The Hagstrom Ultra Max Milky Mandarin Satin combines the classic Swede singlecut design with contemporary amenities in terms of playing comfort and sound to the perfect electric guitar for modern rock and metal. In terms of construction, Hagstrom relies on a 25.5" scale length (648 mm) in addition to the mahogany body with arched curly maple top and the glued maple neck with Resinator Wood fingerboard, which ensures clean sound development even with drop tunings. In addition, the extremely slim "Ultraslim D" profile and flat 15" (381 mm) fingerboard radius provide comfortable playing characteristics all the way up to the high frets. With two Hagstrom Custom 60 Alnico-V humbuckers, the Hagstrom Ultra May also delivers extremely punchy tones that crisply present even low tunings. With the option to coil-split the humbuckers, dynamic single-coil sounds are also available. Last but not least, the Hagstrom Ultra Max Milky Mandarin Satin is equipped with a Tune-O-Matic bridge, a Hagstrom sustain tailpiece and precise die-cast tuners.
My 3rd Hagstrom and the guitar is as good as ever from them - perfect setup on arrival (for me), smooth fret ends, nothing to complain about in the finish, no apparent glue, just perfect. The sound is great (strangely, the pots are reversed on mine, meaning the bridge pot is closer to the neck and vice versa, did not see any circuit diagrams on the web ... not sure this is normal but no problem). What was a bit of a let down was the actual colour: looks more like tomato soup than orange in fact. The satin neck also feels very special, not like other satin necks I have felt, but I like it. I almost returned it to be honest, but I love the handling and the sound too much. In any case, once more, an example of the principle 'not to buy before seeing the guitar in real' though - not sure I would have taken it home from the actual shop.