1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Discussion of vintage Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Bass VIs, Electric XIIs and any other offset-waist instruments.
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gringopig
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1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by gringopig » Mon May 13, 2019 7:20 am

Just picked this one up: a 1965 Hagstrom III in nice condition and before Mike Krol could hoover it up into his collection!

Going to adjust the string spacing and get an insert for the knob but it sounds good acoustically...

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Is it going to be the time for Hagstroms to sweep the board and push Jags and JMs off the top dog leaderboard?

We will see.

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Trout
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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by Trout » Mon May 13, 2019 7:51 am

Nice! What year is it? 👍🏻
#sitdownrock at https://staffanandersson.bandcamp.com/album/det-hemliga-namnet

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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by Jazzmastervsjaguar » Mon May 13, 2019 7:57 am

Love these old Hagstrom guitars!!

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gringopig
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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by gringopig » Mon May 13, 2019 9:36 am

Trout wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 7:51 am
Nice! What year is it? 👍🏻
It's a 1965 I believe.

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otis
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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by otis » Mon May 13, 2019 9:38 am

Nice!
How does the back of the headstock look? I have an old HIIN that was butchered at one time to look like an SG, but it was more or less restored to its original shape.
The bar at the headstock didn't get installed again, but it was installed with bolts on the back when I got it.
So I was wondering how the originals look...
That's a very nice looking one you've got.

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gringopig
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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by gringopig » Mon May 13, 2019 9:51 am

otis wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 9:38 am
Nice!
How does the back of the headstock look? I have an old HIIN that was butchered at one time to look like an SG, but it was more or less restored to its original shape.
The bar at the headstock didn't get installed again, but it was installed with bolts on the back when I got it.
So I was wondering how the originals look...
That's a very nice looking one you've got.
Thanks!
Image

Image

Like this!

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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by Mechanical Birds » Mon May 13, 2019 10:27 am

Always wanted to mess with one of these, but like a lot of things I’ve never had the chance. I did play a Swede once that was really cool and something similar to the III but the body was like two pieces of plastic and the ‘finish’ was this decaying red vinyl stuff - looked cool but wasn’t a good player and looked like shit.

I just wanna get my hands on a guitar with one of these trem units! How does it compare to the offset vibrato? Obviously inspired by it, but also obviously a sub-par design. When I was trying to refurbish this Univox a while back, without even installing it, it felt like it wasn’t gonna be great. I require a sort of full range of motion with the arm able to pass freely across all the strings so I can hold the arm while playing (why I’ve never been able to get on with a Bigsby) and without even having any tension in it it felt like it was not going to be easy to do that.

Am I wrong there and when there’s tension on it you can more-freely swing the arm? I’m surprised there wasn’t any kind of adjustment for tightening/loosening the range of the arm’s swing.

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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by gringopig » Mon May 13, 2019 11:17 am

I got it today and so far I've cut the old nasty strings off and put 10-52 on and Fretdoctored the fingerboard. I reset the saddles to a better spacing which involves loosening the 2 screws each side of the saddle and repositioning it on the little raised bar each saddle straddles.

Then came the tremelo. There is a wee screw to the side of the bar and you can tighten or loosen it and the angle of the bar to which the arm is attached will increase relative to the plate that is flush with the body. I believe this is loosening the tension on the spring. You can also undo the screw on the round base of the bar and re-position the arm in the holder to allow a greater or lesser angle relative to the strings but the arm always seems to have a fixed position. You can move it easily but it doesn't swing freely. It's like a jag or JM arm which is tight in the collet.
It differs from the Jag/JM tremelo in that it feels much more like a Bigsby and I think it's all downward wobble.
The jag/JM wobble is more controllable and sinewy and up/down with a bit of range. I'm still experimenting with it but it seems to hold tune fine and I suspect the bridge is like the Fender system and able to rock a little. I'm not sure this would be a system that would suit your needs to be honest but you might need to try one but that's going to be tough I suppose.

:-)

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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by windmill » Mon May 13, 2019 1:35 pm


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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by Mechanical Birds » Tue May 14, 2019 1:11 pm

gringopig wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 11:17 am
I got it today and so far I've cut the old nasty strings off and put 10-52 on and Fretdoctored the fingerboard. I reset the saddles to a better spacing which involves loosening the 2 screws each side of the saddle and repositioning it on the little raised bar each saddle straddles.

Then came the tremelo. There is a wee screw to the side of the bar and you can tighten or loosen it and the angle of the bar to which the arm is attached will increase relative to the plate that is flush with the body. I believe this is loosening the tension on the spring. You can also undo the screw on the round base of the bar and re-position the arm in the holder to allow a greater or lesser angle relative to the strings but the arm always seems to have a fixed position. You can move it easily but it doesn't swing freely. It's like a jag or JM arm which is tight in the collet.
It differs from the Jag/JM tremelo in that it feels much more like a Bigsby and I think it's all downward wobble.
The jag/JM wobble is more controllable and sinewy and up/down with a bit of range. I'm still experimenting with it but it seems to hold tune fine and I suspect the bridge is like the Fender system and able to rock a little. I'm not sure this would be a system that would suit your needs to be honest but you might need to try one but that's going to be tough I suppose.


:-)
That’s awesome thank you so much. Would you possibly be into doing a video to specifically display the trem’s functions and features? It’s kind of mind blowing to me that nothing like that seems to exist on YouTube, and not just with the Tremar but with tremolo systems in general. At least as far as I’ve been able to find, especially for how common it is to have a trem system on a guitar, the lack of any kind of visual aid to show how pretty much any of the hundreds of different systems out there actually work is annoying.

Maybe that’s my niche and how I’m destined to finally get rich, just doing super informative videos dedicated solely to guitars’ various tremolo systems.

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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by windmill » Wed May 15, 2019 5:31 am

Where are the pictures ?

Where are the videos ?

What about the sound clips ?

Whats the neck like etc etc etc .......

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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by gringopig » Wed May 15, 2019 6:39 am

OK lol

More pictures:

https://imgur.com/a/a72AQTd

The neck is super skinny in depth but normal width. It's like a Charvel Pro mod DK24 which is a shredder style guitar but has small vintage style frets.

40.34 mm at nut
50.72 mm at 12th fret
18 mm depth first fret to 12th fret

Or for our US based cousins who still work in inches:

1.588" at nut
2.00" at 12th fret
0.72" neck depth at 1st fret and 12th fret

Possible video and sound samples to come lol
Last edited by gringopig on Wed May 15, 2019 6:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Wed May 15, 2019 6:43 am

You think you can't, you wish you could, I know you can, I wish you would. Slip inside this house as you pass by.

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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by gringopig » Wed May 15, 2019 6:58 am

PorkyPrimeCut wrote:
Wed May 15, 2019 6:43 am
I fixed your link.

:)
Aha thank you!!

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Re: 1965 Hagstrom III: Swedish offset

Post by Pacafeliz » Wed May 15, 2019 12:40 pm

These have amazing necks but I never quite liked their sound. Been hunting a HIIN for years now but always hesitate to pull the trigger... and regret it later on... :fp:
i love delay SO much ...that i procrastinate all the time.

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