a wonderful, fast mahogany neck. The body is mahogany as well, natural finished. Two volume and two tone controls, two three-way switches that select pickup and coil tap. The switch on the horn is getting worn out ans I should try to replace it someday soon. This specific Swede also sports the Patch 2000 guitar synth system that Hagstrom had with Ampeg, so there's a two-way switch on the pickguard and a DIN-jack on the side of the guitar, together with the ordinary jack. Two humbuckers, sweet sounding things! I got this guitar used in Texas, and the store I got it from had bought it with one tuner lost, so they ripped 'em all off and put on some cheap nasty tuners! But originally, this guitar had Schaller tuners, designed for Hagstrom by James D'Aquisto. I'll put a new set on as soon as I get 'em. The only other thing broken are naturally the frames around the pickups. They always brake on the Swedes.

This guitar just speaks to me! I play instrumental jazz/latin jazz/fusion, and it sounds and look perfect for this 70's style of music. The sustain is great and the humbuckers in combination with the mahogany gives me a nice jazzy sound.

I use it with a Fender Blues DeVille 410 and a few effects, namely an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress, Vox wah-wah and a Morley volume pedal. The humbuckers are real quiet and make no noise at all. I've not had the opportunity to try out the Patch 2000 since it needs a pedal board as well, so I don't even know if it's working or not.

All in all, I bought this guitar for the sound and playability. REAL nice!

This was a used guitar, of course, and it's got a few wears and tears. One of the frets buzz a little, and there's a few dings in the finish, but nothing compared to other guitars I've seen from this era. And the fret can be fixed without any problems.

The action is real low, and the Hagstroms are famous for their extremely fast necks. Wonderful!

Seems to be a very sturdy guitar, heavy as well. As soon as I get a few things replaced (with original parts, of course) I won't be afraid of gigging with it, but I prefer to always have a backup.

Considering the age of the guitar, it's been holding up VERY good, impressive Swedish quality. I believe the Swedes and the Super Swedes were the best quality guitars Hagstrom made. It's way better than a lot of the Gibsons out there.

Hagstrom doesn't really exist anymore, but Karl E. Hagstrom is a very nice guy, and stock a large number of spares for the instruments, and they're VERY affordable! Considering that they don't make any guitars or new parts anymore, the service is very good, and it wouldn't seem to be too hard to get a hold of most of the parts one might need.
Official website at http://www.albinhagstrom.se

I'd cry if I lost this guitar, and I'd really work hard to get another one, cause these guitars are wonderful! The best thing is it's fast neck and jazzy sound. Plus it looks cool.

I didn't need to compare it with other guitars, it just spoke to me as soon as I plugged it in. For $185, it was a steal. I couldn't resist it.

My best friend bought a Swede back in about 1978 and then got bored with trying to learn guitar, so he let me use it for a couple of years. I wouldn't call it a Les Paul copy, although there are certainly similarities. The Swede doesn't have the maple top that a LP has, so it tends to be a little deeper sound, a little darker. I believe that these are solid mahogany. It has a pair of switches, one of which is the pickup selector, but the other (if memory serves) does coil splitting and out of phase switching, very common today but very advanced for the late 70's. 2 humbucking pickups, neck position a standard and bridge position a DiMarzio Super Distortion. 2 volume & 2 tone controls, typical LP-style layout. Really an excellent axe, although extremely heavy. I felt good when I saw a picture in a magazine of Bob Seger playing one.

Very full sound for what we now call "classic rock," which at the time was just the stuff that was brand new. :) I played it through a 1963 Fender Bandmaster with a 2 x 12" cabinet.

Just beautiful. Very high quality. It was purchased used but had no flaws that I could see.

The Swede is a very solid guitar. I think it would last forever. Bands playing nostalgia shows playing 70's rock in, say, 2050, would be using these.

No experience.

I've been playing for about 25 years. I now own a Hohner tele copy and a Jasmine acoustic. I'd love to have another Swede.

Purchased new in 1975. Made in Sweden, Les Paul copy. I believe the body was mahogany, maple neck. Two humbucking pickups/2 volume, 2 tone contols, two three-ways switches, passive electronics, stop tail-piece, medium neck. Got a nice case with it.

I play classic thru mid-70's rock, country rock, country. I've used it with many different amps, some tube, some transistor. Very quiet, probably due to the humbucking pickups. Rich, full sound but can get twangy if you want it to by manipulating the switches. Chunkier sound than a Les Paul and perhaps a bit more versatile. Great sustain when needed, not as bright as a guitar with single coils. I love the looks of this guitar but I hate the weight. I dropped it twice because of the position of the strap buttons, but a pair of strap locks and a good wide leather strap solved all those problems. A beautiful cherry finish and nice wood underneath. This was the best guitar Hagstrom made. It's too bad they're out of business, as Hagstrom's seem to be getting popular right now, maybe it's just the retro-craze.

I had to set up the guitar after I bought it, but I changed to a lighter set a strings so that's to be expected. Adjustment was very easy. Pickups need height adjustment, but that's to be expected also, everyone thinks a guitar should sound a different way. No flaws of any kind.

I gigged this guitar hard for eight years. Shortly after I bought it I plugged in one night and nothing! Had to run to a friends house and borrow his Fender for the gig. Yuck! My tech discovered a problem with the input jack. Fixed it in two minutes. Never had another problem in eight years. Went through two fret jobs. Finally didn't have much left for frets when I noticed a minute crack in the fretboard. Hagstroms had a lifetime guarantee on the neck, so I took it back to the dealer and he said he's let me know when he got the new neck in. It took a couple of months. When the neck finally got there he said that it wouldn't have taken so long but Selmer (the importer) didn't have a cherry finish neck in stock so they sent to Sweden for one! That's service! I can't say enough good things about the reliability of this guitar. Except for the one problem this thing was bulletproof. I always gigged without a back-up and never worried aobut it.

Wouldn't even try, they're out of business and that's a shame because they had a great product.

I've been playing for 35 years. I haven't gigged for about 15 but I'm hoping to start again part-time when I retire next year from the military. My oldest son has the Hag now and it's still going strong. I'd love to have it back, but I doubt if I'll ever see it again. It was a very versatile guitar for my purposes. I recently purchased a Rickenbacker 620 and a Peavey Studio Pro 112 amp to get started again. Although I like the Rick, I still miss the Hag (perhaps it's more sentimental than anything else). I'm the only person I've ever known who played one of these steadily (besides Bob Seger but he doesn't count)! If you can find one, buy it. If you can't afford it, call me!