Sweden’s Hagstrom has teamed-up with Swedish band Ghost to produce the Fantomen (Swedish for ‘The Phantom’) guitar.
The new model features an asymmetrical solid mahogany body with mahogany neck joined to the body with a classic mortise-and-tenon neck joint system. As you’d expect from a Hagstrom, the Fantomen utilises a H-Expander truss rod and Resinator fingerboard, endowing the guitar with what UK distributor Rosetti claims is: ‘an incredibly stable, resonant and responsive sonic foundation.
‘With a relatively thin 1¼” (3.5cm) body, the Fantomen is beautifully balanced and surprisingly lightweight with a 25.5” (648mm) scale that provides a slightly sharper attack and more sustain than classic 24.75” scale guitars. The neck joint design provides total, unrestricted access to all 22 frets and will meet the needs of even the most virtuosic player,’ Rosetti adds.
The Hagstrom’s pickups were designed by Swedish pickup guru Johan Lundgren, designer of pickups used by Meshuggah’s Martin Hagström (no relation). Apparently, Lundgren recommended two different humbucker designs: No. 2 in the neck position and No. 5 in the bridge position. ‘The result covers an immense expressive range; from smooth, warm tones to the kind of attack and intense dynamic output that would satisfy the demands of even the most extreme musical styles. Each pickup can be split to single-coil mode by means of push/pull switches incorporated into the tone controls, which allow even more sonic flexibility for a guitar that speaks with many distinct voices,’ Rosetti says.
The SRP is £869 and the Fantomen comes in sunburst, white or black finishes.
Info: www.rosetti.co.uk