Hagstrom Ultra Swede

I purchased 2 of these, one month apart of each other. The features are simple. Two humbuckers, selector switch coil tap, single volume single tone. Simple and effective for me. Non-locking tuners but they work great providing you know how to string a guitar...and many people do not. It stays in tune NO PROBLEM. Very slim neck...not a fan of that. Reminds me of a Ibanez Wizard neck. I don't like a ton of features on a guitar. I like them simple. This is simple.

I play Blues, Classic Rock, Southern Rock and some 80s rock. The guitar handles it all without a problem. I have a decent stable of guitars that I have collected and weeded out over my 40 plus years of guitar playing. Pickup adjustment is key to dialing in the sound you want on this guitar as on most guitars. I think it would be somewhat better and more versatile or more easier to deal with in a live situation if it were wired like a SG or Les Paul with vol and tone or each pickup. I use it with many amps that I have which is a collection of many Fender tube amplifiers that I have owned from the 60s. I do have some 80s Riveria design Fender Tube amps and a couple of Tweed Po Jrs. They work well with this amplifier.

The pickups are avaerage. I do not like hot pickups. I would rather use a pedal for boosting the guitar output where needed.

For pedals, I am using BB preamp, RC booster, JD-10, trusty old DynaComp, Bad Horsie, holy grail and DD6 (pos). Everything is true bypassed and the OD stuff is looped/paralleled.

I play ZZ, Skynrd, Benatar, Ronstadt, SRV, Duarte, Cream etc etc etc

The guitar is black transparent burst flame maple top with binding. It is pretty but almost looks pure black. The quality of the instrument is baffling. The Chinese factory has nailed guitar building for sure! I didn't care for the setup though. Setup is personal and I use .11 guage strings with a bit higher action so there is ZERO buzz. The guitar just felt too slinky setup from the factory....it was clean though. I play slide and like to have my guitars cover both slide playing and not.

I cannot see that this guitar would be a problem at all. It will be used live and has already. This will be the daily workhorse for a while to see how it holds up. My playing situation requires more than one guitar so there are backups by default. I do not use my great guitars on regular gigs. Those are used for recording sessions and select gigs.

I do my own work.... I do not care about the warranty on a cheap guitar like this.

I have been playing for over 40 years. My amps are 99% Fender old school tube. I have a boogie and usually get a Z every now and then. My other guitars are my first strat (1965), 50th anniversay American Deluxe Strat, RIC 340, Gretsch G6120SSU, Parker Fly Classic, PRS Single Cut, and assorted under $500 guitars for gigging. What I like about it is that it feels and plays like my other guitars that cost thousands and this costed less than $300. If it were stolen, that wouldn't happen.......believe me.

Two awesome hagstrom pickups. coil tap, 1 volume, one tone, 3 way. Amazing finish, sweet binding on body, neck and headstock. The prettiest quilt top I have ever seen!

I bought this becuase my custom american strat cant do it all and I wanted a guitar that could hit the blues/rock/metal tones the strat doesn't. I didn't want to spend a couple grand on a les paul, and I didnt think the epiphone LP sounded that great. This guitar absolutely punishes any guitar in its price point for sound. It hits all the standard lp type sounds.

I worked at a music wholesaler for 2 years while i was in school, and I never saw guitar come in that looked and played this good from the factory. Cosmetically it is flawless and the nicest bookmatch I have seen on a non PRS. The setup was near perfect, i adjusted 1 saddle and retuned and it was perfect.

The only issue I see with it is the input jack is cheap and will definately break at some point but thats a cheap easy fix. And the pots could be better but I'll swap them when I change the input still no big deal.

No need yet.

I really can't say enough. This guitar is is by far the nicest looking in my collection and probably the second best sounding. I actually play this one so much my fingers cramp up. I would recommend this guitar as the best value for under 700 bucks for an lp sytle guitar. I tried out all the epi, prs, schecter, ltd, ibanez, jacksons and yamahas under 700 i could and this was the best overall guitar in my opinion. Buy one and enjoy the smile it puts on your face.

