Hagstrom Krona-7 SBK

I am a professionnal musician and these days I play mostly jazz in a duo setting. I use the 7-string to do walking bass lines and cover the low register, where I mostly use the neck pickup. I know I am not the target audience for this guitar - most 7-strings these days seem to be metal-oriented and visually look off for my style. This one at least has some LesPaul DNA to it, so I thought I'd give it a try. It replaces a super cheap semi-hollow 7 string which could never intonate properly. It is a very cool instrument. Here are my main observations about it:
- It is actually surprisingly tight, well made, super ergonomic and looks quite neat in satin black.
-The tone pots are not audio taper, all the variations happen in the first 1/8 of the rotation; you'll have to have them changed or it's kind of unuseable: that's my biggest issue out of the box and why this is so is a head-scratcher.
-The coil splitting option (by pulling the tone pots) doesn't sound great and is superflous imo.
- It is a bit neck-heavy: Hagstrom use this special kind of truss rod and it has a lot more metal and weight to it.
- The upside of the previous point is that the neck seems super stable and unlikely to ever warp (unlike it happened to me before with guitars 3x the price). It is almost flawless and I managed to have it set up quite well, it's perhaps my best playing neck to date.
- The pickups seem to have mid/high output but definitely don't have the super high output of most modern metal guitars, which is very cool.
-The nut and intonation needed little tweaks upon arrival.
-The tuning pegs look cool but they aren't great, I might have to change them in the future.
-Soundwise, it is indeed very LesPaul-like. The sound of my previous cheapo 7-string was in a way more fitting for my style (probably because of the semi-hollow build) - it had more "thump" on bass lines and "woodiness" on clean sounds. However, I was always out-of tune so I had to change. This one sounds very balanced and "hi-fi" in comparison (in comparison to my LesPaul too). I miss that woody thump though and one day I will be looking for an actual 7 string jazz box.

This being my first Hagstrom instrument, and purchased before any other reviews of the guitar were available online, I ordered with a sense of trepidation. The specs sheet is fully loaded for this guitar, and the looks speak for themselves, but in practice that doesn't tell you much about how good the finished product will feel or perform on arrival. But, I'm a sucker for LP type guitars, and an offset LP 7 string with these features is right up my alley. Having done some research on Hagstroms other guitars and their sleeper status as manufacturers, I took the plunge...

Fortunately on arrival any concerns were quickly put aside. Stunning instrument with a hybrid of vintage and modern design attributes that helps it carry both class and aggression. The Krona has a good weight to it, feeling robust whilst still having a slender and svelt design with a relatively thin profile. If anything, it feels petite particularly next to cumbersome baritone instruments.

Some minor set-up adjustments to be made to mitigate some initial D string fret buzz but performs largely fine out of the box. No issue with QC (fretwork, finishing), and the guitar arrives well packaged from Thomann as is standard. The fretboard is made from Hagstrom's own composite material which performs well enough, i wouldn't say i noticed too much of a playability difference to ebony. The satin black body finish is slightly textured which also continues onto the back of the neck helping a little with grip, but still looks smart and doesn't attract too many marks while handling.

A couple of notes - the guitar does suffer from noticeable neck dive regardless of the strap button configuration (you get two lower options), so be prepared to be fighting against that a little whilst standing - and that's my primary critique with the instrument. The neck is VERY thin and the short scale length may not be to everyone's tastes, particularly those who like to downtune a lot, but it's fine for me in drop A.

Pickups, HagStrom's own brand of new alnico5 "Penetrator" and "xsteel" with a large variety of tonal configurations through dual volume, and push-pull tone knobs for coil splitting with a 3 way switch. Not the highest gain out there, but plenty versatile for locking in a range of sounds that veer from cutting to mellow. I'm not a tone chaser though, so they're good enough for me but a more trained ear may have other preferences.

Overall though, very pleased. Yes, made in China which may raise some eyebrows, but the QC has clearly been rigorous, and you're getting a lot of premium features with an instrument that looks as good as any recently released 7's at likely a lower price point. Well done Hagstrom!