It's no secret that I do regular repairs alongside GammelGura. Mostly simpler modern instruments that need help, but sometimes they are nice instruments like this Levin 170 archtop from 1937. I have owned a similar one myself, but I resold it as archtops have never been something for me. I think …
Not much is known about the Levin parlor copies that sometimes appear with a burn stamp with the text "Nässjö musical instrument factory" inside. There are also those that are stamped "Musikinstrumentfabriken i Tranås" or "NYA musikinstrumentfabriken Göteborg", obviously made according to the same template. They are copies of Levin parlor guitars and were made during a period from about 1910-1930…
The first in the ongoing batch is ready, the harp guitar from around 1890. Year and manufacturer is a mystery. The beautiful stable and the carvings in the head could indicate that it is made in Sweden, but the light construction with the right thicknesses on the lid, bottom and side indicates a skilled craftsman and not a Swedish furniture carpenter. Think …
Has come so far with the batch that I can start completing GammelGurorna one by one. First out is the harp guitar. Mounted the brass rod between the neck and bottom block on the way to glue back the bottom, but I stopped. My experience of connecting the two blocks with a rod is not good. The few times I tested when…
I knew that I had seen a picture of the sawing machine that sawed the fret grooves in fretboards at Levin's. I found it in Levinbladet 1 1944. The irony is that this particular machine was misaligned when the picture was taken, the saw blades for the top three frets and some of the last ones were wrong :-)
Finished a laggard from the last batch this week. An unusually modern GammelGura from my waiting room, an unstamped "Carmensita" Levin from one of the years 1951-1955. The format of it is a bit larger than the old Levin parlor guitars and it does not fit in the regular Gator 3/4 parlor case as it is too wide over the lid. …
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