Guitar being reviewed is a 2008 Hagstrom Ultra Swede. Mine is a limited edition in spalted Maple. This is a chinese made guitar. I've owned MANY American guitars including a nErnie Ball Axis, a Peavey USA Wolfgang, a Gibson Les Paul Standard, a Gibson Les Paul Studio, A Dean USA Cadillac, a USA Jackson soloist, A USA Standard Tele, And several USA Strats & Strat pluses, and several ESP's (not LTD's), and MANY Japanese and Korean made guitars. This guitar competes with the best of them. In this new global economy, it just doesn't matter where guitars are made anymore. What matters is design, wood selection, manufacturing process and Quality Control. The factory that makes these guitars has it down. Period.

Back to the features. This guitar sports a 24.75 scale, a thin fast neck. The neck is faster than any guitar I've owned, with exception to my Jackson soloist. The fretboard is coined a "resonator fretboard" by Hagstrom. I have no idea what the wood is, but it looks and feels identical to ebony. The body is basswood. Shaped like an LP, but it is smaller (something I don't care for). The set neck is mahagony, and as stated before, thin and fast. I expected the guitar to sound brighter than it does, it is definitely darker sounding than the super-strats and other guitars with basswood bodies (a good thing IMO). The location of the pickup switch is behind the volume and pot controls, unlike LP's which have the switch on the upper body. The switch location almost prevented me from buying the guitar, and honestly after playing the guitar for a while, I still don't like the location. There is a switch that splits the coils located next to the volume pot. Splitting the coils has a negligable effect on the sound. In general, the hardware is of decent quality, but IMO not quite as good as you find on high end American guitars. Gicen the fact that this guitar only cost $400 new, I have no issues whatsoever with the hardware. Overall, the Ultra Swede sports much better hardware than is found on most korean made guitars today.

As stated earlier, the coil splitting option is fairly useless with the stock pickups. I have seen several reviews stating that the stock pickups are fine. They are better than the pickups that came on my Korean Dean EVO. But stating they are fine is a bit of a stretch. Sorry, they are not even close to a good set of Dimarzio's or Duncans. As such, I'll be throwing in an Air Zone on the neck and a Tone Zone on the bridge (my favorite pickup pair).

With the stock pickups the sound is ever so slightly muddy.....but still very good. The sustain is unbelievable. Better than my ESP Eclipse II's even. This guitar just sings. I can't wait to get a better set of pups in it. The sound is right in between a Les Paul and a superstrat. Darker sounding than my Eclipse II's, which surprised me a lot.

One word. Unbelievable.

As good as any American guitar I've owned. Setup was perfect. Action low and fast. Fret edges dressed nicely. Finish was flawless.

The bridge/saddles are fine. The switches/pots seem fine. The tuners are of about medium quality. I plan on replacing the tuners with Sperzels at some point, more because I don't like the looks of the stock tuners (they look awkward....too large....about the size and shape of a drum key). I will also change out all of the electronics and switches when I change out the pickups, simply because I do this to all of my guitars while I have them opened up.

Seems fine, but I haven't had it long enough to tell.

No contact with them yet.

Been playing guitar about 25 years. As mentioned above I've owned just about every major guitar brand out there at onetime or another. This is my first Hagstrom.

Honestly, I am floored by the quality. I've played some pretty horrible Les Pauls....I mean real duds. I don't know how Gibson can let such crap out the door. I believe it's more a wood selection issue than anything. This guitar plays as good as any Les Paul I've owned (Gibson, ESP, or otherwise).

If you are looking for a Les Paul, ESP Eclipse, or similar styled guitar consider one of these instead. You'll be glad you did. I purchased mine sight unseen, and it turned out to be one of the best gear purchases I ever made.