Hagstrom Swede Reissue

DeeTee

I was looking in my local guitar store yesterday, and found one of the recent reissued Hagstrom Swedes. I had a play around and it was a lot of fun, but if I went for it, it would need some upgrades. The pickups are a little muddy, and the electronics aren't great. The pots are pretty much on/off rather than a decent taper. The fit and finish is basically "good enough for the price" - a few instances of paint going over the binding, that sort of thing. 

That said, it played nicely. It was actually a matte black all over, so had a satin neck that I liked (the truss rod cover says "Swedem," which I assume means Swede Matte). I also have a Gibson 498/490 pickup set lying around, with the associated wiring loom. That should pretty much drop in, although the Swede has the extra tone switch.

Anyone got any experience with changing the pickups and pots in one of these? Think it's worth it? The guitar is about £230.

ESBlonde

If you went for it I would think a replacement loom would reveal whether or not the pickups needed replacement or not. A relatively low cost upgrade.

DeeTee

Yeah, that was my thinking too. I also figured that if the pickups still need swapping, I've got what I need already. 

grungebob

If it plays nice you can make it sound better with some upgrades. But what about the sound don’t you like? Too much treble is an easy fix but too much low end can be harder to impossible to fix. 

DeeTee

It just lacked definition, so I guess that is a lack of mid/treble?

grungebob

DeeTee said:

It just lacked definition, so I guess that is a lack of mid/treble?

I’d think so yes. Could it have been the amp not the guitar or old strings?

DeeTee

Nah, I tried a couple of amps, and the strings didn't seem particularly old. We'll see what happens. I'm waiting on a call about another guitar. If that falls through and this is still there, I might pick it up and mess about with the electronics.