broken hagstrom neck

[Vynns]

Evenin' all...

Seeing as no one is responding to my first ever *EVER* post to TB, and our Dutch team were eliminated this evening in the European soccer cup, I'm a little drunk from trying to drown my sorrow. So, this led me to share this with you:

A few years ago I was a guitarist who occasionally played some bass in my school band. Now, the bass I used to play on (Which was school property) was a '73 Hagstrom super swede bass. After the school decided to expand the music education room and completely overhaul their instrument "fleet", I came into posession of this hagstrom beauty. Now, I'm not entirely sure what had happened to this little lady, but it looked like it's been through quite some punisment. The headstock had been broken off, and had been reattached with - get this - some sort of a metal splint and a little glue. Check it out:









My apologies for the poor picture quality. See it as exercising your eyesight.

Anyhoo, when I (finally) got around to playing more bass than guitar, I picked this little gem up again and remembered why I wanted to play bass in school again. This thing plays like a dream. Granted, It's been thrown around a bit, and had a few dings and scratces here and there and, well, everywhere, but man! I don't know, maybe its the thin strings, or the short scalyness (is that a word?)... Just feels right.

I had a few problems with it though: the D string would keep popping out of the nut on downstrokes, and the A on upstrokes (I'm a picker). You see, when the headstock had been "repaired", for lack of a worse word (which had been done by our school janitor by the way. How rock and roll is that?), It was attached way too straight to the neck. you can see this in the pics. So I went to our local bass dealership-luthier-dude to buy myself a stringtree or something to fix it, as i don't have the money to get it properly fixed at the moment. Know what he told me? "Dude. F*ck string trees. Just go to your local hardwarestore, buy yourself some tiewraps and put those 'round the head." So I looked at him kinda surprised, 'coz I thought that would be kinda unprofessional looking. But I did get them. And I was right. They are kinda unprofessional looking. but then I thought, Skizzlepoops and fudgewhackles! They work! And they look like I'm just winging it. Now if anything is more rock and roll than "just winging it", I don't know what is...

Sooooooo yeah. Just thought I'd share that with you. See what your thoughts are. I wouldn't be damaging my bass now, would I? Although... Damaging your bass... How rock and roll is that?

Spanks.
Vincent.

[T-Bird]

Hi, Vincent.

First of all, Welcome to the TalkBass.

Quite an innovative way to repair the headstock, but still beats some that I've seen. At least that's playable, sort of .

Mybe, just maybe the crafts teacher would've been more appropriate choice to repair the bass, but then again it might not have landed on Your lap.

If You don't have the means or money to repair it the correct way just now, I'd suggest that you use it as-is and have it repaired when you can.

Those Hagströms aren't the most expensive vintage instruments out there, but as an internet search will tell You, they're still quite valuable and messing with the repair might make it more difficult for the luthier to repair the headstock.

Good luck, and congrats for the score.

Regards
Sam

[Vynns]

Thanks for the welcome, Sam.

Really? You've seen worse? Like, repairing the headstock with some chewing gum and a stern talking to or something? Got some pics maybe?

Anyway, the Hagstrom is not my gigging bass, I have a Yamaha for that. I don't trust the old lady to not fall apart or crap out on me during a show. It just get's used when I want to doodle around at home, so I guess I'll leave it, like you said, as is.

You have any idea what a bass like this would be worth if is would be repaired properly? Because I always thought the super swedes were in the €500,- category. Do you think a vintage one now is worth more than that?

kthxbye.

[peterbright]

There's a vintage H on E-Bay that has a good neck. Item number: 160251415011

[Georynn]

this place has all kinds about 550$, but it's not in the netherlands...

http://www.fattoneguitars.com/hagstr...FQ7Wsgod5j32XA

[T-Bird]

Hi, Vincent.

Originally Posted by Vynns

Really? You've seen worse? Like, repairing the headstock with some chewing gum and a stern talking to or something? Got some pics maybe?

Unfortunately no pics, but duct-tape, 4" nails, drywall screws, bondo (both glassfiber and polyester), steel and aluminium strips and plates, bicycle spokes etc.

Originally Posted by Vynns

You have any idea what a bass like this would be worth if is would be repaired properly? Because I always thought the super swedes were in the €500,- category. Do you think a vintage one now is worth more than that?

I'd say between €500-1000, and as most of them are repaired ones or otherwise in non mint condition, a professional repair shouldn't lower the value much. And usually the coolness factor cannot be measured in any currency .

Regards
Sam

[basmartin]

That bass ain´t a Super Swede. It´s just at Swede. This is the Super Swede:

[basmartin]

Bump

[crobasster]

It's a beauty.


BTW,I own a HIIBN.