A slightly larger and more modern Levin from 1940 is ready. The design of these is very similar to the Gibson from the 1930s with its black color and sunburst in the lid. One thing that is not good on these is the stable which is partly of the "string through" type (as on a classical guitar) and partly can be very high on the bass side. Have never liked those stables and this one got a replica of a modern cut with string sticks.
In the early 1940s, Levin had problems with his monster saw with about 20 blades that cut out the grooves for all the straps in the fretboard in a single sawing. Someone failed to adjust it 5-6 years before the error was discovered! This one from 1940 had the classic flaws in the placement of the bands, mainly the first and last bands. Filled all the sawn grooves with rosewood and sawed new ones in the right place. In the worst place (1st band) the error was probably around 2 mm…
Especially for this one was that the customer wanted a larger sound hole to be able to install a sound hole mic. The original sound holes are a few mm too narrow for most modern mics. The larger sound hole was actually nicer than the original. You can fall in with the whole arm also without problems 🙂 It would also get X-ribbed. The original rosewood fretboard was flat but had a 16 ″ radius. Original tuning screws with a small round knob were a bit difficult to tune regular 0.11 strings with, so they had to make room for the new Golden Age. No plugging as the old screws had modern (American) distances between the posts.
Got to change my neck an extra time when I thought I could skip the reinforcement in the maple at the bottom of the neck for the neck attachment. The soft neck pad yielded and the throat rotated in and the height at the stable leg became too low. Even after I glued a roughly 2 mm plate in hard maple, my neck wanted to rotate a little. Without reinforcement you should put about 2 mm on top of the stable to compensate when aiming the neck, with the plate I intend to put 0.5 mm in the future. In normal cases, the ruler in the extension of the grip board with straps should rest on top of the stable for the correct neck angle. Levin's neck attachment is one of the less good details, with a better genuine dovetail, the neck foot rests on the stiff and hard side and then the neck angle does not change in the actual attachment when you tighten up.
It seems there are two different types of varnish on these. The cover with the brush has a different and less strong lacquer than the side, bottom and neck. When I clear lacquer with alcohol varnish, the alcohol dissolves the old lacquer on the lid and the lacquer smashes in some places. Needed three layers of clear varnish with intermediate sanding to get a reasonably smooth surface. The rest of the guitar doesn't have that problem.
Have never succeeded well with these before. But this time I'm very happy with the sound. The "turbo plugs" gave high volume and the X-rib was made slimmer than before, took advice from Per Marklund and made the X with thinner 7,5 mm wide ribs. On a medium-sized guitar like this, it can be a problem to get ladder bracing to hold and at the same time sound good. This one even sounds like good for someone who otherwise wrinkles their nose at the modern sound of X-ribbed guitars 😉
