Hagstrom 1 Vintage 1965 Made In Sweden

You are looking at a really cool guitar. This is a 1965 Hagstrom 1 Electric Guitar. Hagstrom imported a Luthier from the USA, and began building guitars in 1958. They were very innovative "borrowing" some designs by both Fender and Gibson, but they really did make some original designs. This is the Hagstrom 1 built from 1965 to 1971. Although the Hagstrom 1 has two pickups they named it the "1" because it was the first in that series. Hagstrom sales took off in the 1960's because Britain had imposed higher tariffs on USA goods in order to payoff loans from World War II. Thus making American made guitars too expensive. Hagstrom essentially, became the Fender - Silvertone of Europe, building a quality affordable guitar.

Hagstrom's have some really unique construction and designs. The body is made out of a Acrylatic plastic on the front with a Vinyl Naugahyde back that was bolted together. Two single coil pickups with a sunken molded plastic area that came to known as a swimming pool. It's job was to enhance the sound if you played without amplification. The lower distal end of the frame had the input jack that was mounted in a manner that was reverse of the sunken input jack you would find on a Stratocaster. There was a volume knob and four throw switches on the lower section of the frame/pick guard. Two switches were off-on for each pickup. A third switch was called Bass/Treble which must have activated some capacitors.

The fourth switch was labeled Mute, which was supposed to provide a deadened sound like a string bass. On the upper section of the pick guard was an on-off or stand-by switch that turned off all the electronics.

Hagstrom called their necks, King Necks, due to the I-beam style truss rod that was inside the neck cavity.

Despite being extremely thin, Hagstrom necks were guaranteed against warpage. Hagstrom billed themselves as having The Fastest Necks In The West. They certainly had the slenderest necks and really are fast.

But how does it sound? This Hagstrom 1 has a very "Trashy" '60s sound! The vintage pickups has a really Rocki'n tone. A lot of fun to play. I can see why Bowie actually performs with this guitar. Sound is really cool. Unlike any other guitar. Bear in mind that these were intended for intermediate players. They are not the quality of say a Gibson. But they do make it up with just lots of "Mojo" '60s vibe.

Case is Included