1960s Hagstrom H-33E 12-String Acoustic/Electric Guitar

While the catalogs don't list an H-33E model, I'm assuming that's what this is. Hagstrom sold an H-45 dreadnought and their electrified version was the H-45E. This venerable old box was made by Bjarton (in Sweden) for the company and has a solid spruce top over what is probably ply mahogany back and sides. It's fit with a magnetic pickup (with the poles fit in a rosewood cover -- snazzy!) and simple volume/tone wiring harness.

This is owned by the son of the original owner and I did some emergency surgery on this guitar last Saturday as the owner had driven all the way over from Maine to come see me to pick up another guitar we'd worked on recently. He'd paid for recent repairs to the guitar but the fella who did the job did not understand the loosey-goosey nature of the joints on these guitars and so the neck reset that was done before went afoul. Oops!

Work here included a neck re-reset (shim-style in the joint as the board had already been cut at the 12th fret), some added compensation to the saddle, a ground solution fit for the pickup at the bridge, pickguard reglue, side dots install, and setup work. It got a fresh set of nickel-wound strings in gauges 46w-10 which is perfect for tuning to E-to-E standard and strumming away.

See way down the post for some family pics with this guitar!

Ready for adorable?

Here's the current owner (above) just before he headed-off with his fixed toy back to Maine...

...and here's his Dad, the original owner of the guitar, back in the '60s. Family lore is that his Dad took this guitar into the ocean with him to impress some gals. Lore may be correct because boy were the wiring bits corroded!