Hag' History - Short Version History of the Swedish Hagstrom Guitar maker

I have based the text below on an old photocopy sent to me from Germany. I do not know who wrote the original text, but will of course acknowledge the author if they make themselves known. I believe it is dated around 1977 due to the references including synthesizer guitars...

THE HAGSTROM GUITARS STORY

This is a potted history:

Hagstrom made some very fine guitars. And that, as far as most of the world knows, is where the story started and ended. But for musicians in Scandinavia Hagstrom was a way of life.

In Britain and America, guitarists had been offered various instruments bearing the Hagstrom name over the last 20 years and by 1977 the name was associated with an exceptionally fine range of instruments with the Hagstrom Guitar Synthesizer as flagship of the fleet. But manufacturing only accounted for about ten per cent of the Hagstrom operation.

In Scandinavia, Hagstrom was principally known for a large chain of retail music stores. Almost every major city in Norway, Sweden and Denmark had a Hagstrom store and it’ had been that way for the previous 40 years.

The empire was founded upon piano accordions. In the 1920’s a Swedish farm hand called Albin Hagstrom found he had a talent for playing, making and selling piano accordions. He went into business manufacturing the instruments at the extremely tender age of 19 and within 10 years had built up a business exporting to many parts of the world.

The business was founded in his tiny mid-Sweden village of Älvdalen and as his fortune began to mount, he opened retail shops in various parts of Scandinavia. During the war the business contracted without severe loss and immediately peace was restored he set about expanding the empire again. But he died suddenly at the age of 46. About to go on a business trip to the USA, he was inoculated against smallpox and complications set in following the injection. He died soon afterwards.

His business did not crumble. His widow appointed a Managing Director in a caretaker role until her children were old enough to take over the business. By 1977 her eldest son, Karl Eric Hagstrom was the head of the by now much expanded empire.

The 1950’s presented Hagstrom with its first stagnant period. The long boom in piano accordions was over and the Latin and French influence that had dominated popular music for so long gave way to a new form of British and American popular music. The instrument of the new music was the guitar.

During this slow period more retail stores were opened and the company considered what to do with its manufacturing facility. Karl Eric Hagstrom finished his education in the USA and after looking very carefully at the market there, he decided that guitar making should be the future concern of the Älvdalen plant.

From 1957 onwards Hagstrom guitars became available. In the early years the company also made instruments with various brand names and British guitarists may well remember the Futurama models that were popular in the early sixties, in the USA they produced some of the Kent brand for a short period.

Like the rest of the world Northern Europe experienced a massive boom in “teenage orientated” music in the sixties and Hagstrom benefited greatly from this.

Hagstrom amplifiers were introduced and they gained the number one sales position in their home market although they had yet to gain acceptance abroad.

Hagstrom were by now more aggressive (in the nicest sense) than ever before. The day to day running of the entire organisation was left in the hands of Roland Beronious and Torgil Hagman who operated from the company’s head quarter in Malmo, Sweden.

Karl Eric’s younger sister Justine was also extremely active in developing the professional end of the retail operation.

If there was one word which summed up Hagstrom’s approach to guitar making it was quality. Many of the hand-building operations carried out at the Älvdalen plant would be considered “old fashioned” in other industries, but in high quality instrument making there was absolutely no substitute for care and personal attention.

Most of the craftsmen working at the plant had been with the company for many years and their dedication to quality was just as great as it was in the 1930’s.

Onto this background of traditional workmanship had been blended the art of high technology as applied by Pete Ollson. Pete was the electronics designer for Hagstrom and he’d been with the company since 1964 developing some exceptionally good amps and echo units. He contributed largely to the development of the Guitar Synthesizer and he worked on electronic developments intended to surface in future Hagstrom Products.

The retail side of Hagstrom also changed. In Stockholm a new Orchestra Terminal had been opened. A professional “drive-in” store designed to cater exclusively for professional musicians. The equipment available was limited to top line professional amps, guitars, drums and keyboards and the shop made a special feature of large PA systems.

An unusual incentive scheme operated in the retail arm of Hagstrom and it served to ensure first class service in each of the company’s 48 outlets. Once a shop manager proved his worth to the company, he was allowed to start his own private business within the Hagstrom store - selling accessories. He was responsible for buying and selling such items as picks, strings, straps, mouth pieces and so on and if good at making the store attractive and keeping the customer level up he stood to earn far more than usual shop managers out of the operation.

The company had operated the scheme for several years and said it was extremely successful.

The next big step for Hagstrom was to increase their worldwide market for Hagstrom guitars. Their overseas distributors — Fletcher, Coppock and Newman in the UK and Selmer in the USA — were doing much to further the Hagstrom cause, and the Swedish company were right behind their overseas agents giving them help and guidance.

Hagstrom was a unique force in the guitar market and history.

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When the pressure increased from the far eastern manufacturers, every traditional manufacturer was placed under pressure. Some bought into this manufacturing source, and automated much of the traditional production facilities.

Hagstrom did dabble with this idea at the turn of the 1980's, but in the end decided to cease operating and sadly the manufacturing story drew to a close.

This leaves us with some precious and ever more collected examples of traditionally crafted instruments that were often as adventurous and unique as they were special to play.

The association with names such as Bjarton (acoustic guitar manufacturer), also the celebrated luthier James D'Aquisto and his personalised Jimmy models, all add to the flair and pioneering spirit that was the Hagstrom Company.