Bjarton P-46

[park]

I recently acquired a Bjarton P-46. The seller tells me that it is from 1959, but I'm not sure that's correct. Nice guitar. It needs a little work, especially in the electronics. I don't know much about the Bjartons except that they had a business relationship with Hagstrom. I think Hagstrom made the pickup mechanism for this guitar. What do you think?

[VintAxe]

Yeah, that is the P-46 pickup first introduced by Hagstrom in 1958. From what I've read, the pickups were purchased separately from the guitars for about $150 and then installed in the Hagstrom glitter guitar bodies or any other guitar deep enough to hold the unit. You see the same pups used in the Goya branded glitter guitars from this period.

I don't know much about Bjarton guitars either so I don't recognize the model. Based on the pup, 1959 would be a reasonable guesstimate of age assumming the pup is a factory install. The fit of the pickguard indicates a factory install.

You're probably already aware of this page park, but other might be interested in the history of these pickups.

[Spud1950]

The relationship between the the two companies is that it was actually Bjarton that made all the Hagstrom branded acoustic guitar models. Here's a very good Bjarton site. Click on "Bjarton Models" and then "Section 2" to see your model and others that used the Hagstrom pickup module.