This was because importer Jerome Hershman, who had been the sole importer of Levin guitars from Sweden, under the Goya brand, inked a deal to import and distribute Hagstrom guitars in the United States. Many of these guitars were sold under the Goya brand name in the United States. The last batch of these Sparkle & Pearloid guitars included 540 guitars that were built in 1963. The first batch included 200 guitars that were built from 1958 to 1959. The first part of this batch is called the Hagstrom De Luxe "small model" and the last part is the "large model" witch later became the Hagstrom De Luxe 90. The first "official" batch of Hagstrom electric guitars is batch 449. Those instruments have their serial numbers stamped in their perloid covered bodies starting from P-001. A pre-production batch of guitars were built towards the end of 1958. Rock music demanded electric guitars instead of accordions!Īfter some research, that included taking a Gibson Les Paul "Goldtop" apart (Hagstrom was the Scandinavian Gibson distributor at that time), the head designer Holger Berglund and his right hand man Arne Hårdén started to design the first Hagstrom electric guitar. To take advantage of America's accordion craze, Hagstrom was there to provide the instruments.īut in 1958 Albin Hagström's oldest son Karl Erik Hagström came back to Sweden stating that the accordion era was coming towards an end and that the future was rock´n´roll. The Hagstrom U.S branch stayed in business until 1949. Men serving in WWII were coming home with accordions, and in a few years the "stomach Steinway" would become a brief fad. However, in 1940 the launch in Jamestown was canceled due to World War II and the people hired to run the company disappeared with the company's funds.Īfter the war ended, Sven Hillring was sent over from Sweden to oversee a new launch of the new accordion factory in Jamestown, New York. The company had offered guitars as early as the late 1940's, but primarily was known as an accordion manufacturer, and distributor. Then in 1939 Hagström started to establish themselves in USA by opening Hagstrom Music Company Inc in Rockefeller Center in New York as well as Albin Hagstrom Inc in Jamestown, New York.
#VINTAGE ELECTRIC GUITAR IDENTIFICATION UPDATE#
By 1936, Hagström hired two Italian accordion builders who helped to update and streamline the manufacturing process. In 1932 he started manufacturing accordions himself in Älvdalen, Sweden. In fact most of his business was devoted to music stores, that sold his accordions. Albin expanded his business with shops in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Albin Hagström began importing accordions from Germany and Italy to Sweden in 1925 and founded Firma Albin Hagström. I don’t know about fast, but the necks on those old Hagstrom guitars were certainly among the thinnest. Hagstrom advertised that they were the "Fastest necks in the World".
This feature refers to the unique “H Expander-Stretcher” truss rod. One of the selling features, which was printed on a metallic decal on the back of the Hagstrom guitar headstock, was their “King Neck”. But all those switches were mighty impressive to someone learning basic guitar chords. At that age, I did not know that the vibrato was a much different system than the one on a Fender Stratocaster, or even a Jazzmaster. In smaller letters you could read Albin Hagstrom.Īside from the lesser price, the big difference between Hagstrom and Fender was that Hagstrom guitars had thinner bodies, and a lot of slider switches. The six-on-a-side headstock, had the brand “Hagstrom” written in script similar to Fender’s spaghetti-style font. Some of them looked like guitars made by Fender. On a section of one wall was a display of six unusual guitars made by Hagstrom. I would hang out at that place before, and after my guitar lesson, and even go there after school, just to check out the guitars.
That is where I fell in love with the guitar. I started playing guitar when I was 13 years old, and took lessons at Dodd’s Music Store in Covington, Kentucky.