Hagstrom query

[whitefang]

I used to have "Hagstrom guitars" on my list of favorites, and it would send me to a site called "Haskin's Hagstroms" where collectors would put up pics of their guitars and give info on where to accquire parts, if needed. Lately, however, I'm sent to an actual "Hagstrom website". It seems the Hagstrom is back, and has been for a few years now, but nowhere on the site can I find out if they are really built by the Hagstrom company, or if some Japanese or Korean company is making knock-offs like Japan did with Mosrite. Can anyone clear this up?

Whitefang

[d halfnote]

Still got that 12 string bass ?

 

[Electric Biscuit]

The company was ressurected 5 or 6 years ago. I think they're being built in China, but are, as near as I can tell, better instruments than the originals.

[d halfnote]

Thanks to all the Chinese Slaves involved .

[The Geoff]

The original Hagstroms were pretty decent guitars. I had a Viking (with Fender-style headstock) at the beginning of the 70's & it was pretty good.

 

The Super Swede (nothing to do with turnips) was a great instrument.

 

G.

[Tennessee]

I own a Super Swede Tremer. What a great axe. And yes, it was made by Chinese "slaves". I always get a little irritated because I spent 18 months in Shanghai working on the outskirts of the city for a furniture factory. These people are trying anything to get their lifestyle up, they leave their families back in the hills, they ride bikes as family transportation, and the national average paycheck savings rate for Chinese is around 35%. They are coming around. We had better watch ourselves on the quality front. I also think that with the proper technical guidance, they now produce some of the best instruments in the world. Johnson Acoustics, for example. Some of those models are produced in the Shanghai Instrument Company #1, located in an older portion of Shanghai, where they have been producing stringed instruments for a little over 1000 years. They know what they are doing. I bought one for $60 with a free bag while in Shanghai. Really nice cutaway with great action.

I own an S101 EHL24, which is a direct copy of the Joe Pass Emp. It is an unbelievable unit, (which Epiphone quietly slapped Sejung to stop them making it since Sejung also makes the Joe Pass), and I only paid $250 for it.

Anyway, after learning what these people had to go through with their lousy leadership, I cut them a break after living among them for a year and a half. We began this movement, after all. You cannot pay an American auto worker $27 an hour to put dashboards in a pickup truck with full benefits and a retirement at 62. Sorry, bit of grandstanding there...

[Electric Biscuit]

Personally, I think the new Vikings are gorgeous

[Dannyalcatraz]

I saw one Super Swede in some kind of blonde finish at Musicians Friend for next to nothing...I wasn't in the market, though. Its gone, of course.

[whitefang]

Thanks for clearing this up. They do look nice on the site, but as a photographer, I'm familiar with how that can work.

And as a retired autoworker, I'm not sure how to take Tennessee's reply...

Whitefang

[CEB]

The fret jobs on new Chinese Swedes suck. I prefer my 74 Swede over the new stuff.

[Electric Biscuit]

Really, CEB? Every new Chinese Hag I've played has been fantastic in every way

[CEB]

I did not like the new Swede it didn't seem to have have enough relief and there was dead spots on the fretboard. Maybe it was a setup issue.

 

I also played one a guy got off e-bay and thought I had cut myself on a fret. The dress job was terrible. I was later told at the old Hagstrom forum not to buy cheap Chinese Hags off e-bay because those are 2nd's and there is a big difference between 2nds and the 1st coming out of the factory. This was also when they first came back on the market. So my frame of reference may be dated. But I thought there was no comparison between what I saw and my 74 Swede.

 

The one advantage the new ones may have is that the parts on the old Hags were usually oddball stuff done in weird sizes. It becomes an issue when you go to work on them years later. The news ones are probably using more standard parts. One example is if working on an old Hag is ...be really careful with the pickup mounting rings. They are thin and bet brittle and you can not get exact replacements.

[Scott Fraser]

I played a couple of the new semi-hollow jazz boxes at the last NAMM & I was favorably impressed. Not stunning world class instruments, but very playable, well detailed, nicely built guitars. If I didn't have more than enough semi-hollow guitars already I would seriously consider one of the new Hagstroms.

I didn't get around to trying the Swede, as that format is well covered in my collection already.

 

Scott Fraser

[d halfnote]

... I always get a little irritated because I spent 18 months in Shanghai working on the outskirts of the city for a furniture factory. These people are trying anything to get their lifestyle up, they leave their families back in the hills, they ride bikes as family transportation, and the national average paycheck savings rate for Chinese is around 35%. They are coming around... Anyway, after learning what these people had to go through with their lousy leadership, I cut them a break after living among them for a year and a half. We began this movement, after all. You cannot pay an American auto worker $27 an hour to put dashboards in a pickup truck with full benefits and a retirement at 62. Sorry, bit of grandstanding there...

 

Not to take things overtly political but there's a difference between the bulk of the populace & their government, which is not just repressive but generally considered to be active in the shady aquisition of technology as well as intellectual property.

 

As far as comparative wages & the reasons businesses have shifted most manufacturing jobs to lands with lower wage rates, it's less to do with the labor costs in USA & more to do with the continued increasing expenses of management salaries.

 

Back to the point...

[To continue this area of economic discussion, be glad to meet ya at the "Downstairs Lounge" where it may be more appropriate. There is a "no politics/religion" dictum there but I think issues of economics or business ethics may fit.]