April 6, 2009 | Guitar Collecting

Great new hardboundÂ 193 page book about the collectable Swedish Guitars,Â HagstrÃ¶m

superswede hagstrom HagstrÃ¶m guitars hold a place in musiciansÂ´ hearts. Many of the worldÂ´s greatest played HagstrÃ¶m instruments, from ABBA to Zappa. Other international star users are Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley.

Musicians of a younger generation have also discovered these Swedish quality instruments, for example The Cardigans and Sahara Hotnights.

This richly illustrated book â€“ more than 400 photos â€“ displays not only the guitars and basses made in the Ã„lvdalen main factory between 1958 and 1981, but also HagstrÃ¶m instruments sold under other brand names, and instruments built in the Falun and Oslo factories, and by BjÃ¤rton.

The close to 200,000 HagstrÃ¶m guitars made are a symbol of Swedish musical, cultural, and industrial history and a fine example of Swedish design.

Author Mikael Jansson is a journalist and musician, and in 2006 published a book (in Swedish) about the Hagstrom company history, “Musik for miljoner”.

Dwight Guitars

Dwight guitars were made by Epiphone as the house brand for Sonny Shields Music in East St Louis IL, which was owned by Mr Charles â€œDwightâ€ Shields.

Sonny Shields Music was a pretty big music shop back in the 50’s and 60’s and they also had several Dwight guitars made by Supro (and built by Valco), although the most well known was the rebranded Epiphone Coronet, marketed between 1963 and 1968.

The Epiphone built Dwight Coronet model has â€œDwightâ€ on the headstock and a â€œDâ€ in the scratchplate, similar to the â€œEâ€ in the Epiphone models.

Epiphone guitars of this period were built by Gibson at the Kalamazoo, Michigan, and were distributed by the Chicago Musical Instrument Company (CMI).

An ex-employee of Sonny Shields says that CMI sold the rebranded Dwights to Sonny Shields by the dozen, and that there are probably lots of old Dwights sitting in basements and attics throughout Southwestern Illinois!

These guitars, while rare and unusual are still around and tend to be cheaper that the Epiphone equivalent.

Many Coronets have the 6 on one side headstock as opposed to the 3 per side style of the Dwight, which is stronger in construction, and to my mind, looks better.

Epiphone guitars of this period were generally well made (American Epiphone production ran from 1961 -69) and the Dwights counted among some of the better ones.

These cool looking guitars are well worth picking up if you come across one.

Dwight Guitars