Hagstrom Vikings

I own a Hagstrom viking sunburst for 1 year now.
Great neck and fast action. I understood that a big neck can also be fast and smooth. Really great neck.
Some problems with buzzing in the higher frets solved when I changed strings to round (jazzy) 0,12 - 0.52.
Tried to adjust the truss rod but I couldn't find out how. the hahstrom truss is not as usual as you can see in their website.
Great looks that impress everyone. Really nice guitar!
The electronics were not right connected (no volume knob on the neck position) but the guys in the store sent me new pieces immediately.

This is where I give a 10!
I own other guitars for other styles but this one is a jazz monster! specially with the round strings! great clean sound and a nice mellow distortion that can also bite in the bridge pos.
Blues and some rock stuff also sound perfect!
Huge value for the money here.

as described before

Seems very solid but it's only now going out for gigs.
Very nice finish.
My former teacher owned a Gibson E-335 and when I put this guitar in his hands he thought it would cost about 1500 euros... that says it all doesn??t it?

2 years warranty. only problem was with the electronics. the pieces were sent to me by the store in Germany because I prefered to repare it by myself as I live in Portugal and would have to send the guitar to Germany to be repaired.
Everything was quick and with no problem.

I play for 18 years now and I own other guitars as a Eko Shortgun M33, a Lag Roxanne and since one week a Eastwood Saturn 63 and I can tell you that this guitar is a bargain if you are into modern jazz.
I would buy another one for sure!
I compared it with similar Ibanez, Yamahas and Gretsches and no doubt remains! for me... This guitar has much more soul and colour in the sound that any other of these alternatives.

I just want to add that i was once the proud owner of a beautifully kept black Viking which was stolen from my first gig in Brisbane Australia. I have never seen another one until I looked on the web.
A previous reviewer "guessed" at maple. The Viking I owned was made from birch - a most unusual wood for a guitar. Then again, a most unusual guitar. Sadly missed.

I ran it through a Roland JC 120

1973 Hagstrom Viking II

Made in Sweden, as were all Hags.

twenty-two frets, double cutaway.

laminated maple top is my best guess.

controls are bridge v/t, neck v/t, 3 way toggle switch selector, and "poor man's varitone" (as i can best describe it).

pickups are passive humbuckers, p.a.f. style of hagstrom's own design. good sounding, but a little on the low output side.

my best guess is maple for both body and neck, rosewood fretboard.

tobacco sunburst type finish. very attractive.

es-335 style double cutaway body, slightly pointier ears, and headstock with 3 a side tuners in a gibson shape crowned by a "wave".

bastard tune-o-matic style (with two screw per saddle)floating bridge, ending in a harp style tailpiece that is actually harp shaped, and features the hagstrom crest.

offered stock with grover imperials!

25 1/2 scale neck, medium jumbo frets.

accessories included n/a.

i play psychobilly, and aside from the afore mentioned low output, this guitar suites it oerfectly great; woody, mid heavy tone, feedback almost non existant even with heavy distortion, but big, rich clean tones. i run it straight into a marshall jcm 900, no effects, and the only thing i really need to do is turn the bass setting down very low, as it tends to be a little woofy in the lower range (as do most hollow bodies and semi hollows). this guitar makes very little noise as far as amp hum, provided the ground circuit to the amp is good. the viking II is about as versatile a guitar as i have found; i own two gretsch 6120's, (a 59 nashville and a 62 country gent) and this guitar remains my mainstay axe. very slim, fast neck, and very light in weight, center block and all. again, the pickups are a bit quiet, and the neck pickup is a little fat sounding for my tastes, but all in all, a superb guitar.

factory settings are unkown, as i aquired this guitar in 99, almost 20 years after hagstrom ceased production. when i bought it in used condition three and 1/2 years ago, all it needed was a polish, a couple inches of new romex cable, and one potentiometer replacement. generally seems to be a fairly hardy instrument. truss rod, neck, frets, bridge, and all other hardware were in perfect working order, just a bit dirty.

