Hagstrom Swede Gold

I had my eyes on one of these since they were announced, but was a bit skeptic because of previous experiences with Hagstrom guitars. I had a Deuce, played nice and was comfortable (although after playing it for longer times, the thin neck caused my hand to cramp up), but I found the pickups, switch and jack sub par. Trying to replace the switch was a bit of a miss because the routing was too small for the switch I wanted to install, so I had to make do with another switch (bit more sturdy than stock, but still not top notch). Played on a Viking owned by a band member for some time: same experience but less comfortable due to the weight. Before giving this model a chance, I bought a couple of Ltd Ec1000 guitars, and they were just great out of the box (keepers!). The guitar I played in my first band was a gold top, and-being a bit nostalgic- I kept thinking: maybe with this model I can get similar specs to the Ltd's (locking tuners, stainless steel frets) but in gold, hoping the quality would be better than say 10 years ago... So I pulled the plug and ordered it. Specs I wanted are spot on, pickups are great sounding, not wanting to upgrade them immediately is rare for me... (although I don't use the coil split a lot, you can get some nice variations of tone out of this beauty) Only negative point for me again: the switch. It seems a bit better than the stock one on my Deuce, but it isn't really fluid and again, due to narrow routing, I can't rotate the switch in a way that follows the arc of my picking hand. So for now I will leave it alone, but I might do some routing myself in the future and put a better switch, slanted. Another minor point for me: the upper strap button could be placed a bit closer to the neck, so the neck would tilt a bit more upward while playing, now it's a bit too close to horizontal (this is really nitpicking) for my liking. Again, something I might change in the near future. TLDR: Great guitar for this price, locking tuners, stainless steel frets and great sounding stock pickups with lots of variations in tones available. Another big plus: it comes with a nice fitting case! No major problems, just some personal preferences of mine that weren't met. Only things I'm missing to make this 100% would be: locking bridge and tailpiece, better switch that has room for rotation and upper strap pin closer to the neck to give a bit of an upward tilt. Better and cheaper than any Epiphone I have played, more comfortable and up to date than a Gibson, very close to new gen. Esp Ltd, but a bit cheaper and comes with a quality hardcase!

a great and charming guitar and being great deserves top rating. the pickups on this guitar are same charming in terms of highs and detail as well as do they project an absolutely sharp and clear sound. the swede pickup output is not the loudest BUT well amped up or boosted the super clear sound makes up for that worth it to invest for a good amp setup. and I generally expect guitars to behave different, not only in sound but also output levels. now having 10 guitars (5 electric and 5 acoustic I can tell that from experience. I appreciate the gold standard as said focusing on the tone being really golden not those mixtures which tend more to orange..

.. with a single cold split function I can choose from a lot of sound varieties which adds to the greatness of the hagstrom swede. the sustain and playing accuracy is close to ridiculous. playing and moving along the fretboard is just as those with a bit of experience in rock and crunch would expect. go play some rock?? yes, go blues?? there you go, what about hard rock?? the swede will provide, go jazz??.... hmm, being no jazz guitar by nature lets see BUT in terms of sound spectrum that would do too because the swede has its character no doubt :) anyway, how amazing the hagstrom swede really sounds is by switching to marshall crunch. I m talking about that wonderful early to mid 90s crunch many productions in rock music used back then. just do it and the mids of the swede will unfold their grace at latest and if you keep eye on the guitar maybe you catch the smile it throws back to you after you threw yours! not each e guitar is able to reach full potential marshall sound. for example my gretsch jet electromat and my ibanez ps60-ssl cant do it. the swede once more will provide. the price of around 969 euros is grant in many ways for the fact that I get a guitar of which I can tell straight away that it has what I need to make it to unlock next level playing mode and have a well playing over longer time!