1967 Hagstrom (Bjarton-made) H-11 Flattop Guitar (Update)

I originally worked on this guitar for its owner back in August of 2019, but since then I've done more work on it to get it stabilized after it suffered a bit in storage.

The quick of it is that this guitar model was made by Bjarton (in Sweden) for Hagstrom. It's basically a close-enough clone to a '60s Gibson B-25 save that the back and sides are ply and the top has fan-bracing rather than x-bracing. The neck is very similar to a Gibson-style neck from the early '60s with a medium, C-shaped profile on the rear and a tighter, ~10" or so radius to the fretboard.

I really like it for fingerpicking (especially in open tunings) but it does a nice, strummy sound as well. It also looks the biz with its Gibson-y, Guild-y charms.

The reason it took me a while to get back up and running for consignment is that I needed to stabilize the neck block. Like a lot of '60s off-brand guitars, this one uses a bigger, square-shaped neck block and the neck is sort-of fit into it in a similar manner to the bolt-on '60s Fender acoustic necks with the fretboard extension and neck over the body being part of the neck itself rather than glued to the top -- so the top is cut into a channel in that section and glued-up next to the extension. This leaves no side-to-side bracing near the shoulders and only about 1/4" of gluing surface for the top to glue to the top of the neck block.

As it hung-out in storage with its owner post-original-repairs, the top came unglued from the neck block and the neck wanted to shift "into" the body under tension -- this happens a ton on the old '60s bolt-on Fender acoustics and even more on the old '70s bolt-on Epiphone models from Japan where I see it, basically, every time. I solved this problem the same way I do with the Epiphones, by regluing the top to the block and then installing a support rod (in this case an aluminum one) that hard-mounts from the neck block to the end block. This makes the whole structure of the guitar more rigid and takes the compression tension off of the top and neck block joint. I also did some quick fill/patches to a couple bump-in damaged areas near the endblock, too.

So -- it's stable guitar, now, and I've adjusted the setup and got it playing spot-on like it was before once again.

Repairs included: previously a fret level/dress, new bone saddle, minor repairs, and setup. This time around I installed a through-body support rod, repaired a top/neck block separation, and patched some damage at the end block area. It's good to go.

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: ply mahogany

Bracing type: fan

Bridge: rosewood

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 52w, 40w, 30w, 22w, 16, 12

Neck shape: medium C

Board radius: ~10"

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-lower

Scale length: 24 7/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Body width: 14"

Body depth: 3 3/4"

Weight: 4 lbs 4 oz

Condition notes: there's finish-checking all over the guitar and plenty of light scratches (and some "medium" ones, too) here and there throughout. There's a repaired dryness/hairline crack repair to the treble side of the pickguard. There are two small fill/patched areas near the endblock. Otherwise it's crack-free. It has a non-original bone saddle (wider than normal for proper intonation), replacement bridge pins, and a non-original support rod installed in the body. The strap buttons are new "relic" gear, too. Otherwise it's original throughout.

It comes with: a funky old chip case decent-enough for storage.