OffsetGuitars.com

Keen to hear your thoughts on this.

I have been on the lookout for one of the reissues.

gringopig wrote: ↑

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.

Hagstrom switched to this sort of neck on all their guitars once they came up with that fancy H shaped trussrod/bar thing in maybe...63 or 64?

I've had a couple of the first run of Futurama II's from 62 or so, (the ones with the plastic tops) and they had much fatter necks, which suits me!

windmill wrote: ↑

Thu May 16, 2019 2:22 am

Keen to hear your thoughts on this.

I have been on the lookout for one of the reissues.

Aye but the re-issues are made in China and it isn't even the proper Hagstrom company! Why pay for one of these when you can get an original for not much more?
I see you are in Australia so that will complicate things but I just would not be happy with some Chinese replica.

So. Look here!!

https://reverb.com/item/24119604-hagstrom-i

You lucky thing! Right in your back yard too.


I mean, it's been modified so not perfect but just an example of what you can get if you keep on looking.

gringopig wrote: ↑

Thu May 23, 2019 11:40 am

Aye but the re-issues are made in China and it isn't even the proper Hagstrom company! Why pay for one of these when you can get an original for not much more?
I see you are in Australia so that will complicate things but I just would not be happy with some Chinese replica.

Thanks for your response.

It is the HIII that I am interested in, and the re-issue may be the only chance to actually play one over in this part of the world.

So I am keen hear thoughts about the originals sound and feel, to see if the re-issues come close or as you say are not proper Hagstroms


Anyway thanks for your thoughts

The originals are cool! They are characterful guitars that when set up well play as good as any other decent odd guitar from back then- Burns, hofner, Hopf, Framus etc

I paid £30 for a Futurama II at a car boot sale, and after selling that for 250 on ebay a while later, bought another, on ebay for 150.

I wanna say that the seller of that blue one above marinated his smack in some crack for a few months before picking 770 dollars, but maybe they are harder to find in Australia.

IMO Chinese versions of * anything * just feel the same. Those guys do a great job of making functional guitars but they are characterless

windmill wrote: ↑

Thu May 23, 2019 2:30 pm

gringopig wrote: ↑

Thu May 23, 2019 11:40 am

Aye but the re-issues are made in China and it isn't even the proper Hagstrom company! Why pay for one of these when you can get an original for not much more?
I see you are in Australia so that will complicate things but I just would not be happy with some Chinese replica.

Thanks for your response.

It is the HIII that I am interested in, and the re-issue may be the only chance to actually play one over in this part of the world.

So I am keen hear thoughts about the originals sound and feel, to see if the re-issues come close or as you say are not proper Hagstroms


Anyway thanks for your thoughts

Unfortunately I haven't played any of the Chinese made guitars. I'm sure they are very playable good sounding instruments; just not real Hagstroms.
A bit like Gretsch, Epiphone and the modern Danolectro brand, they have taken the name to produce re-issues and cheaper asian made variants.

My Hagstrom is away for a set up but after I adjusted the H expander truss rod myself, it played great. All three pickup selector switches were functional but the fixed tone shaping switches and the mute were intermittent so they are getting seen to.
The sound is not unlike a Stratocaster but the pickups are larger and the middle one can be noticeable when playing and mine was wobbly so needs attention but it's a strong sound and by no means cheap. The whole guitar feels like a quality instrument and the neck is super thin to play and thin from nut to body too.
The tremelo system is down only and a bit lacking in finesse with the strings fanning out over the adjustable saddles mounted onto the rail of the bridge. The strings all stay put however and I will discover through time as to how stable the system is in terms of tune.

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.

Are you sure it's a HIIN you have? Some of the very early ones did come with the thin neck with Fender style headstock, but the majority had the 3+3 style headstock and a much chunkier neck profile.

Yes, I'm sure. It's an early one with the Fender headstock.
You send me a tracing of a body some years ago for its restoration btw.
I'll post a pic when I have more time.

Ah, that rings a bell! Sorry

Here's the only picture I found of it, together with my '64 Jazzmaster

edit: no headstock...

If any of you who own a guitar with the Tremar Tremolo wouldn’t mind recording some video specifically displaying its use, I would really appreciate it. There’s surprisingly little out there recorded specifically to show how different trem systems function and that’s a shame. The closest I ever get is just a guy playing typical demo vid riffs who will only sometimes maybe tap the bar with their hand at the end of a riff for some barely noticeable flutter. And it’s like this with every tremolo!

I wanna see it’s range of motion - can you hold the arm while playing and do the Kevin Shields thing? That’s my main concern but I also wanna see and hear how much you can get out of it, a step, a half step? Can you do up vends?

Really, even if you don’t wanna go thru doing a thing and putting it on YouTube, I’d be totally fine with a cellphone video of you playing it even unplugged. I just wanna see how the damn thing works! If you wanna do that, just text me a video, message me and I’ll give you my number.

Thanks in advance to anyone who would be awesome enough to do me this favor

Agreed! I'm curious about the tremolo on those giitars

The tremolo on my guitar sucks. When I use it, the guitar goes out of tune.
I might as well not understand it well enough to set it up properly though.
I'm not a tremolo user anyway...
If this summer someone with a camera visits me I'll do a clip , if I don't forget and when we're in the mood. I don't have a camera myself.

In 99 % of trem use causing the guitar to go out of tune, it is something other than the tremolo that’s the problem. The nut is a good start to look at.

I will do a video soon if you like...

The trem is not like how you would want though. It has no up movement and takes quite a bit of force to move so it's quite mechanical sounding. Not fluid. You can get good Kurt Vile style down plunges thankfully. It also seems to unravel my high e so reluctant to use it a lot so I need to get a soldering iron.