My Hagstrom Swede Rebirth

[mapka]

After reading some great reviews of the Hagstrom Swede I decided to buy one. I've had it for about 3 years now and while initially I liked the sound, after a while I found the pickups to lack "sparkle" and punch. The Swede also has a "tone" switch which on mine was very unimpressive. So, I decided to change all that!

Here is the guitar at the start of the project:


P1010053 by mapka2000, on Flickr

As I dove into the electronics I found they were all pretty much standard import stuff and not really what I wanted to reuse. Here is a picture of the "tone" switch I pulled out and a pot cavity shot. Note the Chiclets style capacitors and the wiring used through out the body:


oldtone by mapka2000, on Flickr


potcav by mapka2000, on Flickr

The pots said "CTS" on them, however they had an import spline on them so at the very least they were not the American made ones.

 

[Robert]

I got a Swede too, I like it! Mine sounds great just stock.

 

[mapka]

I decided that I wanted to be a little different so I decided to go with a set of split coil mini humbuckers from Sin pickups. I wish I could endorse this manufacture but to be honest I thought that I was never going to get my pups from him. His reputation was tarnished because of his inconstancy in dealing with customers.

As for the pickup rings, I found a set of flat plastic surrounds that were suppose to sit on top of the regular humbucker ring but have an opening for the mini. I tried them and found that they did not match up to my mounting holes, and that the opening for the humbucker was too small. I ended up having a machinist friend make me some surrounds:


Untitled by mapka2000, on Flickr

I replaced the two switches with Switchcraft ones. This also posed a problem. The threaded area on the import switch is about .5" long but the Switchcraft ones are about half that size. This mean that the threads do not protrude through the body and a special countersunk nut must be used (a la Gibson LP). The holes in the Hag body were not large enough for the nuts so I had to ream them out just the slightest bit. Here is a picture of the new tone switch:


Hagstrom 001 by mapka2000, on Flickr

I decided to rewire the guitar with Gibson 50's style wiring and also installed a push/pull pot for the split coil. I used CTS pots for all except the push/pull (CTS does not make a push/pull) and used a braided outer sleeve wiring. :


P1010092 by mapka2000, on Flickr

and the finished product, almost. Because the push/pull is a different spline I am having a hard time finding a witches hat knob for it. For now I am just using an old black speed knob:


White and Black by mapka2000, on Flickr

Considering this was my first redo of a guitar it went fairly well. Electronics worked on the first go except for a bad input jack. The pups sound phenomenal in both humbucker and single coil mode. The tone switch now has some functionality to it. I plan to post some sound bites in a few days.

 

[mapka]

I got a Swede too, I like it! Mine sounds great just stock.

Yes I know you have one Robert. Your video and endorsement are some of the review that swayed me to buy one. I love the guitar, just became unimpressed with the pups. Comparing it to my Les Paul I felt it was lacking some of the treble tones.

 

[FrankenFretter]

I love it when a project comes together so nicely like that. Nice work, Mark. It is too bad that Chris Carter isn't totally reliable, because he makes a very nice pickup. I'm looking forward to hearing some clips when you post them. :thumbsup

 

[mapka]

Thanks Sean! Maybe now that Chris has got a website he is more devoted to building the pups more consistently. Hope to have the sound clips by the end of the week. May not be that great cause I only have my Iphones mike to record with but it should give a fair idea of the sound.

 

[mapka]

Here are some sound bites of the pickups. These were recorded using my IPhone's microphone. Not the best. First is the single coil sound

http://soundcloud.com/mapka/hag1

second is the humbucker sounds:

http://soundcloud.com/mapka/hag2

and finally the "tone" switch:

http://soundcloud.com/mapka/hag3

 

[FrankenFretter]

Sounds great, Mark. Was the swell pedal used at all in those recordings?

 

[mapka]

No but the Hagstrom was used in the Swell recording. The Hag recordings were simply the guitar into the Fender Blues Deluxe RI and me holding the IPhone in front of the amp.