1959 Goya (Hagstrom) Model 80 Electric Guitar

Tone: It's got a clean, punchy, retro sound with a good, steely, roundness to it. It will do a pretty cool "clean jazz" thing with the amp adjusted for a little more bass and the trebles rolled-off a bit. It does garage rock with some drive. It does rockabilly snap very well as the pickup has a bit of that DynaSonic sort-of sonic signature "straight up" and clean. I like it a lot driven, though, too. It's an interesting guitar because the single neck pickup appears to be a one-trick-pony configuration but it does more.

Feel: The neck is quick and easy and the acrylic fretboard feels dang cool and slick. The frets are lower and more narrow but they've got enough meat left to do the job just fine. It's a "slick-feeling" guitar.

Interesting features: Obviously, it's got lots of interesting bits. The body is semihollow in construction and has a lot of weight relief due to the big, mostly-hollow, plastic-bin pickup/control housing that drops-into the body. This particular body probably started-out as one of the version of this guitar that would have had some sort of sparkle-style drum wrap material (celluloid) on it but it's been refinished to natural since then. It gives it an oddball (maybe more refined) look. Someone has gone to the trouble to paint (in gold) the Goya logo back to where the original plastic Goya logo would have been on the upper bout. It's a great-looking guitar and has a retro style all its own -- a little big Gibson (Les Paul outline), a little bit Gretsch (Duo Jet-feeling), and lastly a little bit "Euro" in that it lines-up with other Hagstrom-built guitars from the time and has a bit of the '50s/'60s Italian-design influence as well. Note the cool "pick holder" on the back of the headstock.

Repairs included: It's had a level/dress of the frets and setup work. Gurian did that and then also reglued the gold grill in the middle of the guitar. We also fit some foam "riser" material under the pickup housing so it's got a proper "adjustable height" use from the mounting screws. Before it arrived here, someone did the refinishing work and also replaced the wiring harness south of the pickup housing (the jack, jack plate, and lead to the connection to the housing). Someone also replaced the original bridge, tailpiece, and tuners with gold-plated modern fare in Gibson styling (ABR bridge and stop tail). 

• Maker: Hagstrom (Sweden) for the Goya brand
• Model: G80
• Body style: single-cutaway/LP-a-like/semi-hollow
• Weight: 6 lbs 8 oz
• Scale length: 24 1/2"
• Nut width: 1 5/8"
• Neck shape: slim-medium D
• Board radius: 10"
• Body width: 11 3/4"
• Body depth: 1 3/4"
• Body wood: oak/birch?
• Bridge: Gibson-style ABR
• Fretboard: acrylic
• Neck wood: likely maple
• Pickups: one Hagstrom single coil
• Action height at 12th fret: 1/16” overall (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 46w-10
• Truss rod: non-adjustable
• Neck relief: just the teensiest relief tuned to pitch (~1/64")
• Fret style: narrow/lower

Condition notes: It's been stripped and refinished in the body. The tuners, bridge, strap buttons, jack plate, and tailpiece are all replacements. The pickup and wiring housing is original but one of the "push button" control button thingies is missing. Both of the wheels (tone/volume) have slightly-scratchy pots but work fine. I'm not sure if I'm hearing anything with the push-button engaged but one can turn it off by pressing the little "post" next to the push buttons which resets them. There are numerous small cracks (stabilized) in the pickup/control housing's plastic. There's also one missing plastic edging trim piece at the neck joint (bass side).

It comes with: It has an old hard case from the '70s (not pictured but in good order).

Consignor tag: TB