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DAVE LEE: Hi. My name is Dave Lee. I'm the lead designer for the Hagstrom Guitar line, and just here want to talk to you a little bit about some of the products that we put back on to the market.

Basically, we have a couple of different instruments here. This is the Swede, the Super Swede. The major difference between these two instruments, although they look very similar, are quite different instruments in fact.

The Swede is 24-3/4 in scale length. It has a mahogany body, mahogany back, and actually a solid mahogany top. It is 45 mm at the side. It has custom wound pickups. We're using a long travel bridge system, and we're using the Hagstrom stop tailpiece. Each string has its own individual milled brass block, so that allows each string to resonate the entire instrument to its full potential, so you basically have nothing, no spaces or gaps between the string and the actual contact of the body of the guitar.

We're using mahogany necks and we're using what we call a resonator fingerboard. This fingerboard looks very much like ebony. It's very, very tightly grained. Basically it's a wood product which has all of the moisture removed from it and then it's replaced with a resin. The moisture content in the material itself is about 2%. It's extremely stable. It doesn't shrink. We have like no cracking problems, no twisting problems. It's also very, very homogenous unlike a natural wood product. What that means is basically it maintains a very strong fundamental harmonic throughout the entire neck. Even when you start playing past the 12th fret, you maintain a very, very strong fundamental harmonic. If you're using any type of MIDI guitar system, the AXON or any of the Roland stuff, this is really important because it's looking, you know, these systems are actually looking for a strong fundamental so these are excellent for those applications.

In contrast, the Super Swede here is actually a 25-1/2" scale length, so we have a longer scale length. We have a maple top, a solid maple top with a mahogany body and a mahogany neck. It's more of a -- you know, you get a little bit more brilliance. The Swede tends to be a little bit of a warmer tone. The maple is a hotter, brighter sounding wood. Again, you have the long travel saddle and the block Hagstrom tailpiece. We're using all CTS components inside for the potentiometers, so very, very high quality components throughout.

If we move along, also I should mention that we have currently two productions. We have one coming from Asia and we have a custom shop in the United States. This is our Deluxe model. Actually, this is a quilted maple top from Washington State. It's a Honduras Mahogany sides and neck, or I should say back and neck. The Hagstrom machine heads are equipped on both the USA products as well as the products coming from overseas. Also on the USA models, we're also using the same resonator fingerboard, and we're using all-Duncan pickups, USA Seymour Duncan pickups on the USA stuff.

Again, this is a Swede from the U.S. Custom Shop. Again, the top coming from Washington State Honduras Mahogany back and Honduras Mahogany neck. The fret wires actually come from Germany, and again we use a high-quality German fret wire even on our product coming from overseas. Kind of a cool thing actually the Swede model is we have a tone selector switch here, so not only do you you’re your pickup selector switch but also you can switch from one filter, bypass it in the middle position to another filter, giving you a tremendous amount of tonal variations.

Just walking down a little further here on the line, this is a little bit more of a traditional look. Hagstrom originally what they had a swimming pool pickup assembly in here, and that's something what we hope to reissue soon. But this is sparkle finish guitar. It's all hollowed out on this side of the guitar with the f-hole that makes it a little bit lighter, you know, for those of us who play all night long and basically want to be able to move our shoulder in the morning. This is also a little bit of a thinner body. This is a 40-mm body from the edge to the back here, using the Hagstrom trapeze tailpiece along with the traditional Hagstrom crest.

This guitar is also offered in a solid body. This is the same model basically with the sparkle black top, same model as the USA Deluxe in a black sparkle finish.

And moving right along here, our jazz lineup. We have the HJ-600 which is a spruce top with a flame maple sides and back. It has the resonator fingerboard and mahogany neck, the German fret wire, all CTS components, custom 58 Hagstrom pickups which are humbuckers, and this guitar uses the pearl black block inlays.

The next guitar actually was made most famous by Elvis Presley, who played this guitar in a number of his videos. This is the Viking model, also uses the trapeze tailpiece with the long travel bridge. It has the custom pickups. This is basically a five-ply top and back guitar, mahogany neck, resonator fingerboard with dot inlays. This guitar here also was originally available in a bolt-on neck with a six-in-a-line, some people may remember, six-in-a-line headstock.

The next guitar, moving over, is basically the same guitar in a different finish, another Viking. Also, we have what we call a Viking Deluxe. This actualy has a flame maple veneer on the top, and it's bursted on the back of the guitar as well. We have the three position toggle switch for tone selection and we also have the block inlays on the Deluxe version. Some time next year, I think we'll also offer this model in maybe a bolt-on version as well with the six-in-a-line Hagstrom headstock.

