Anyone selling an old Levin?

BigPaulie

Tried an LM26 out yesterday in a Glasgow pawnbroker and it sounded absolutely colossal, but its condition concerns me a bit.

I'm not looking for a mint example, players grade preferred, but it must be fully sound and serviceable.

thinline72

There is a Model 47 at Glenn's guitar if it's of any interest: https://www.glennsguitars.com/1943-levin-model-47-749/

Andy79

There’s a stunning sounding one in Hobgoblin in Bristol but the neck angle isn’t great

BigPaulie

Thanks for the heads-up, folks.
I'm probably more keen on finding a Goliath size guitar with maple back and sides like the one I played yesterday.
A bit specific, I know, but although these guitars aren't exactly common, they're not exactly rare either.
FWIW, if the neck angle is putting you off buying the one in Hobgoblin, @Andy79 they have bolt on necks and are quite easy to reset.

Andy79

BigPaulie said:

Thanks for the heads-up, folks.
I'm probably more keen on finding a Goliath size guitar with maple back and sides like the one I played yesterday.
A bit specific, I know, but although these guitars aren't exactly common, they're not exactly rare either.
FWIW, if the neck angle is putting you off buying the one in Hobgoblin, @Andy79 they have bolt on necks and are quite easy to reset.

I did not know that! Thanks for the info. 

They don’t have a great name for themselves it seems but this one did sound very good and had the blackest ebony fingerboard I’ve ever seen

BigPaulie

The one I tried was priced at £599, but the top had a fair belly on it. The bridge was lifting at the back bass corner. There was a 3" top crack that seemed stable enough. The neck had been reset and there was a significant fall-away from 14th fret upwards. It has been refretted but the neck binding was broken at the end of every fret as if it had been cut through during the refret instead of cutting the fret tang to fit inside the binding. The 3 on a plate tuners were also slipping a fair bit. The nut was slotted well enough but was seated poorly. However, it SOUNDED ABSOLUTELY FILTHY (in the most amazing way).

I just didn't have the confidence to part with £599 when a significant outlay would be required to future-proof it.

Andy79

I know so little about them, I’ve always avoided them assuming they sound like the German junk from the same era but was definitely impressed. That particular one could well have been mistook for a good D18 in all honesty 
I may revisit it with my new found knowledge

The one you looked at sounds by description, a little expensive. The top belly being of most concern. 

BigPaulie

Yeah. That's what I thought. You could clearly see the belly with the naked eye. It had about the same radius as a fingerboard. BUT THAT SOUND!