Last week I picked up my new guitar, a used Les Paul shaped Hagstrom Ultra Swede, which despite the name is actually produced in China. Hagstrom is probably the most succesfull scandinavian guitar manufacturer ever, with production dating back to the 1930ies. Unfortunately they closed down in 1983, and since then their guitars has been sought after collectors items. The brand was relaunched in 2004 with production in China rather than its native Sweden. The guitar I bought is from 2008.
I bravely resisted the temptation of plugging it in and treating it with some sweet rock’n’roll, because I feared that hearing it as it is might provide me with second thoughts.
I bought it with the Fernandes Sustainer system in mind, and that meant I had to do things to it that I never thought I would do to any guitar.

For that job I went to see my friend Bjørn, a skilled woodcutting machinist. Watching him work on the guitar with sawdust flying around, was a nerve wrecking experience. Bjørn however, is very good at what he is doing, and he did a beautiful job.

At first glance, Bjørn thought the body was made of some kind of plywood, but after having worked on it for a few seconds it was clear that it was made of solid basswood. After a few minutes the head of the workshop entered the room and said 'It smells like you're working with basswood'. I was quite impressed by that.

I did the wireing and soldering myself, which was no big deal after I figured out how to read the scematics. Figuring that out, was a big deal. All I need to do now is to put new strings on and plug it in...