Here in Sweden there are plenty of old Levin parlor guitars and I have renovated many of them. But rarely as old as 1907. This was a simpler model with the triangular fixed bridge and a black painted maple fretboard without inlays. It is especially fun with provenance, in the first email from the customer I was told:
“I have had an old Levin lying unplayable as a legacy from my old grandmother. I was born in Skorped but now live outside Uppsala. Sometime in the early 1960s, my grandmother told me that she had bought this new guitar in 1907 in Sollefteå, where she had just finished a seamstress training. She paid a full SEK 14 for it. She used it diligently as a traveling seamstress from yard to yard, carrying a pedal sewing machine (Singer) on her shoulders and the guitar in her hand. She died in 75 and was a brilliant troubadour with a large repertoire of the songs and prints of the time ”. Some pictures I got in the email:
The guitar have had the head broken at some point and glued together with wood glue and a wooden screw. The bottom had shrunk and the large crack between the bottom halves had been taped. Neck in green and soft poplar wood, bottom and side in birch and top in European spruce. Only a few marks were on the back of the neck, a capo had not been used often. The bridge and the fretboard in black painted maple. The tuning screws were in good condition for their age with the cog below the post, which makes the gap disappear more or less when tuning up. They work unexpectedly well. Took some pictures before I started working on it.
- Total length: 93 cm
- Top (upper round, waist, lower round): 22 - 17,5 - 31 cm
- Side (neck block, waist, end block): 7,3 - 8,1 - 8 cm
- Neck: Soft V-shape
- Fingerboard (nut, 12th, bridge): 45 - 58 - 58 mm
- String length: 62,8 cm
- Paint: Spirit varnish
- Weight: 1089 g
Given the history, the tuning screws were kept and also the bridge after modification. The fretboard had deep gaming pits, maple is a soft wood, and we concluded that it was better to replace it with a new one in rosewood. Measured up the old board and the frets were more or less perfectly positioned, as it usually is on Levin before about 1920.
The neck got a carbon fiber rod. Real old Levin parlor guitars have a shallow neck pocket of about 1 cm, later models got a twice as deep pocket. As always, I pulled a wooden screw from the inside through the neck block into the neck foot to reinforce the weak attachment. The old repair of the head with wood glue was loosened and reglued. Because the fit was poor between the parts, I chose epoxy glue with long cure as the adhesive. The glue fills the nooks and crannies which hot hide glue don't do. I cleaned and lubricated the tuning screws. Some bent knobs were bent straight. A few of the small screws had been replaced, they were replaced with old originals from previous renovations. A new rosewood board with 16 ″ radius and 628 mm open string length (as it is on really old Levin) was manufactured and fretted on with brass frets.
The bridge was far too high and was planed down at the top. To make room with an intoned saddle instead of the original brass fret, the bridge was extended about 3 mm to the front with a piece of birch glued with hot hide glue. The bridge was then painted with black spirit varnish. The string holes were very large and gaping, they were plugged and new holes were drilled.
The bottom had uneven thickness, in places almost 4 mm and in others close to 2 mm thick. Sanded the bottom more evenly to about 2,8 mm thickness with my drum sander. A thick bottom is not good for sound. The bottom had shrunk unusually much, an approximately 5 mm wide rosewood stick was glued between the bottom halves and a spruce strip reinforced the joint on the inside. The top and bottom got new bracing. The third brace in the bottom was made with a flat strip to give the bottom some flexibility. Made the cross on the bridgeplate extra wide, has had good results in the past with bridgeplates in spruce that goes almost all over the top. Maybe the vibrations spreads more quickly across the fibers of the top. Will do so on future GammelGura. See picture from my mobile camera before I glued the bottom.
The neck gluing (which is always an adventure) was successful and I got the right height on the segmented stable leg. No K&K was installed. The old end plug was broken so a new old end plug from a previous renovation with K&K mic was installed. The original had a nice patina, but to hide eye-catching gadgets and the necessary sanding at the joints between the fingerboard and neck as well as the bottom and side, it got a round of spirit varnish that was matted down with steel wool. Also used Herdin's water-soluble stain number 70, Carl-Johan brown, which is perfect for matching the Levin color on the bottom, side and neck 🙂
My new method of measuring intonation with all strings at tension and an adjustable "strin pin" in brass is a success. The intonation measurements always match very well. The final adjustment went smoothly, although the result was unusual with only minor adjustments in the nut and large adjustments at the saddle. Had to make the saddle extra thick to reach all the intonation points. Strung up with Newtone Heritage 0.12 strings. Although maple is a bit too soft for a bridge, I think it will hold up well with the thick segmented saddle. There will not be much twisting torque on the saddle as the strings alternately rest on the front edge and the rear edge of the top of the saddle. Also, I always gives the saddle a slight slope backwards when I cut up the notch for the saddle. In terms of sound, both the maple fretboard and the maple bridge are good, the problem is that the wood is soft.
Have it on vibration over the weekend, but what I've heard so far sounds both good and as it should. Wonder what Grandma would have said if she had tried it now! Should double check if the old string pins can be used which would be preferable, in the pictures I have new unslotted ebony pins.
