Hagstrom Viking Standard, Review

[sunvalleylaw]

There have been a bunch of posts about this guitar ( http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=8598&page=5 ) and of course Spud's Hagstrom Viking Deluxe thread (http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=8817 ). But I have not done a review or made anything but general comments and thought I would consolidate my thoughts into a more formal review. This review may be a work in progress and I may add to it as time goes, but here are my impressions after having it a few weeks.





1. Looks, fit and finish - all very good. It is just beautiful looking to me. Although the seller had some nice looking "B" Stocks, I went with the "A" stock so I would have full warranty. And it is a beautiful thing. The above are the pics I have so far, and I will add some natural light ones sometime soon. The binding on the headstock with the mother of pearl is really nice, and complements the nice cream binding on the neck and body. Yes, the plastic is now off the pickguard and pups. Came off right after that second pic was taken.


2. Neck - I love the slim, fast neck. As many here know, I was looking for a humbucker guitar to diversify from my strat. I could not get used to a Les Paul neck, and nothing else, save for possibly a Gretsch Electromatic, was wowing me. Necks are still very important to me. This one is fast, easy to play, and has that "just right" feel to me. It has Hagstrom's special H shaped truss rod that gives it stability, despite being very thin. Fits me well. The only quibble I have at all, (and really my only quibble with the guitar) is that this one has just the slightest amount of catching on the tops of the fret ends. Nothing that requires dealing with, but if I was going to be real picky, I could have them smoothed just a tiny bit to make them absolute butter.

I really like the fretboard, which is made of a dense composite wood material they call Resinator. It has a good, fast feel that allows for a lot of control, and to my ears sounds great.

It has a nice quality self lubricating graphite composite nut. Its tuners seem to be of good quality and have a cool, retro look, and they work well.

3. Pickups/Tones - Hagstrom proprietary HJ-50 humbuckers. The guitar is resonant and projects nicely unamplified. Nice woody tones. I like all three positions, neck, both and bridge, and although I have not figured out all the tones that can be dialed in with the two volume and two tone knobs, it has both great, warm, woody, jazzy clean tones, and ballsy, sustainy, feedbacky rock tones, with lots of variation in each. The neck position is very warm and sultry. Kicking on the middle with both pups adds some spank, and oomph. I really like having the neck full on and dialing back the bridge just a little to have a touch of spank and a lot of warmth. The bridge just rocks and I can really see getting some rockabilly out of it once I learn some. The guitar sustains for days. Turn on an overdrive or a distortion and the thing kicks a$$! Several vid clips are linked in the threads above that give a good feel for the various tones.

4. Switches, pots, controls, jack - everything seems fitted very well, works great and seems to be of good quality.

5. Intangibles - the guitar somehow causes me to approach playing differently. Partly the feel, partly the sounds. In practicing songs I have been working on, previously only with my strat, I immediately found myself finding different places to play. Right now I am spending most of my time with its clean tones, but I am sure I will start using it to explore humbucker driven rock and roll, and learn to play with that feedback and sustain. I will always love my strat, but this is a great companion to it.

This link to the Hagstrom Viking page http://www.hagstromguitars.com/viking.html has links to three magazine reviews written by people with more knowledge and experience than I possess, and has a link to a great vid featuring the guitar. All of those reviews are favorable and I have to agree.

Those are my impressions after a few weeks, and I hope to add some clips and more photos, and more thoughts as the weeks go on.

Bottom line, two thumbs up : : , and I would highly recommend it to anyone considering one.

[SuperSwede]

Awesome review Steve!

Your smile on that picture tells more than a thousand words though

Does the Viking have the Super58 pickups? Those sound amazing imo ..

[Lev]

Great review Steve. I'm glad you're loving it so much. Gorgeous Guitar!!

[M29]

What a sweet guitar, your review is GASIN me up man: I love it when a nice guitar can be gotten without paying over 2000 dollas.

M

[sunvalleylaw]

Thanks guys for the complements. I hope the review helps someone. M29, one of the great things about this guitar is that you can get a really nice playing and sounding 335 type guitar, and a ballsy one at that, for a very fair price. Tim Mauer, mentioned and linked in Spud's Vik Deluxe thread, can get one to a person's door, for under $400, and for a bit more, include a very nice hard case. I paid $430, and mine is full warranty A stock, and included the case you see in the picture. A nice, padded hard shell case by Guardian.

