OffsetGuitars.com

Classy!

No ultra-bright interior either & that handle looks super comfy.

Oh nice! I always liked Vikings - they always struck me as a sort of cousin of the Guild Starfire (a guitar that I have a serious amount of love for ... though I'm still looking for 'the one').

Great cases those too - I had a reissue Viking on loan for a while a good few years back when I was in Switzerland (and guitar-less) - I love how the case looks.

Despot wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:35 am

Oh nice! I always liked Vikings - they always struck me as a sort of cousin of the Guild Starfire (a guitar that I have a serious amount of love for ... though I'm still looking for 'the one').

This!!

Nice.

So, was this guitar designed before or after the Coronado? I'm sure everyone else saw it year ago, but I just realized that, between the hollow body/shape, the cutaways, the chrome single coils, and the black headstock with the softened "point"...

PJazzmaster wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 04, 2018 3:59 am

sorry for the hijack (again). After all these years I managed to find a used Viking Reissue case for mine. It looks cool and fits like a glove. And the guitar deserves it (after living in an acoustic guitar gigbag for it's entire life )

Very nice! I'll have to be on the lookout for one of those...always nice to see a break from the old black tolex de rigeuer.

mbene085 wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 05, 2018 5:52 am

So, was this guitar designed before or after the Coronado? I'm sure everyone else saw it year ago, but I just realized that, between the hollow body/shape, the cutaways, the chrome single coils, and the black headstock with the softened "point"...

Interesting to think about! From what I understand the Coro was developed with Roger Rossmeisl sometime in 1965 and hit stores in late '65 or early '66; the Viking was released sometime in 1965, so in theory they were likely developed around the same time. The Viking's headstock shape at least is little changed from the one Hagström had been using from the Hagström I models of the earlier part of the decade.

Perhaps a case of convergent evolution, maybe both brands capitalizing on the Beatles and their chrome P90'd Casinos?

nanamour wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:58 pm

Interesting to think about! From what I understand the Coro was developed with Roger Rossmeisl sometime in 1965 and hit stores in late '65 or early '66; the Viking was released sometime in 1965, so in theory they were likely developed around the same time. The Viking's headstock shape at least is little changed from the one Hagström had been using from the Hagström I models of the earlier part of the decade.

Perhaps a case of convergent evolution, maybe both brands capitalizing on the Beatles and their chrome P90'd Casinos?

I agree that Beatlemania likely pushed multiple companies in that direction, but the interesting thing to me is that both Hagstrom and Fender went with slightly "softer"/more rounded points on the headstocks, along with making the headstocks black on both sunburst and red versions of their guitars. The similarities are just too close. Did Rossmeisl have a connection to Hagstrom? He certainly was a "hired gun" designer for multiple brands of guitars...

Just interesting to note how many similarities there are in the design, and even more interesting that they came out in the same year!

Perhaps there was some corporate espionage at play, or a missing link that directly influenced both Rossmeisl/Fender and the designers at Hagstrom? Fun to think about.

mbene085 wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:13 pm

I agree that Beatlemania likely pushed multiple companies in that direction, but the interesting thing to me is that both Hagstrom and Fender went with slightly "softer"/more rounded points on the headstocks, along with making the headstocks black on both sunburst and red versions of their guitars. The similarities are just too close. Did Rossmeisl have a connection to Hagstrom? He certainly was a "hired gun" designer for multiple brands of guitars...

Just interesting to note how many similarities there are in the design, and even more interesting that they came out in the same year!

Perhaps there was some corporate espionage at play, or a missing link that directly influenced both Rossmeisl/Fender and the designers at Hagstrom? Fun to think about.

No Rossmeisl/Hagström connection that I know of, but definitely enough parallels between the two to get the cogs turning! Fascinating too to think about the general explosion of ES-esque models from brands more traditionally associated with solid body guitars around this time (Coro, Viking, Mosrite Celebrity, Baldwin 706, etc etc, along with a slew of Japanese and catalog/department store stuff)--I wonder how much cross-talk and tabs-keeping (or flat out corporate espionage) was going on between brands.

Fast forward a year and this is still rotating with an AV 64 Tele for the #1 slot in my electric quiver. I fear a refret is in its near future as they're practically nonexistent now, despite it playing perfectly well up and down the neck for now (St. Hagstrom's Miracle?).

I've missed having a trem for subtle warbles and shimmers and found myself reaching for an arm that wasn't there. To rectify this I started hunting for a suitable period Bigsby and struck gold (St. Hagstrom's Second Miracle) and found an original Hagstrom-branded Bigsby, which had I desperately wanted for a while but assumed was total unobtanium. Got it for a very reasonable price, and with the perfect patina to match the rest of the guitar.

{see example below}:



I'll post some updated pics when I get it installed. Really delighted to have tracked one of these Hagsbys down!

That is perfect!!