As yo may have noticed on the pictures, all my stage guitars are glossy white Hagstrom guitars. The electric ones are the classic Swede in various models, Tremar, F and a classic one. The acoustic guitar is a Siljan II Dreadnought CE, the only one I found in the glossy white finish. 

Why? What about the white color and why Hagstrom?

It's a bit of a story behind it, of course and it started in 2014. We were about to reboot Canis Lupus after an eight year long break. A year earlier we had released the compilation CD with songs from our demo records dated back to 2000-2006. As we were looking for som additional band members I was looking for one of my guitars from that period. I had sold it to a friend some years earlier with the promise that if he should sell it I was the first one to contact to see if I wanted it back. It turned out he did't.

Mad as hell I searched the internet for similar guitars. I made a short list of what my demands on my new guitar was and I went out hunting.

The hunt

Unlike the lost guitar I wanted my new guitar to be white, by two reasons. White symbolized something new, a clean slate, start over. That was what I should do and what the band should do. Also I thought, since most of my clothes are black and all the stages are black or at least dark, white would look good both on the stage an on black and white photos. My guitars would be seen and also would I.
I wanted chrome hardware. As a kid I always loved the old cars with all their fancy chrome reflecting light on a sunny day. Chrome hardware would shine, it would reflect the light, chrome wasn't as "tacky" as I thought gold/brass to be. It would also fit my outfit since I use metal, chrome and silver for rings and chains.
It should be a Les Paul type guitar. I always thought the Les Paul model was cooler, more rock'n'roll, sexier, than the strat model and all the axes with different non symmetric shapes, were just too much.
It should have a "belly cut". The Les Paul is kind of squared around its edges and to be as close to the guitar as i prefer it needed that belly cut. 
I found the glossy white Hagstrom Swede.

The buyer couldn't afford it. The guitar is yours, if you still want it?

It was a Friday. I saw an auction on a glossy white Hagstrom Swede on Tradera and the first bid was farliy low so I bid myself once, twice, until it was just me and another bidder. But after a while the price was too high for me. I stopped bidding and called a friend of mine that worked in a music store and asked him If he knew a used Swede at a good price. He told me that he could get me one until Monday next week. It was a glossy white Tremar and it was brand new, but since it was the last one, they needed space to get new guitars in, I was I... He could make a really good deal. And it was.

The weekend came and on Sunday I got a mail from te seller to the guitar at Tradera and he told me that "the buyer couldn't afford it. The guitar is yours if you still want it. Same price as your highest bid". He also wrote that he was working in my town on Monday and could bring it to my work at lunchtime. If I was still interested. I wrote back that I was still interested and on that Monday I bought his guitar at lunch and on the afternoon I went to the music store and bought the Tremar.
Both guitars cost me as one new would and I had both my new guitars at home on August the 24th 2014.

Since then I have bought a glossy white Siljan II Dreadnought CE and as a birthday present I got the glossy white Swede-F this spring. I think they all are extremly easy to play and the sound is wonderful. It is a joy for me to play them. My dream is now to someday be able to build my own Hagstrom Swede 12 with reversed stringing (as a Rickenbacker 12). Think of it as a Swede with a Viking Deluxe 12 neck and a Hagstrom Trapeze tailpiece. Glossy white ofc. That would be quite something a "Hagstrom Swede PS12R".  

Meanwhile, the search for a Swede Bass is on.

Best,
Mr Pilblad