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Guitar Standards

June 9th, 2010 |

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guitar standards

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The company name is correctly spelled as Hagström with a dieresis over the “o,” but once the Hagstrom guitars hit the English speaking market, the name was changed to include only letters without accents.

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Electric solid-body Hagstrom guitars have been produced since 1958. The company had been producing accordions since 1932, so the Hagstrom guitars were a considerable deviation from their usual line. The early Hagstrom Deluxe guitar, however, had a sparkling celluloid finish that had long been used on their accordions.

Hagstrom soon started making hollow-body guitars along with their solid-body guitars. The Viking and the rather strangely name Jimmy (named after Jimmy D’Aquisto of New York) are early examples of successful Hagstrom hollow-bodied products.

Hagstrom guitars expanded from making lead and rhythm instruments to making bass guitars in 1961. The Hagstrom Standard was their first model, but it was the Hagstrom H8 produced in 1965 that caused a stir in the world of music, for it was the world’s first 8-string bass guitar.

The sixth Hagstrom H8 to be produced was owned by guitar legend, Jimi Hendrix. He had his bass guitar in 1967. Other well-known bass players who owned one of the famous Hagstrom guitars include Danny McCulloch who played bass for the Animals, and Mike Rutherford, bass player for genesis.

The innovation that is Hagstrom guitars probably reached its peak with the Hagstrom H8. It was based around a normal four stringed bass guitar, but the strings were simply doubled up, a bit like the way a 12-string guitar is.

It did have an interesting sound, however. This was mostly because of lighter gauge strings being arranged above the standard strings and tuned to a whole octave higher. The resultant tone was quite unique.

Hagstrom guitars were not the only thing the company produced. They also made a range of amplifiers and speakers. Swedish super group ABBA used Hagstrom equipment on their first tour of the world. However it is for their guitars that Hagstrom are best remembered.

The company stopped their Swedish side of production in 1983. They did some collaborative work with Japanese companies, but decided not to proceed in that direction. Hagstrom guitars, while much loved all over the world, could no longer compete with the cheap labour markets of Asia.

It took 21 years before Hagstrom guitars once again started in production in 2004. As they couldn’t compete with Asia, they decided to go there and their current factory is now in China. There are plans to return production to Sweden, but at the time of writing this has not happened yet.

Hagstrom guitars, especially the early ones, have become highly collectible items. Elvis Presley used a red coloured Hagstrom Viking II on his Elvis Presley’s ‘68 Comeback Special. In the early 1990s this guitar was sold for $50,000.

Hagstrom guitars have developed a cult following from people all over the world who have fallen in love with the highly distinctive instrument. Since 2006, fans gather every year for the Hagström Festival at Älvdalen in Sweden during the first week of June to exchange guitar stories and play some music – on Hagstrom guitars, of course.