Hagstrom Deluxe-F...thoughts?

[The_Sentry]

I've really been looking into some stuff on these guitars. This might be a very interesting model to check since it really is a solid body/archtop hybrid. (I'm also noting the customer satisfaction with this guitar as well.)

The price? 578 dollars to 595 dollars. Has anyone ever owned one or tried one out?

The Hagstrom Deluxe-F Electric Guitar sounds warm and rich with overtones galore. It has extraordinary styling, is lightweight and drop dead gorgeous. Featuring a patented H-Expander truss rod. Providing tension at either end and running the entire length of the neck, the rigid yet lightweight alloy truss rod allows for very low action and a thin neck.

Another Hagstrom exclusive, the resinator fretboard is a homogeneous wood composite that maintains a strong fundamental harmonic and eliminates wolf tones. It offers the articulate sound of high quality ebony but with more consistency and durability. Silky smooth, reliable and fast.

The Deluxe F body features a hollowed bass side with an f-hole and is made from hard tropical mahogany woods for an impressive, warm and full sound. The neck is fine North American hard rock maple providing a bright, expressive tone and superb playability. Custom 60 Alnico 5 matched covered humbucking with enhanced output and soaring highs.

The self-lubricating graphite composite nut is much harder than bone or plastic resulting in more string vibration through the neck. Tuning is also improved and string binding is eliminated by self-lubrication. A rock solid block stop tailpiece provides maximum tone and endless sustain by transferring uninhibited string energy directly to the guitar body. 18:1 Gear Ratio machine heads ensure fully accurate tuning.

A high-grade polyester finish that is hard, smooth, and more dense than polyurethane. The Deluxe F's finish is jaw dropping and provides excellent protection and sonic performance.

NOTE: This is a Deluxe series guitar, not F series. The correct case for the Deluxe-F is 543030 Hardshell Guitar Case - Swede Super Swede/Deluxe

Buy Hagstrom Deluxe-F Electric Guitar | Solid Body Electric Guitars | Musician's Friend

Hagstrom Deluxe-F Electric Guitar Features:

Body: 40mm mahogany body with hollowed bass side, 10mm carved maple top
Neck: set mahogany
Fingerboard: resinator fretboard with Hagstrom 6mm dot position marks
Truss rod: H-expander truss rod
Tuning keys: Hagstrom 18:1 die cast tuners
Scale length: 24.75" scale
Pickups: 2x Hagstrom custom 60 humbuckers
Pickup selector: 3-way toggle
Bridge: long travel tune-o-matic with Hagstrom trapeze tailpiece
Controls: 1x volume / 1x tone / mini-toggle coil tap switch

 

[gmacdonnell]

I've been really impressed with the Hagstrom's I've played. Of course, I liked the originals, and they shipped the machinery and schematics to Asia to reproduce these great, strange guitars. They play like butter, and that fretboard is really cool.

The only thing, like a lot of Asian guitars, is that the electronics could really use an upgrade. They sound ok, but upgrade with great pickups, pots, cap and switch, these guitars would sound as cool as they look.

I know, liking old Hagstroms makes me strange...

 

[The_Sentry]

I've been really impressed with the Hagstrom's I've played. Of course, I liked the originals, and they shipped the machinery and schematics to Asia to reproduce these great, strange guitars. They play like butter, and that fretboard is really cool.

The only thing, like a lot of Asian guitars, is that the electronics could really use an upgrade. They sound ok, but upgrade with great pickups, pots, cap and switch, these guitars would sound as cool as they look.

I know, liking old Hagstroms makes me strange...

Not at all. That actually seems to be a very common phenomenom with the newer Hagstroms.

What's really intriguing me about this guitar is the body design: It looks like it's set up to offer more vibration on the bass side of the instrument with that open chamber. I don't know if there's also a cavity carved in it for the electronics either, but I'd be really curious to find out what this overall design sounds like.

(I'd also wonder what Gibson or Epiphone would do with a similar design...)

 

[gmacdonnell]

Epiphone made a guitar like that a few years back: an LP custom with F-holes.

With the f holes, feedback is much easier to achieve at lower volumes, and you get that cool effect of the sound flying out of the guitar when it's at high volume, (you know what I mean?)


What's really cool, I used to have this setup, is to put a nice contact pickup, like K&K, and mount it inside the chamber. Then run it out in stereo with the regular pickups.

It's a much more "acoustic" sound than you get from piezo bridge saddles, and can be used for all sorts of cool effects, like two guitars at once, or just to add some clarity.

 

[The_Sentry]

Epiphone made a guitar like that a few years back: an LP custom with F-holes.

With the f holes, feedback is much easier to achieve at lower volumes, and you get that cool effect of the sound flying out of the guitar when it's at high volume, (you know what I mean?)


What's really cool, I used to have this setup, is to put a nice contact pickup, like K&K, and mount it inside the chamber. Then run it out in stereo with the regular pickups.

It's a much more "acoustic" sound than you get from piezo bridge saddles, and can be used for all sorts of cool effects, like two guitars at once, or just to add some clarity.

Oh, "that" sound....yes, I know it all too well! That's one of the biggest attractions to the archtop for me. Dialing up some good crunch, hitting a note, sustaining it, and letting it disintegrate into harmonic feedback while that body is just vibrating next to my body...LOVE that sort of stuff!

I didn't know about the K&K though...thanks for the tip! (I'll have to look into that...)