Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by nanamour » Sat Sep 09, 2017 7:59 am

After years of pining over one of these I ordered this beautifully battered example a few weeks ago, but my city taking on its best approximation of Waterworld delayed its delivery from the distant shores of Chicago until today:

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I pick it up this afternoon :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by rexter » Sat Sep 09, 2017 12:35 pm

Hagstrom Viking?

Wish I hadn't sold mine!

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by PJazzmaster » Sat Sep 09, 2017 1:47 pm

Viking I
Nice!

My first vintage guitar was actually a Viking I from '65! I got mine for free :o (by the father of a drummer friend, I was 12 or 13, his father was a bit drunk that afternoon ??? ), but it was not playable at that time and restoring such a guitar was not easy back then (before ebay etc.). Yes, I still have it and yes, it's playable now!

Here is a cool band that is actually using a viking (that's probably the maximum twang you will get out of a viking):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C9fHEJ7QCs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nL1SHIMdUM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by PJazzmaster » Tue Sep 12, 2017 9:33 am

nanamour wrote: I pick it up this afternoon
Have you received it? How do you like it so far?

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by nanamour » Tue Sep 12, 2017 6:32 pm

You're both correct! A Hagström Viking I, circa '65-68 (couldn't find a definitive resource on vintage Hag serial number dating) a long ways indeed from its forest'd Swedish birthplace.

A few more photos courtesy of the seller:

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:-* :-* :-*
PJazzmaster wrote:
nanamour wrote: I pick it up this afternoon
Have you received it? How do you like it so far?
After enduring a few hectic workdays I finally got to spend some quality time with this Älvdalen beauty, and I'm blown away.

Sitting down with it the first time I thought it was quite a light guitar--just a hair over 6 lbs per my scale--but, what struck me most immediately was the way the lacquer had sunk into and sort of fused with the wood. Amidst a fair amount of lacquer checking, dings, and scrapes, there are places on the back where I can feel the wood grain through the finish. Lovely--and something no Relic Dungeon(TM) torture can truly replicate.

In true Hagström form, the neck is practically a hair's width-1 and 7/16" wide at the nut-and has an almost comically thin D-shaped profile. My paws are on the smaller side and I tend to gravitate towards quite thin necks anyway, so while there is a stark difference jumping from the Viking to my Jaguar (which itself has quite a thin D neck), I feel right at home. Sinister thoughts of mating a Hag III neck and trem with a tele body have already started sounding their drums :whistle:

It arrived quite well set-up (thanks Chicago Music Exchange!), and the microscopic frets are quite low but have life remaining in them and play well up and down the neck. The famous H-beam truss rod is working as it should and the Van Ghent tuning machines hold tune quite well. Intonation isn't perfect, but more than close enough, and the saddles have some room for adjustment when I swap the strings it came with (9's) for my preferred 10's.

The way this guitar plays is the stuff of runic epics...chording and moving up and down the neck is effortlessly quick, although the narrow string spacing makes finger picking (a lot of what I play) a bit of an exercise in precision. This was certainly a heavily-played guitar and the worn in (and even worn off around the binding on the treble side) neck lacquer feels fantastic to the hand; my girlfriend compared it to the feeling of the well-used wooden railings at train platforms and the like (though much more sanitary). Acoustically, it rings out with a sweet midrangey wallop. Though maybe a hair less articulate than my friend's Casino, its sound unplugged is louder and has a really alluring raunchiness to it. I found myself playing it acoustically for over two hours before ever plugging it in, sometimes just strumming particular chords over and over and feeling the guitar vibrating.

Plugged into my Ampeg Reverberocket 2 it sounds more midrangey, and dare I say hifi, than my Jaguar or Rickenbacker. The proprietary Hag single coil pickups are really fantastic...the bridge pickup reads about 7.5k and, like in those Brimsteinar videos PJazzmaster posted, can cop quite an aggressive biting twang not all too dissimilar to a decent flat pole Tele pickup. The neck pickup (~5.0k) is clear and detailed, and together the pickups balance quite well and sound very (excuse the horrendous tone-descriptors) ...earthy. Through my Rat and fuzzier high gain settings on my Hudson Broadcast the pickups feed back quite easily, but I'm not too bothered.

Really a fantastic guitar, the stuff of Viking legend, and it's certainly scratched my semi hollow itch :-*
PJazzmaster wrote: My first vintage guitar was actually a Viking I from '65! I got mine for free :o (by the father of a drummer friend, I was 12 or 13, his father was a bit drunk that afternoon ??? ), but it was not playable at that time and restoring such a guitar was not easy back then (before ebay etc.). Yes, I still have it and yes, it's playable now!
Nice! All my friend's drunk father gave us was a couple brooms and instructions on how he wanted the garage swept :P

Have any pics??

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by Ursa Minor » Tue Sep 12, 2017 6:50 pm

dead sexy.

:-*
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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by mijmog » Fri Sep 15, 2017 2:02 am

I missed this - stunning guitar, my bandmate has an identical one and its lovely - sounds great with fuzz.

Congratulations man!

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by shadowplay » Sat Sep 16, 2017 4:42 am

That's a really bonny looking guitar, congrats.

D
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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Sat Sep 16, 2017 4:57 am

Yeah, that's a very lovely thing you've got there.

