Hagstrom SWEDE L.P. 1976 White Aged, Geppetto Camelot PAF pups.. Bigsby trem system. Watch video

HAGSTROM
L. P.
SWEDE
White (Faded)
1976
“The Hagstorm”
Featuring GEPPETTO CAMELOT
Humbucker PAF Pickups
And
BIGSBY TREMOLO SYSTEM.

**PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO OF ROBINSON PLAYING THIS GUITAR**
MY # 35
SN: 53-054292
NAME: “VIT”
DOM: 1976. Early piece.
Modded to a “HAGSTORM L.P.” guitar.
One of only 5.
I have always considered the Hagstrom “SWEDE” guitar, originally named the “Hagstrom L.P.”, to be the best playing and sounding Les Paul guitar that Gibson did not make. Their history is below. Hagstrom guitars were famous for having the “fastest playing necks in the world”. No exception here. And the inherent high quality of the Swedish materials used, and the intensely skilled and diligent Swedish builders, make this LP guitar a true vintage Swedish product. Side by side, I will always pick up a vintage Hagstrom to play over a Gibson. Why? Because it plays and sounds better to me.
Except-the pickups.
The original pickups, made by Hagstrom, although very good, just did not excite me, nor most of those who love the tonal qualities of this superb LP guitar.
My solution is the creation, or rather, recreation of this iconic Swedish LP guitar into what I call “the New HAGSTORM LP guitar”. For this project I took FIVE Swedes from my extensive personal collection of vintage original Hagstrom guitars and made mods to them tailored to the character and personality of each.
These “enhancement mods” included the replacement of the original pickups in each with a pair of current high-end boutique pickups, the addition of tremolo systems to three of them (one Bigsby and two Stetsbars), and tuners on several of them (even though the original tuners were excellent, we found that some of them suffered from loose screw attachments of the key to the stem).
Pickup selection was time consuming and intense. I bought lots of pickups from many different vendors-all of them considered to be high quality “boutique” builders-some only one-man shops. I didn’t try pups from the big guys, Seymour-Duncan, DiMarzio, etc. only because if wanted to have a more tuned output from the pups. Small shops allow you to do that.
It was a fun project but expensive. I spent a lot of money on the hardware (pickups were $200+ per set, tremolo systems were $200+, and tuners up to $100 per set). And then the luthier cost to upfit each guitar was another $250.00 plus (had to route pup cavities to accommodate larger pups, mount the tremolo systems, change tuners, et. al.). On top of that amount I paid the incredible guitarist and tonemaster Robinson Earle to sound tune each one. That gave each guitar its own voice. Please view the enclosed video of Robinson playing this guitar. No power chord smashes here-just pure finger picking and master play. You will be amazed at how amazing each of these “Hagstorm L.P. “ guitars now sounds.
I’ve named this one “VIT”.
It is in good cosmetic condition and excellent playing condition. The body has lots of nicks, scratches, faded finish. The holes where the original stop tail was mounted have been patched but can still be seen.
Taking this re-creation a step further, “VIT” was fitted to its own unique matching case (new). It is a beautiful combination.
“VIT” details:
Solid Mahogany Bound Body.
Bolt on Mahogany Neck with 22 frets.
Ebony Fingerboard.
Headstock by Jimmy D’Aquisto.
2 Volume and 2 Tone pots.
3 way switch on lower horn.
3 way tone switch on upper horn.
Vintage ORIGINAL HAGSTROM D’Aquisto designed stairstep tuners.
ORIGINAL BIGSBY Tremolo System: We’ve added a real BIGSBY tremolo system and it works great (holes patched-but apparent-from original fixed bridge).
Pickups: We chose a set of GEPPETTO CAMELOT PAF HUMBUCKER pickups for this guitar. We believe they are the best “PAF” pickups you can buy and they sound great in this guitar.
Geppetto Guitars from Texas, USA have a new ‘PAF Clone’ called the Camelot Humbucker. Of course, it’s a handmade scatter-wound pickup and aims to sound as close as possible to those original ‘Holy Grail’ Seth Lover-designed Gibson humbucking pickups of the ’50s. Owner Mike O’Donoghue has created a pickup certainly seems to tick all the boxes.

