Guitars: 1958 to 1983
In 1958, Swedish-based Hagström started manufacturing electric guitars, being one of the first to produce the instrument professionally outside of the United States. 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.
Models of electric guitar included the Hagström 1, the H series (h II, h III, h II N), the Swede (Originally called The Hagström LP, or Les Paul, due to the instrument's resemblance to the popular Les Paul manufactured by Gibson Guitars), the Super Swede, the Impala, the Corvette (called the Condor in the US), the Viking, the Swede Patch 2000 (one of the first synthesizer guitars) and the Jimmy (named for Jimmy D'Aquisto, a respected New York luthier brought in by Hagström to design the guitar). Basses include The Swede Bass and the Hagström H8 – the first ever mass-produced eight stringed bass guitar, which found fame when used by the likes of Noel Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Mike Rutherford, and others. Another innovation was the H-Expander Truss Rod, which gives the neck additional strength allowing it to be unusually thin. Thus the action can be set lower than guitar necks built with traditional truss rods.
Beside their line of instruments Hagström also produced amplifiers, speakers, effects units, guitar strings and mixing consoles, which were used by ABBA on their first world tour. A very small run of lap steels, banjos and mandolins were also built but are rare to come across. In 1962 Albin's son, Karl-Erik Hagström returned from working five years in the US with establishing their Line O guitars. In 1967 he took over as CEO of the company. In their native Sweden, the company became well known not only for selling music hardware, but also for "teach-yourself" books and mail courses on electric guitar, bass, keyboards etc., learning tools that deliberately took in a rock and pop repertory, chord analysis and tuning apart from teaching how to read music. By recognizing the electric guitar as an instrument in its own right, and not just an amped-up version of the acoustic and by accepting the new repertory, Hagström popularized the instrumental skills of the new music outside of the networks associated with rock clubs, and record shops, and at a time when rock music was barely ever being written about from a musical perspective.
Production ended for Swedish-made Hagströms in 1983 as the company were outpriced by other major guitar brands that had moved their stock production lines to Asia. Hagström did make some Japanese prototypes; however, they were not pleased with the workmanship and would rather close down the company than cheapen the brand. The interest in the original Hagström brand still has a cult following around the world and a Hagström Festival takes place in Älvdalen, Sweden around the first week of June every year since 2006.
Hagström Guitars
- Standard, DeLuxe and DeLuxe A, 1958–1962 – Sold in America under the name Goya (not to be confused with Goya guitars, acoustic guitars by Levin). Equipped with the Hagströms Speed-O-Matic fretboard, look similar to the Gibson Les Paul. Sometimes called The Glitter Guitars. DeLuxe A was nicknamed the Batman because of its unusual look.
- Kent, Kent I and Kent II, 1962–1966 – Sold in America as Hagström F-11, F-200 or F-300, and in England as Futurama. The first Hagström guitar with the "Tremar" tremolo system as standard. Inspired by the Fender Stratocaster.
- Hagström Futurama Coronado Automatic, 1963. 200 built specially by Hagström to the requirements of Ben Davis – owner of the Selmer company in London.
- Automatic, Impala and Corvette, 1963–1967 – Automatic was a cross between the Impala and the Corvette. The Corvette was named the Condor in America. All models had a glued neck.
- Hagström I, II and III, 1964–1976 – Gibson SG-inspired body with a Fender-style headstock. Hagström II and III were sold in America as the F-200 and F-300. The later model H-IIN had the same body, but two humbucking pickups, and rotary knobs instead of slide switches. The H-IIN-OT lacked the tremolo tail.
- Viking, Viking 1, Viking II, Viking DeLuxe and Viking I N, 1965–1979 – Hagströms first semi-hollow guitar. With the Viking I N he pickups were changed from single-coils to humbuckers.
