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The new Hagstrom Book is available now...
Author: Mikael Jansson
Photo: Julio Gonzalez
Karl Erik Hagstrom, son of founder Albin Hagstrom.
President and CEO during most of Hagstrom´s guitar era.
Photo: Rolf Andersson/Bildbolaget © http://www.bildbolaget.nu
The importance of the Hagström music company to Swedish music in the 20th century is hard to overrate. Most Swedish musicians have owned or used some piece of equipment manufactured, imported or sold by Hagström, often in one of their many retail shops in Scandinavia. Artists ranging from ABBA to Zappa have used Hagström gear.
Hagström guitars hold a certain place in musicians´ hearts. Most of them were made in the factory in Älvdalen, Sweden between 1958 and 1983. This year celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Hagström´s guitar production.
According to records, the Älvdalen factory made 128,538 electric guitars and basses. Probably not an exact figure, but as close to the truth as you will get. The Oslo factory made some 40,000 guitars between 1947 and 1961. The Swedish Bjärton company made some 100,000 guitars, of which maybe 5,000 were sold with the Hagström brand name. An educated guess is that some 200,000 guitars and basses bearing the Hagström name were sold worldwide. During some years in the 1960s, as much as 90 plus percent of the production was exported, mostly to the other Scandinavian countries, to the UK, Continental Europe and Northern America. In the mid 1970s, Hagström had distributors in over 30 countries.
Hagström´s electric guitars, on which this book concentrates, went through a fascinating development. The first “glitter guitars” were the result of in-house experiments, and perhaps mostly of interest as examples of 1950s design, although they have stunning features such as the patented H-profile truss rod and scalloped fingerboards. The next series of instruments were built with the “Beatle generation” baby boomers in mind, who demanded playable instruments at an acceptable price. In the 1970s, Hagström took the next step in competing with the quality brands, mostly American, by introducing the Jimmy and various Swede models.
The Hagström Company was very innovative, especially when one considers its remote location. Hagström worked with partners such as amp builder Ampeg and New York luthier James D´Aquisto, but also had remarkable in-house talent, such as Head of Design Holger Berglund and his successor Per-Åke Olsson, Arne Hårdén who drew not only all the blueprints for the guitars but also for the tools needed to produce them, and paintshop master Nils Larsson, whose secrets even Fender tried to discover!
Hagström´s designs are Swedish industrial design at its best, comparable to Hasselblad cameras and Volvo or Saab automobiles.
The Hagström brand still lives, a quarter of a century after the factory shut down, now in a line of guitars and basses made in China, introduced in 2005; many of the models are based on the originals. Hagström guitars and basses have become international collectors´ items. It is also notable that many new artists play Hagströms, often as a kind of “retro” statement, but also for their inherent qualities.
Finally: the Hagström guitar production is quite well documented, but there are still exceptions to the rules and records. Some instruments do not look like the ones pictured in promotional literature. They may have changed from number one in a series to the final instrument. Changes made ”on the fly” were common. Perhaps a model was supposed to have a certain kind of hardware, but if there was a shortage, the final guitars might have received different hardware, just to finish the batch. There are transitional instruments with features of both the old and new models. Some were made to custom order, or made for an artist for promotional purposes. The general model descriptions in this book follow the literature, for the most part. There are, however, photos of instruments that differ from it. There will always be exceptions to the rules – which make life complicated but interesting to collectors!
The red DeLuxe guitar, Photo: Viktor Gärdebo,
(White/Blue and Green), Photo: Jenny Gabrielsson
Photographer Rolf Andersson website http://www.bildbolaget.nu/
Thank you Mikael for this beautiful work.
For the moment - international orders can be sent to Staffan Lindhé at Reverb Staffan@reverb.nu and payments be made via PayPal.
The Distribution in Sweden - click here:
Your Hagstrom Team
