Hagstrom guitars of the 1970s did conform somewhat to an establishing consensus (admittedly Gibson's) of what a guitar should be. Hagstrom pickups and tailpieces were, at times, also used by other manufacturers, most notably Guild, who widely fitted their mid/late 1960s guitars and basses with Hagstrom parts. But the Les Paul-style Swede debuting in 1970 was the guitar that really grabbed guitar players attention, selling well right through the seventies and into the eighties. Other famous users included Frank Zappa who appeared in Hagstrom advertisements with a 12 string guitar, David Bowie, and Jimi Hendrix, with the legendary Eight-stringed bass. In the latter half of the decade solid bodies were selling well, particularly the Hagstrom II and III, as were the semi-acoustic Viking, finally appearing in the hands of Elvis Presley in 1968. Guitars like the Corvette and Impala helped cemment Hagstrom's reputation as a quality builder, and by 1965 alternate branding was no longer necessary.
In the early sixties, Hagstrom produced a number of solid bodies that were distributed by different companies worldwide, often given alternate model names and even different brands for example Hershman in the US labelled some Hagstrom guitars as Goya, whilst Selmer in the UK used the marque Futurama. Over the next two decades, Hagstrom produced a number of interesting and commercially sucessful guitars, many with a nod towards, Gibson and Fender, but some quite unique designs of their own. By this time, Albin had died (later to be replaced by his son Karl-Erik), but the company's many years experience of accordion manufacture massively influenced the early guitars, with the use of pearloid sparkle finishes and a preference for push-switches over potentiometers more widely used in American guitars.
In the second half of the 20th century, however, accordion sales were declining but Hagstrom were there at the beginning of the new guitar boom, producing their first electric, the Hagstrom De Luxe in 1958. By 1932 he had expanded into their manufacture, at a plant in a Swedish town, Älvdalen. Hagstrom was founded by Albin Hagström in 1925, largely dealing in imported accordions. One important innovation by Hagstrom, and arguably one of the key reasons for their sucess, was the low-action "fastest playing neck in the world" produced by their patented H-shaped "expander-stretcher" truss rod (rail). Guitars like the Swede, Viking bass, and solid body H-series, though clearly influenced by better known American designs, were great guitars in themselves, and did much to earn the brand the reputation for high-quality, highly playable instruments. Like so many other classic guitar makers, their current product line is very much based on the innovative designs the company first developed in the 1960s and 1970s.
Swedish musical instrument company Hagstrom produced guitars from the late 1950s and for the best part of three decades. Hagstrom guitar information on this site is sorted into categories:
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