Camelot Humbucker
The new Geppetto Guitars Camelot is firmly in the boutique category of guitar pickups. Mike has spent two years working on this design, so it’s not exactly something he just threw together quickly and marketed using vacuous hype.

PAF or ‘Patent Applied For’ is the name given to original Gibson humbucking pickups, which were designed by legendary designer Seth Lover to combat the cycle hum of the company’s previous P90 pickup, which came in the original Les Paul guitars. The PAF has become synonymous with tone and especially blues tones and also classic rock as well, so many players covet that sound. If you are chasing classic guitar tones then this new Camelot humbucker seeks to get you there, with the classic bloom of notes and an almost single-coil-like clarity, which modern higher gain pickups just cannot achieve. Think Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, Mike Bloomfield and Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Blues Breakers if you need a reference for how a good PAF humbucker can sound. They use a German Nickel/Silver frame loaded with original style butyrate bobbins and 1022 steel alloy screws and slugs separated by a Maple spacer. They are then scatter-wound with 42 AWG Plain Enamel coil wire using period-correct, rough cast Alnico 4 magnets.

These pickups were a natural sonic enchancement to the tonal qualities of this mahogany guitar. Listen to their virtuosity as Robinson plays in the attached video.

HISTORY OF THE HAGSTROM SWEDE (aka The Hastrom L.P. guitar)

Hagström was a musical instrument manufacturer in Älvdalen, Dalecarlia, Sweden. Their original products were accordions initially imported from Germany and then Italy before they opened their factory in 1932. In 1958, they started manufacturing electric guitars, being one of the first to produce the instrument professionally outside of the United States. Their early guitars were heavily influenced by the accordion production and had a special look and feel.

The early Hagström Deluxe solid body guitars featured a distinctive sparkle and pearloid celluloid finish that was previously used on their line of accordions. Soon Hagström expanded their line-up of guitars to include hollow bodies like the Viking and the Jimmy. In 1961 the first line of Hagström basses was available to the public, this eventually came to include the groundbreaking 8 string bass best known for its use by Jimi Hendrix

The Les Paul-influenced Swede was first introduced in 1970. In 1968, Hagstrom hired the bold luthier James L. D’Aquisto, the New York apprentice of D’Angelicos, to design archtop guitars. D’Aquisto’s influence was seen immediately, In the introduction of the Hagstrom Swede solid body in 1970. This guitar featured the new asymmetrical headstock designed by Jimmy D’Aquisto, though adapting it to the new solidbody was Hagstrom’s idea, and D’Aquisto was not involved in the development of the Swede. Ads touted the D’Aquisto-designed tuners, which featured art deco-style buttons and were similar to, but slightly more complex than, stair stepped Grover Imperials. Initially these were made by Van Ghent, but in the late ’70s, however, Hagstrom tuners switched to Schallers, still with D’Aquisto-designed buttons.
An elegant single cutaway solidbody in a Les Paul mode, the first 505 Swedes built in ’70-’71 were actually called the Hagstrom L.P. By ’71, however, going counter to the prevailing contemporary trend toward copying American guitars even down to the name, the Hagstrom L.P. had officially become the Swede. The Hagstrom Swede was a single-cutaway solid body made of mahogany. It had a bound top and a bolt-on mahogany neck. The head, as mentioned, was pure D’Aquisto. It had a fleur-de-lis inlay. The 22-fret neck was unbound ebony with celluloid block inlays. This had an elevated pickguard like a Les Paul, with two metal-covered humbuckers mounted on plastic surrounds, a finetune bridge, and covered stoptail. Controls were a three-way select on the treble horn, two volume and two tone controls, and what seems to be a three-way tone switch on the bass shoulder. Color options were natural, cherry, white, or black.
My money back guarantee. Buy this guitar and try it out for 48 hours. If you do not like it-send it back for a full refund of your purchase price and original shipping cost.
Thank you for considering another incredible guitar from my personal collection of 1200+ custom and vintage guitars.
And please keep watching my shop for more “HAGSTORM” guitars. Next up is my re-creation of the acoustic electric “Viking” model.
Ships only to the continental USA. Buyers outside that area should contact me for a shipping quote prior to purchasing this great guitar.