Last out in the previous batch is a slightly more unusual Levin from 1935 with oval sound hole and 13 bands to the body. A little bigger than a Levin parlor, much like a classic guitar. Roswood stable and grip board, the grip board with celluloid binding. A nice Levin logo in mother of pearl as well. Despite finer details, it is a 1 year warranty guitar, only the finer models had a 10 year warranty. That it is not the most expensive guitar Levin sold is not least visible on the large twig in the three-part maple neck 🙂
- Total length: 97 cm
- Top (upper round, waist, lower round): 26 - 21,5 - 36,5 cm
- Side (neck block, waist, end block): 9,5 - 10 - 9,5 cm
- Neck: C-shape
- Fingerboard (nut, 12th, bridge): 45 - 56 - 58 mm
- String length: 63 cm
- Varnish: Cellulose overcoated with spirit varnish
- Weight: 1449 g
It was not in the best condition, a solid crack in the bottom had been glued together and the edge of the side where a piece of the bottom was unloaded was damaged. The lid had a substantial drying crack underneath the stable. The stable was very loud especially on the base side. Planed safely down 5 mm in height to reach normal height, but the stable was good to reuse anyway.
The band's placement in the grip board was not the best as it often is on Levin between 1930-1950. The special circular saw that looked like all bands was obviously not calibrated properly. The first and last strap was about 2-3 mm wrong and the rest of the straps mostly +1 mm from the correct position. Filled all the ribbon notches with 1 mm wide rosewood sticks and sawed up new notches for the strips. The grip board also got new celluloid moldings around.
The oval sound hole was very small and had a pompous celluloid rosette that was not in the best condition. The solution was to make the sound hole bigger by cutting off the bow and inserting a simple white tie that matched the lid's binding. A larger sound hole opens up the tone and produces a less mournful sound. Although the sound hole became much larger than before, it did not become too large, quite normal in fact.
The crack in the lid got a spruce strip glued. Got to work unusually a lot to match the color in the burst lacquered lid, the crack and the glued splinter passed all the color shades. The scar on the bottom got some color too, the bottom crack stabilized with moldings on the inside.
New tuning screws were installed, no plugs were needed as the originals had modern spacing between the posts.
The lid was thinned from about 3,5 mm to about 3 mm, the bottom from about 3 mm to about 2,7 mm for the best sound. All ribs were replaced, stable plate in spruce and carbon fiber rod in the neck were mounted. Studs and segmented stable legs, oversaddle toning and K&K mick complemented GammelGuran. The neck pocket was given a 3 mm maple plate at the bottom and a screw was pulled into the neck through the neck block, Levin's classic neck attachment with straight edges needs all the help it can get.
Funny how man interprets visual impressions, the oval sound hole resembles an eye and when the grip board inserts a few mm into the sound hole after the enlargement of the sound hole you think the guitar looks a little angry! It's definitely a guitar with attitude 🙂
This is the first time I string an Old Gura with Newtone Masterclass 0.11 strings instead of Newtone Heritage 0.12. Can think that it got a little more "bite" and a little less bass from the E and A string, there are also harder strings to play on. Probably a habit. Very smooth in its tone, sounds good, but so far a little unusual. Can't really decide which is the better of the two strings!
Think that the regular NM 0.11 strings that are stiffer than NH 0.12 are more stable when it comes to intonation, had no problems whatsoever when I double-checked the measurement. The future may show if that is true. The compensation for the upper saddle must be made larger than usual for the E and A strings, the stiffer strings increase the pitch more than the NH strings when the string is pressed down.
