GG147, Levin 1913

Old Levin parlor guitars there is no shortage of here in Sweden. Abroad, they are more rare and have a good reputation among collectors, not least because they are made in the American tradition that breaks with the more curvy European guitars of the same era. Do not know how many similar I renovated, but this one does not seem to be the last!

They come in three different sizes and with three different measurements of the width of the rim. Finer models have wider edges. The neck may be in poplar on older specimens before about 1920, later they got necks in harder maple. My favorites are the ones in green-colored poplar, with a carbon fiber rod you can straighten the always curved neck as poplar is soft. I think that the slightly reinforced poplar neck gives a nicer sound and better balance than the slightly thicker and heavier maple necks. The fretboard can be in black lacquered maple or walnut and in rare cases in rosewood or ebony (have only seen one ebony!). The stable can be in pyramid shape or a simpler triangular shape, the pyramid stable can be in rosewood on finer models. Really early Levin parlor guitars before about 1910 or later finer models have American mechanics with modern dimensions between the posts, later vintages have European mechanics with round buttons and tighter between the posts. Everyone has a fake dovetail where the neck is just stuck in the glue. A tone-killing stick in maple across the lid under the stable is found on all of these until sometime in the 1930s when it was replaced with a bar in spruce.

They were made to last, the thickness of the lid and the bottom is always a little too thick for them to sound best. Typical dimensions are 3,5 mm in lid and bottom, the lid should be about 3 mm and the bottom in birch a little thinner than that, about 2.8 mm. You experimented with 4 mm in lid and bottom as well, such guitars do not sound good in original condition! The ribs, on the other hand, are well sized and a legacy of the American tradition. European parlor guitars, on the contrary, have good thickness on the lid and bottom, but just too thick and high ribs! Levin usually has smaller cracks than the European thanks to thicker wood and the maple stick across the lid. One thing I always do now with Levin parlors is to thin both the lid and the bottom for best sound (there are individual copies that do not need to be thinned out too).

I always strengthen the small neck attachment with a wooden screw from the inside through the neck block and into the neck foot. The walnut board is always replaced, walnut is too soft, does not withstand water and no good toner in the fretboard (my opinion). The fretboard in black-painted maple is light and sounds good but is difficult to work as it must be painted black. They are also a little too thin. Usually change the board to rosewood. The awful maple stick under the stable is replaced with new ribs, the ribs at the bottom can be reused if they are in good condition for the sake of visibility. The originals must be given a new curve as they usually have a bend in the wrong direction as the bottom shrinks. Otherwise it is always best to replace with new healthy and tough wood in all ribs, with age the wood becomes brittle and loses the strength required. The combination of new ribs and old wood in the rest of the guitar is very good 🙂

This copy was the smallest model with the narrow rim and a little ravaged, in the lid someone had tattooed "Charlie" and "Micki" plus some notes, the bottom had been smeared with black paint. The neck foot had been tightened with two screws from the outside for safety, a very common "fix" when the glue has released in the small neck attachment. For once, I cleaned the bottom of paint when I thinned out the bottom, usually sanding the inside of the bottom. Inserted a 2 mm wide stick in rosewood between the bottom halves when the bottom had shrunk. Levinen was of the most common and simplest model with a narrow rim, walnut board and the simple triangular stable. Thinned lid and bottom, cleaned off all ribs and re-ribbed with new wood. Stable and fretboard were replaced with replicas in Madagascar rosewood and the poplar neck was given a carbon fiber rod. New tuning screws with modern distances between the posts were plugged and drilled in. Tied up with brass tape. The bottom halves were glued together and got a middle strip on the inside.

  • Total length: 94 cm
  • Top (upper round, waist, lower round): 22,5 - 17,5 - 31 cm
  • Side (neck block, waist, end block): 7,3 - 7,9 - 7,9 cm
  • Neck: Weak V-shape
  • Fingerboard (nut, 12th, bridge): 46 - 56 - 56 mm
  • String length: 62,8 cm
  • Paint: Spray
  • Weight: 1321 g

Most of the job was to paint the woody bottom with alcohol varnish. I'm not jealous of those who build brand new guitars! Now you can see the wood and not just the black color. Under the color you can see that the bottom was not bookmatched but two completely different and unmatched birch pieces.

Tones the segmented stable leg in the image above. It got plugs for higher volume and better clarity. Side dots only on the 5th and 7th band and no dots in the grip board as desired. Chose string pin without a dot because I think it fit the guitar 🙂 Sounds just as good with piano sound on the thick E string that I used to and can't be without!

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