The Hagstrom Guitar Company, located in Sweden and founded in 1925, have
been recently relaunched globally within the past 10 years and are now
produced in China. Well known for their trust rod (adjustable metal rod
in neck which controls the bend of the neck) design as well as their
high functioning slim necks (slimmer than an Ibanez!) and body shapes,
Hagstroms are enjoyed by collectors and players from around the world.
Users such as Pat Smear(Foo Fighters/Germs), Kirk Cobain, Elvis Presley
and Dweezil Zappa have used Hagstroms at one time or another in their
careers and many touring musicians use Hagstrom's for their durability
in various countries with temperature changes onstage leading a standard
guitar to warp from the climate changes during touring.
The Hagstrom Ultra Swede comes in a Les Paul single cutaway design using
a simple volume and tone knob, two medium output pickups, a pickup
selector and coil tapping switch which splits the coils in the humbucker
pickup enabling the player to have single coil sounds that are
emulating a Telecaster or Stratocaster tone. The Ultra Swede comes in a
variety of colors and I so happen to have the Burgundy Burst finish
(pictured). The body of the Ultra Swede is made of Basswood with a flame
maple top which creates a versatile sounding instrument. Maple top
refers to a solid piece of cut maple that is added to the top quarter of
the body of the guitar to give a greater visual appeal and enhance the
high frequency sounds. A maple neck coupled with a Resonator fingerboard
( resembles and plays like an Ebony fingerboard). The guitar strings
pass through the tune o matic style bridge on top of the body all the
way to the headstock. Medium sized frets lead up the neck to a 3x3
tuning head with the logo and crest of the Hagstrom brand. Along with
visually appealing look of the guitar, binding comes standard around the
entire guitar which finishes off the look quite nicely.
The reasons I purchased a Hagstrom came from its sustaining set neck
design which incorporates the neck through the body to enhance tone as
well as functionality. The radius of the neck is 16 inches coupled with
the slim C profile that enables me to bend effortlessly with 11 gauge
strings as well as grip the guitar without it feeling like my hand will
cramp. The Hagstrom trust rod is designed like a construction I beam
which targets the neck warping issues that guitars have from so much
tension on the neck. The Ultra Swede allows my smaller hands to
effortlessly play and focus on the notes I'm playing rather than the
condition my guitar is in.
The Ultra Swede has a basic control layout. One tone knob and one volume
knob which is used for both pickups. Included is the pickup selector
switch which allows me to go from my neck pickup, to middle position
incorporating both pickups to my bridge pickup. Accompanying the first
switch is the coil tapping switch located in between the volume and tone
knobs. This splits the humbucker pickup into a single coil pickup
emulation. (pictured below)
Many guitarists prefer to have either one set of pickups or the other
rather than sacrificing tone with this switch but if you cannot afford
to have 3 or 4 different models of guitars at your disposal then this is
a great option for playing live. You have the ability to play many
different genres and tones from this guitar without the need to switch
amps or guitars. I was drawn to that feature of the guitar because I'm
influenced from many different guitarists and with the flexibility to be
able to play with different sounds all within your fingers grasp gives
the player a broader spectrum to work with.
The Hagstrom pickups are from their 68 collection. Determining the sound
of this pickup really depends on your preference of pickup height but
for beginner purposes I will place these in a mid ranged output category
which gives off vintage tones from the 60's and 70's and natural
harmonics allowing your playing style to be dynamic instead of playing
with high output or active pickups which are a whole other ball park in
themselves.
All in all, for a mid price guitar, the Hagstrom Ultra Swede allows you
to be the type of player you want to become without having too many
obstacles in your way. For a guitarist looking to purchase stable and
affordable guitar, look to a Hagstrom to meet your needs with their
entire collection suiting many different player styles. Not only are
their guitars filled with historic playability, so are their line of
basses and acoustic guitars which you can view on their website at www.hagstrom.eu or at NAMM 2012 in Anaheim if you happen to have tickets.
