Having said this, there are a lot worse guitars out there, and as well as being historically important, the 1820 bass can certainly provide the goods when required. Over the course of the 70s, the Japanese output improved dramatically, and in many ways these early 70s models are a low point for the brand. These new Epiphones were based on existing Matsumoku guitars, sharing body shapes, and hardware, but the Epiphone line was somewhat upgraded, with inlaid logos and a 2x2 peghead configuration. The Matsumoku factory had been producing guitars for export for some time, but the 1820 bass (alongside a number of guitar models and the 5120 electric acoustic bass) were the first Epiphone models to be made there. 1966 'worlds fastest playing neck' Hagstrom catalog (USA)īy the end of the 1960s, a decision had been made to move Epiphone guitar production from the USA (at the Kalamazoo plant where Gibson guitars were made), to Matsumoto in Japan, creating a line of guitars and basses significantly less expensive than the USA-built models (actually less than half the price).The 1966 Hagstrom catalog features the following guitars and basses: Electric guitars:Ĭ-2 Other Hagstrom catalog scans on this site In Europe these guitars were given alternate names - see the relevant pages for each model for further details.
HAGSTROM BASS GUITAR SERIAL NUMBERS SERIAL
At that time, the only other company producing an 8-string bass was Rickenbacker, but these were custom-order instruments thus, Hagstrom became the first manufacturer to serial produce an 8-string bass, bringing this unique instrument to a much wider audience. It should be noted that these model designations all relate to United States (specifically Merson) distribution. Hagstrom’s US distributor brought the idea of an 8-string bass to them in 1967. Semi acoustic models are the V1 and V2 guitars and C1 and C2 basses. This catalog includes a number of solid body Hagstrom guitars, notably the F11, F200/F300 and Impala/Condor six strings and FB, F400 and Coronado basses.
HAGSTROM BASS GUITAR SERIAL NUMBERS FULL
Actually this publication was the second catalog of 1966 - the previous catalog with the world's fastest playing neck was half the length, without full color images, and pictured earlier versions of some instruments. This was the first full-colour Hagstrom guitar catalog produced by any distributor. It contained eight electric guitars, five acoustics (including one electro-acoustic) and five bass guitars. The 1966 Hagstrom guitars and basses move people catalog was produced by Merson Musical Products, New York, USA for the American market. Hagstrom, of course, were produced in Sweden, with various distributors worldwide.