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Hagstrom Super Swede

I've been intrigued by this bass and just thought about it the other day. I will never buy another Hagstrom instrument, though. I bought a "new" Hagstrom H8 Retroscape and the thing, although sounding tremendous, had horrible build quality. The truss rod was broken inside the neck (you could hear it rattling around), fret sprout and fret work were atrocious and overall it felt very cheap and plasticy. even with almost half off I still didn't keep it.

Try a Swedish-built one the next time around. Sure, they cost more but they are well-worth it if one is into Hagstrom design/sound to begin with. My Hagstroms were the only basses and guitars that never required truss rod adjustments.
 
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I get too frustrated playing anything without 5 strings and 24 frets, but man, when that image of that Super Swede was first posted as a NBD on talkbass, I decided if I ever order a custom bass it's gonna look a lot like that. Still dreaming years later. So yeah, it intrigues me, too. :thumbsup:
 
I always sort of wanted a 70's Hagstom Swede bass which looks nothing like the current version.
A friend had a Swede guitar and they were very well made.
IMG_9683.JPG
 
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I always sort of wanted a 70's Hagstom Swede bass which looks nothing like the current version.
A friend had a Swede guitar and they were very well made.

Those are two different designs. The standard Swede is still in production.

Super Swede was somewhat of a rarity until Hagstrom re-vamped it several years ago. It was one of those basses that everyone heard about but no one had actually seen back in the early 80s.

You are correct in stating that Swedish-built Hagstroms - espacially from this era - were very well made.
 
I always sort of wanted a 70's Hagstom Swede bass which looks nothing like the current version.
A friend had a Swede guitar and they were very well made.
IMG_9683.JPG
I ended up with a ‘70s Swede. Not sure why. But I put flats on it and play it for acoustic sets. It’s fun. It “looks” acoustic sort-of. It seems well made from what I can tell. And never needed much once I set it up for flats.

It’s been a solid bass. I’ve never seen a super Swede before. But it looks cool
 
A few glimpses of Rutger Gunnarsson playing a Super Swede in this clip

Great tone...



They certainly didn't waste any footage on the bass player! So-sweet-it-makes-my-teeth-hurt pop, but I do like the bouncy bassline. I don't need another bass - but I like it more every time I see it. :thumbsup:
 
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When I was a kid a friend of mine had one of those red vinyl covered guitars made during the 60's, I loved the thing, it played very well and had a very thin neck. I always wanted a bass like that, and actually saw a blue one on ebay a while back but figured I have enough now and probably wouldn't get much use out of it so I passed.
 
I bough a "new" Superswede and could not get the action set low enough. The bridge does not allow much height adjustment, and with barely any neck relief, the string height was unplayable for me. Sold it. Also had a Swede bass that looked very cool but the pickups had little bottom-end. Now I have an HB-4 and love the sound, although the fret-ends are sharp and need to be dressed. I debated for years over getting one, and decided to get it a few years after they took it off the market, so I paid a premium. I'm sure the made-in-Sweden versions are great, but I've yet to get an Asian-made one that had the expected build quality.