I´m a bass player at heart. But when recording and more and more on stage I play the guitar. I´v played acoustic steel string guitars for a long time. But when guitarist Stefan Hedenström joined us with his fantastic guitar skills it made my acoustic Yamaha APX 700II sound a little thin…. And my electric Hagstrom Ultra Swede had a little to aggressive sound. So…… Hagstrom Super Viking.
The Hagstrom Viking has been around for a long time. Even mr Prestly played it in the late 70:s. The Viking is a semi hollow guitar but with a maple block running the hole length of the guitar. A lot like the famous Gibson 335:s. The Hagstrom guitars have the H-expander truss rod which is a very rigid aluminium profile with the steel rod incorporated in the H. It gives the guitar a really ridged neck. The fretboard is in Resinator wood which is a wood composite that is really hard. It looks and sounds like a ebony fretboard. It makes the neck stiff and gives the Hagstrom guitars their famous bright and really fast attack. So, the Vikings differ from the Gibsons. But being a semi hollow it has a little softer tone than the solids and together with the Hagstrom HJ-50 C pic ups it gives a pronounced lower mid range. All in all, fed thru my EBS Reidmar 750 top and 2 * EBS classic 1*12 cabinets it gives me a tone that differs quite a lot from Stefans lead guitar. I play the rhythm guitar. I´m the bands lead vocal so that works fine.
All my years playing the acoustics has given me a very firm lefthand grip. So much that, when playing electrics which have a lot lower string tension, I can get the chords to go out of tune. So to help me I found the Super Viking. It´s a new take on the Viking. Basically the same guitar as the Viking but with the longer fender style string length, 25,4 inch (648 mm), which gives the guitar higher string tension. It also carries down tuning like a breeze. To get string tension even more like the acoustics I use heavy gauge strings (12/52) Elixir Nanoweb. They have a wound g-string and it keeps breaking. So I change the g-string to a Ernie Ball 22 guage plain steel string. It never breaks and gives the guitar a slightly brighter tone. It ends up a perfect guitar for me and with a tone that works wonderful besides Stefans more aggressive tone.
All my years playing the acoustics has given me a very firm lefthand grip. So much that, when playing electrics which have a lot lower string tension, I can get the chords to go out of tune. So to help me I found the Super Viking. It´s a new take on the Viking. Basically the same guitar as the Viking but with the longer fender style string length, 25,4 inch (648 mm), which gives the guitar higher string tension. It also carries down tuning like a breeze. To get string tension even more like the acoustics I use heavy gauge strings (12/52) Elixir Nanoweb. They have a wound g-string and it keeps breaking. So I change the g-string to a Ernie Ball 22 guage plain steel string. It never breaks and gives the guitar a slightly brighter tone. It ends up a perfect guitar for me and with a tone that works wonderful besides Stefans more aggressive tone.
I just bought my third Super Viking. I use one de tuned for fast de tuning on stage, one in regular tuning and one at home. Just love them.
/Gus Muller
