LeftyBassist.com

https://reverb.com/item/38078667-hagstr ... rst-w-ocbc

Holy shit man. If I hadn’t just bought that CIJ 5 string, this would be mine. A dream bass for me. Never played one!

Wow - Paulo, your ability to find amazing basses is staggering- this is tremendous

Thanks NoXX! It just popped on my Reverb feed, and this one I thought it would be worth sharing!

Price has dropped significantly on this one. We lefties get very few chances to own a true left handed instrument made in the 60's that won't require you to mortgage your house to own, so someone should jump on this. I found a '67 lefty Hagstrom HBII years ago, which is very similar, and these are really fun, great sounding little basses:

https://reverb.com/item/38078667-hagstr ... rst-w-ocbc

As the previous owner, I am very well acquainted with both this lefty Hofner 182 https://reverb.com/item/39026526-rare-h ... 0-s-w-ocbc
...as well as this Hagstrom.

The descriptions are pretty much spot on, but if anyone needs help or has any questions, let me know.

Did they buy them both from you?

Cool, Carmine. I do have a couple of questions:

- I know you play your basses strung upside down, so does this one have a new nut or did they just reverse it back again?

- What do you know about Hagstrom's serial # dating? Were the numbers unique to each model, or did they run across the whole line? The seller says this is a "late 60's" bass, but the serial number is earlier than my HBII's, which I know is a '67, so I'm wondering if the serial # is unique to the F-400 or not.

Thanks

Hey PJ, just to clarify, the Hofner was purchased directly from me; the Hag was not but I have first hand knowledge of it. Strings never reversed to my knowledge.

Hagstrom serial numbers are a slippery slope unless you have the access to the old production logs, but I'll explain to the best of my knowledge, some or all of which you may already know too:

HIIB (european market) and F400 (U.S. market) are the same bass; its got to the point where folks seem to use the two names interchangably.

The Hagstrom six digit serial #s are comprised of two sections-(first 3 digits = a specific production run) (second 3 digits= # of instrument produced in that run). Each production run was assigned to a single instrument type (i.e. all Swedes, all HBs, all Concords, etc.). For example, my Concord bass Serial # 696706 was the 706th bass produced in production run #696, which was a run of Concords done in 1967.

By having a general knowledge of how the runs correlate to years, the production year can be reasonably estimated without the Hagstrom log book- but not entirely, as some runs could be quite brief, while others would start in one year and not finish until the next, etc.


That said, unless I'm reading it wrong that’s a “500" serial number on the neck plate of this bass. A “500” run would correlate to around 1961 or so- which would be way too early to make any sense for an HIIB /F400 like this one. I’m sure this is a mid- 60’s bass, probably around 1966-67 like yours and mine.

I’m checking in with my Hag expert who has the logs and I’ll let you know if his opinion differs, but I’m pretty sure about it.