Was gonna mention Wolf People but Joe's got in there before me :)
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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by PJazzmaster » Sat Sep 16, 2017 8:14 am

nanamour wrote:
PJazzmaster wrote: My first vintage guitar was actually a Viking I from '65! I got mine for free (by the father of a drummer friend, I was 12 or 13, his father was a bit drunk that afternoon ), but it was not playable at that time and restoring such a guitar was not easy back then (before ebay etc.). Yes, I still have it and yes, it's playable now!
Nice! All my friend's drunk father gave us was a couple brooms and instructions on how he wanted the garage swept

Have any pics??
That guy's father was actually a tuba player who used to play guitar only for a couple of years in the late 60's. I guess he was even glad to get rid of that "broken" old guitar. A big chunk of fretboard binding was missing, the plasic knob covers were gone, one "stringholder claw" from the tailpiece was broken off as well as one tuner missing. The guy who restored it was the owner of the only local 2nd hand guitar and repair shop so basically the only chance. And yes, restoration also meant overspraying the back of the neck and part of the headstock. I didn't ask for that but that's how it was in the 90's. And actually I was really really happy because he did not ask much for making it playable again

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He repaired the missing "claw" of the Tailpiece in a really clever way. See below, a brass stick with 6 holes drilled in it, clamped inside the remaining claws! Awesome! That will last forever!

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The design and functionality of the Hagström bridge is really great!

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Sat Sep 16, 2017 8:27 am

PJazzmaster wrote: The design and functionality of the Hagström bridge is really great!

Image
I was just thinking, it has some of the aesthetic elegance of a bar bridge but obviously more detailed adjustability.

I'll admit to being pretty jealous right now. I thought a Guild Starfire II was the only guitar I'd still lust over but I'd totally forgotten about these.
Something about those badass looking pickups & the Fenderish headstock. I've never even played one but I can imagine it's got killer tone.

The burst is fantastic too. Congratulations :)
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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by nanamour » Sat Sep 16, 2017 10:19 am

Thanks everyone, it really is a lovely instrument isn't it?

PJazzmaster, that's a beautiful guitar. Glad you were able to get it playable again--the brass bar for the tailpiece was a genius solution!
PorkyPrimeCut wrote:
PJazzmaster wrote: The design and functionality of the Hagström bridge is really great!

Image
I was just thinking, it has some of the aesthetic elegance of a bar bridge but obviously more detailed adjustability.

I'll admit to being pretty jealous right now. I thought a Guild Starfire II was the only guitar I'd still lust over but I'd totally forgotten about these.
Something about those badass looking pickups & the Fenderish headstock. I've never even played one but I can imagine it's got killer tone.

The burst is fantastic too. Congratulations
It's funny you say that: in my several year search for a nice hollowbody, I was torn between a Starfire II and the Hagström. A little over a year ago I bought a Starfire III at what seemed like a too good to be true price on eBay....turned out the price was too good to be true: numerous undisclosed incorrect/replacement parts, faulty electronics, undisclosed headstock repair. It was promptly returned.

A little while back I renewed the hunt and sold my Rickenbacker to free up funds for the hollowbody of my waking dreams. Tried out a Starfire II at a local shop that, well fantastically crafted, sounded a little on the muddy/dull side. I started scoping out some of the older early 60's Starfire II's with the DeArmond pickups on Reverb and eBay and even tracked down a NOS Guildsby with the idea of converting it to a poor(er) man's Starfire III when I happened upon this Viking and fell head over heels. The gorgeous burst and tasteful amount of wear hooked me...so many Vikings I had seen in previous searches either looked like they'd been used as a shovel (and left in a shed afterward) or were immaculate case queens-I wanted something that had obviously been well loved by its previous owners. That it was less than half the price of the vintage Starfires I'd been looking at and significantly less than what I sold my Ric for cinched the deal.

I've had a few more days with it now and spent a good few hours this morning having a blast with it through my Klemt Echolette and some EHX Pitchfork octave blended in for a 12-stringy effect and I think I love it even more after getting to know it better. Any reservations I had about perceived inferiority of a bolt-on neck hollowbody have been thrown out the window, it plays effortlessly and is a really wonderous sounding guitar.

I agree about the bridge, it's a rock-solid design and far more aesthetically pleasing than your average TOM or whathaveyou. In fact, I'm impressed with all the hardware on this old Hag--the tuners are a minor marvel of industrial design (love the heft of the tuning keys), the pickups sound great and have a unique look, somewhere between a P90 and goldfoil, and the harp tailpiece is a bit of an icon in its own right.

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by PJazzmaster » Sat Sep 16, 2017 12:39 pm

thx. Yes, Vikings are really nice and unique, especially because of that VERY slim neck, the string spacing is narrow but everything feels alright! The neck on mine is super straight and never ever needed any adjustment. The fretboard radius is relatively flat compared to the average Fender. I love mine but it will never be my #1Workhorse guitar that I wanna bring to all gigs and rehearsals as the only guitar (I simply prefer the feeling of solid body guitars and I need a trem) but the Viking has something that no other guitar can give me (well, it's my only hollow body guitar ::) ).

All in all they are quality guitars and definitely worth the money! They sound really nice and warm but also not too muddy and usually go for far less than 1k (at least in Europe). And they were good enough for Elvis :freako:

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by garyfanclub » Sun Sep 17, 2017 12:32 pm

Holy cow. I love that. It seems we've got similar taste in gear... old Ampegs, Hagstroms...

I've been split between tracking down a Viking, a 60s Guild Starfire, or a Silvertone 1446 for a few months now. Was the Starfire you tried one with the mini-humbuckers? I've heard mixed reviews about those pickups, from "lively and spanky!" to "meh..."

Anyhow, congrats! Let's hear some clips!

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Re: Inbound NGD (Nordic Guitar Day)

Post by PJazzmaster » 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 :o )

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