The Hagstrom Viking is a great guitar for the money, and in this review Colin talks about a few of its strong points as well as some things to look for if you’re considering one.
In the video, Colin mentions contacting him for more details, however due to a fair bit of demand, we’ve decided to simply write those tips down for everyone here in this post.
The things to watch for in a Hagstrom Viking are for the most part, the same things you need to watch carefully for on any guitar that you’re considering (please checkout our Ultimate Electric Guitar Buying Guide). Every guitar is different, and we do mean EVERY guitar – we’re not talking brands and models and stuff like that here – you can compare two identical model guitars, and yet still find differences between them. There are any number of reasons for this – the person making that model could have been having a bad hair day, or it could have randomly been their greatest ever. Post-manufacturing, there are differences in transport and storage, all of which can have an affect on the guitar as well.
The Vikings are mostly made by CNC machine, so there is actually a high level of standardization with these. That said, you’re still going to find variations. Here are some things to watch for:
- A good straight neck and fingerboard. Make sure it is not warped or bowed.
- Watch out for really sharp frets (on the edges). Sometimes this is a sign of a poorly built neck, or that the neck has shrunk a bit. If you run your hand up and down the edge of the neck, do the frets catch your fingers?
- Check the toggle switches to make sure they’re working properly; we’ve come across a couple that aren’t.
- Look for imperfections in the finish, especially around where the neck joins the body.
As with all guitars, we highly recommend after purchase that you play it for a bit (say a month or two), then bring it to a good guitar technician and have them do a proper setup on it for you. This gives the guitar time to settle in the environment that you play it in, with the strings you use, etc. Tweaking it at this point should bring it to a nice stable level where it will remain for a long time, barring any catastrophic changes!
In general, the Viking is a great guitar, truly excellent value for the money. Now, take a couple minutes and watch Colin’s Hagstrom Viking review here:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUZpiQk02xY
Watch on Youtube