SS, the pickups on the vikings, both deluxe and standard, are matched Hagstrom HJ-50s. I am not familiar with the ones you are asking about, but these are very nice, and although I have a Dimarzio Virtual Hot PAF to use in something, I do not see switching these out.

[warren0728]

excellent review....that is a beauty of a guitar and is a nice compliment to your strat!! :

[Tone2TheBone]

That is just a neat looking guitar...even though it's red. *ducks* Just kidding I think it should be red and I'm glad you're enjoying it. I bet it does play as good as it looks.

[duhvoodooman***]

Excellent review, Steve! : Thanks for taking the time to post it. And, unlike Tone, I'm very partial to red guitars--got two of 'em!

[sunvalleylaw]

I was initially really jonesing for the sunburst, but the Cherry was a much better deal through Tim, and now that I have it, I really like it! DVM, your red one also is a beaut!

[oldguy]

Nice review, Steve! Thanks for taking the time to post it.
Beautiful guitar, and I also play differently on different guitars I own.
I think the red looks gorgeous, btw.
I only have one red guitar now....more on that later.
Kudos on your killer deal on this one!

[just strum]

Steve,

Not being a big fan of sunburst, I definitely think the red is better. It's simply a classy guitar.

I am also glad you've taken such a liking to the semi HB, but it's tough not to.

Now stop posting pictures, I'm cut off for awhile. The trade was ok, but buying another one would not go over well. Hmm, maybe I'll get a hold of the guy you bought yours from and see if he wants to trade $500 (or less) for one like yours.

Enjoy buddy, you earned that guitar.

[tjcurtin1]

Congrats, SVL - sounds (and looks) like you've got a keeper. I also enjoy going back and forth between my Washburn 335 clone and the Fullerton to play with the different tone colors and bite. Have fun!

[sumitomo]

Yep SVL that's a sweet ride.Sumi

[sunvalleylaw]

As promised. I have not played around with this backer in a long while, and I am a bit surprised how rusty I feel/sound, but hopefully this gives an idea of how the guitar sounds. I tried a take of the intro through the intro solo, then did some various wanking trying out a couple of things to give some more guitar sounds.

This is with just a bit of overdrive (Bad Monkey with level turned down to about 9) into the C-30 mic'd. It is center switch position with both pups on, neck dimed, bridge turned down to 7 or 8, tone rolled back on the bridge to 5 or 6, and neck just a bit to 7.

http://www.box.net/shared/1jskcgro1m

I have not posted any clips in a long time, and I am not an accomplished player, but hopefully this gives a feel for some of the sounds. I am going to add a clean clip too at some point.

[just strum]

As promised. I have not played around with this backer in a long while, and I am a bit surprised how rusty I feel/sound, but hopefully this gives an idea of how the guitar sounds. I tried a take of the intro through the intro solo, then did some various wanking trying out a couple of things to give some more guitar sounds.

This is with just a bit of overdrive (Bad Monkey with level turned down to about 9) into the C-30 mic'd. It is center switch position with both pups on, neck dimed, bridge turned down to 7 or 8, tone rolled back on the bridge to 5 or 6, and neck just a bit to 7.

http://www.box.net/shared/1jskcgro1m

I have not posted any clips in a long time, and I am not an accomplished player, but hopefully this gives a feel for some of the sounds. I am going to add a clean clip too at some point.

Very nice Steve - sounds sweet and a good song for that guitar.

[warren0728]

excellent steve....nice playing and that guitar sounds great....i think i am going to start working on that song....can you link to the backing track?

[Andy]

stunning instrument and what a great deal.
I bet it can sustain for days too!

[sunvalleylaw]

Thanks guys. Though I feel as though I have been reminded to go back and practice old songs more often. I have been focusing on other things.

Warren, here is the backer, first post on this collab thread:

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=5557

Maybe it is time to fire it up again, or you can just download it and play around with it. It is a great backer for experimenting with the stuff a lot of us have been working on.

Andy, yes it can.

[warren0728]

Warren, here is the backer, first post on this collab thread:

http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=5557

got it....thanks!