COLUMN
PAWN SHOP PRIZE � Roger Zimish
HAGSTROM GRAND CONCERT H-22
A Swedish delight of a guitar found its way into the Pawn Shop Prize category for this issue: the Hagstrom Grand Concert H-22 acoustic folk guitar. Hagstrom is a Swedish based company that was established in 1925 manufacturing accordions. In the late 40’ s they started producing acoustic guitars and introduced their first electric guitar in 1958. Hagstrom wasn’ t well known for making acoustic guitars until 1966, when they introduced their line of Flat top folk and country western guitars. Their catalog stated,“ Hagstrom combined skilled workmanship and ingenuity with the finest in specially processed Swedish woods to create
tender tonal perfection and sound resonance, unsurpassable in flat top guitars”. Though not as sought after as a Gibson or Martin guitar built in the same time period, for the money, Hagstrom guitars were hard to beat for their quality and value. The H-22 sold for $ 165 when introduced in 1966.
This Hagstrom H-22 would fit nicely in the hands of Tommy Emmanuel with its Grand Concert shape body. The guitar has a Mahogany neck, a no-dot Rosewood fingerboard with position markers on the side of the neck, and with 21 clean nickel silver frets it plays like a dream to me. The body has Maple back and sides with a closed grained Spruce top with a Sunburst finish. It’ s topped off with sound hole inlays and side binding, an Ornate shell pickguard( similar to a few Gibson’ s I have seen), along with a rosewood bridge. A couple cool things about this H-22 are its patented“ H” expander rod for neck adjustments and how the fret board is set into the body up to the sound hole. The tuners are the original open gear nickel tuners too. Inside, the ladder bracing gives it a nice, well rounded big sound, fit for strumming bluegrass and adventurous finger style playing. Now, this guitar is not without its flaws for its age. There are a few nicks and scrapes, the finish has some spider lines, the lower side of the sound hole has some pick wear, and there are two finish cracks from the bottom of the bridge to the end binding, which also has a few small cracks. Overall, for a guitar that’ s almost 50 years old, she is still in pretty good shape.
I’ d consider this vintage Hagstrom H-22 with its original Dura-Lyte Plush Lined case a pretty good find for under 400 dollars today on Reverb or at a local pawnshop, if you can find one.
Musicians the likes of David Bowie to Frank Zappa used Hagstroms, and even the King, Elvis Presley, played a Hagstrom Viking II electric during his 1968 comeback TV special. The Hagstrom Company is still making fine guitars today.
Here’ s a quick tip when shopping for a used acoustic guitar at pawnshops. Always check the bridge of the guitar! Look for any wear around the edges where the bridge might be coming up. Use the business card trick by sliding the card on the guitar body around the bridge, if the card can slide under the bridge, it has a problem with the structure and the value of the guitar. A good luthier maybe able to fix the bridge and any bracing that may have come loose inside the guitar, however it may be a costly expense. Make sure it’ s worth it to you or you may just have a nice piece of wall art.
46 Nov � Dec 2016 CollectibleGuitar. com