A Short Story of Hagstrom Guitars

Hagstrom History


The Hagstrom company got its start in accordions and not guitars as some people may believe. Albin Hagstrom started from very modest beginnings, selling and renting out a few accordions around his town in Sweden.

His business soon exponentially grew into a massive distribution center, serving several different countries in Europe. This in turn led to Hagstrom manufacturing their own accordions and gaining a stronger foothold in the market.

Despite their rapid rise and great success however, accordions were not to be in the world of music for the last half a century. So Hagstrom had to turn their attention elsewhere.

Rock and roll music was starting to influence not just the United States but music and culture around the world. Hagstrom realized their opportunity and decided to get into the guitar market.

Similarly to their start with accordions, they did not just jump into manufacturing their own. To start with they were importing Gibson guitars. The Gibson guitars they imported however would soon turn into the basis for their first electric guitar designs just a short time later. By 1958 Hagstrom designed and released their first guitar, closely modeled off of the Gibson Les Paul 1957 electric guitar.

Hagstrom guitars were often referred to as glitter guitars due to their unique coating and finish. But Hagstrom guitars had much more noteworthy elements than just their appearance and style. One of these features is the trademark thin neck of the Hagstrom guitar.

The reason the necks were able to be built so thinly is due to the H bar inserted into the necks, as opposed to a rounder bar. These bars were stronger and sturdier, and allowed for thinner neck construction and even faster guitar playing. Of course, thinner necks are not just great for appearance either.

Having a thinner neck allows for an increased ease of use and increased speed of moving up and down the neck and reaching farther frets. And the H bar was so strong that the neck was guaranteed against twisting or warping.

In 1962 Hagstrom released their Kent line of guitars which were modeled more closely after the Fender Stratocaster. However, at first these guitars were not actually made by Hagstrom. Hagstrom wanted the Kent name in order to gain greater access into the U.S. market.

So they then used the Kent name in certain areas when the Hagstrom name didn’t carry any weight to U.S. consumers and distributors. Kent was just one of the numerous different names that Hagstrom guitars were sold under at one point or another.

Guitars and other musical instruments always enjoy a nice bump in sales and prestige when major artists opt to use them. This happened in the late 1960s when Elvis made a TV appearance using a Hagstrom guitar. To this day Hagstrom guitars are still popular, especially so in Europe, and are used by a variety of musicians in the recording industry.