i am an amatuer musician (translation: no full time guitar tech or roady to look after my gear) but i play 15-20 shows a month all over the u.s., and this hag gets the living shit beat out of it on a daily basis. it rides in a hot bus all day, gets beer spilled on it, crowd surfed with, knocked againsts other instruments and things on stage, and once even smacked a drunk in the nose. i have yet to see bare wood, have never replaced a piece of hardware, and still it almost never goes out of tune. i don't even bring a tuner on stage anymore. this is the most dependable working guitar i have ever had, and i have owned more than twenty archtops in my life, incliding gibson, gretsch, harmony, and guild. i do bring a backup to gigs in the event of a broken string... my other 73 hag viking II...

n/a hagstrom went out of business circa 1981.

if this guitar were to be stolen, i don't know what i'd do. they are very hard to find, and are rarely all in one piece when one does; people don't recognize the name, so they often are used as parts guitars for the big three g's (gibson guild and gretsch) without even so much as a test play. so if you find one, hang on to it, although if you are actually reading about a hagstrom on a website, i suspect i am preaching to the choir, as you are probably a fellow hag buff. my only advice is, should you come across any hag part to any guitar, buy it, as hagstroms are like v.w. opels, in that very few people will actually sell you a hag part, but they might trade you for a different hag part... the only reason i cannot give this guitar a perfect 10 is the difficulty in finding replacement parts, should the need arise.

1969 Viking. This is the hollowbody that is similar to the Fender Cornado. It is not semi solid like the Fender and Gibson 335. Laminated Maple too, sides, and back with a double binding. Mine is a cherry translucent red that covers the maple neck and head stock. Six on the side tuners - standard Hagstrom. In the early seventies they remade this guitar with an art deco headstock, three and three tuners, and two humbuckers similar to the Gibson 335. Mistakenly called a Scandi it is really a Viking II. The Scandi was an almost exact copy of a Stratacaster. The Viking II is also a thin line full hollowbody. The neck is the famous Hagstrom "world's fastest neck" that is on their solid body Hag II's and III's.

This guitar sounds wonderful. It's not clean; it's not dirty. Similar to a single coil Gretsch instrument when played through a good tube amp i.e. Fender Vibrolux, Twin, etc. It's bridge pick up is bright and rock-a-billy, and the neck pick up is rich and jazzy. The tone knobs rotate bacwards. That is that they add mute to the sound rather than treble. This makes for an authentic sounding jazz sound with out the scratchy record. If you get one in prestine shape and condition, it's rating is no less than an eight.

The neck on these guys are bolted on, so it is important to find one in good shape. This guitar is slightly wider than the Fender Cornado, so if you like'm big like a Gretsch this is good. The color and finish on mine is perfect, but mine sat in it's case for most of it's life. These guitars were probably bought as first instruments to people wanting to learn how to play due to it's inexpesive price compared to it's Gison and Fender counterparts. So those who never learned how to play threw it in the attack where it sat - Those are the best. Others sold them to pawns where they were trashed, resold, gutted, resold, bastardized, resold, etc. - not good. Find one waiting to be played, with its case and it's a beauty.

Same as above

Hagstrom quit building decent guitars in 1981, and completely shut down in 83. The only way to find parts is off of trashed ones in a pawn store, but that doesn't really help. If you have one in good condition you may only have to change a volume pot that can be done from Radio Shack.

I pesonally love Hagstroms (in good condition) and collect them. I have the Viking, Hagstrom II (red), Hag III (blue), Hag solid body twelve string (sunburst), Swede (Les Paul style in mahagony), Hag II bass (blue), Hag Kent24 (red), and recently a Hagstrom accordion from the 50's from some nice folks in Sweden (also blue). I am always looking for more. I also have a '63 Fender Telecaster with Bigsby (my do anything guitar) and a '58 Gibson Les Paul Jr. in the Cherry finished mahagony (my baby).