Our next model over is an HL-550. This guitar is mahogany top, sides, and back. It has an ebony bridge. It has the gold Viking trapeze tailpiece with the crest, and a mini humbucker which is actually bolted on to the underside of the cantilever of the neck extension. That's a full dovetail, you know, traditional jazz-style dovetail neck joint, and this model is actually one of our best-selling models. Currently at the moment, we have over 2,000 of these instruments between the 600 and the HL-550 on back order. Worldwide, it's been a tremendous sell, a great sounding instrument. Also, this has a poly-oil finish actually, which is kind of unique. It's a very flat natural wood looking but the finish is very, very light, and it really allows the top to resonate freely. Beautiful, beautiful sound both acoustically and electrically.

The next guitar over is basically the same model in a high-gloss finish. All of the features are the same. The gloss finish looks really shiny. Also I should mention all of these guitars are both are overseas production as well as our USA production we're using all polyester. It's 100% polyester finish. This is many guitar companies are using polyester these days because of its resonant qualities, unlike urethane which is a very soft finish that actually will deaden the resonance of the instrument. Polyester is very hard. It's like 95% solids so it has a very strong crystalline structure, a very dense material that resonates really, really well, much like an old nitrocellulose finish after it's settled for 20 years or so.

The last instrument over here is a black HJ-500. This guitar was made famous mostly in the '60s. Again, it has a traditional dovetail jazz neck joint. It has the block inlays and two humbucking pickups, the custom '58 pickups, CTS potentiometers, and it has an ebony bridge and ebony pickguard, and featuring also the gold hardware, gold Hagstrom machine heads.

This model here is our F-200P. It has two P90-style pickups, CTS components. This bridge is actually a patented full-contact bridge. There is absolutely no spaces or gaps between the string and the plate of the bridge so you're not losing any sound or any vibration through space. Space is actually the greatest insulator in the world. So, by doing this, you're transmitting the maximum amount of energy from the string into the body of the guitar, and then everything on the bridge fastens securely together so nothing can move, and it's all secured, and then all of the energy from the string and the bridge enter into the body in one plate going across, so it's a knife edge plate going across as opposed to two pole pieces which actually will cause some phase cancellation inside the body of the guitar. This is an all-mahogany body with a mahogany neck, set neck, and the resonator fingerboard, pearl dot inlays, and the Hagstrom machine heads.

The brother to this guitar is actually the 200. The F-200 basically features the block tailpiece, also a set neck guitar, two 58 humbuckers, custom 58 humbuckers. You have the block tailpiece, CTS components, German fret wire, and the Hagstrom machine heads.

Moving right along, we have a F-20T which again features our full-contact tremolo system. You have two humbuckers on a basswood body, and on this guitar you have a maple neck, whick gives you a little bit of a brighter tone, a tremendous amount of sustain, and big sound out of those pickups.

The next guy over here we have the F-300, which basically is a -- Oh, I'm sorry, this is the 301. It has a humbucker in the bridge position. It's a basswood body, North American maple neck. It has a resonator rosewood fingerboard. It's basically the same exact material except for the wood is actually dyed. It looks like a Brazilian Rosewood actually, very, very beautiful, very consistent, five-position selector switch and its volume and two tones, which is a configuration that we're all pretty familiar with.

And then last but not least, we have the F-300. This is basically three single-coil pickups, five-position selector switch, featuring again the full-contact bridge which is exclusive to Hagstrom, and the rosewood resonator fingerboard, Canadian maple neck, and the Hagstrom die cast machines. It's an 18:1 gear ratio on those machine heads by the way. This is also a basswood body on this model as well.

I should also mention lastly that just about all these models are available in a left-hand version, so for all of you lefties out there you can pretty much get whatever you want. I guess to just conclude, I can just say that the Hagstrom Guitars are made with the very finest components, finest woods, custom pickups, Canadian Maple necks, Honduras Mahogany bodies. I don't think that there's a better value actually on the market, and if you pick up one of these guitars and you start to play it, what you'll notice is even though it's a new guitar, you'll find that it just has a vintage feel and a vintage tone to it, and that's because of all the quality components, and most importantly the neck material and that H-Expander Truss Rod just give the guitar a feel and a tone that is like none other. You have to come in and try one of these things actually to experience it for yourself and you be the judge. We're pretty sure you'll be pleased with what you hear, and that's it for me.