Levin Parlor Guitars - Part 1

On July 27th 1900, Herman Carlson Levin began building his wonderful stringed instruments in a small workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden. My great passion is collecting these instruments that, to my eyes (and ears), were some of the finest guitars ever built..

Certainly, many people today know of Levin for its fine old arch-top guitars or its plainer and not quite so fine-sounding beginners' instruments from the 50s and 60s.
But long before this, Levin was top of it's class in Europe and other parts of the world. It already achieved a high-point as an instrument maker at the 1907 World's Fair in Madrid, where it won the gold medal for the best guitar. Remember, this was in the Spanish guitar builders' home territory. Not only that, Levin was awarded the exhibition's Grand Prix!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• acoustic
• vintage
• old
• guitar
• parlor
• size
• Levin
• sweden
• eliasson
• collection
• parloursize
• blues
• slide
• slideguitar
• bottleneck
• john
• bottleneckslide
• bottleneckguitar
• picking
• jämtland
• östersund
• lit

[joerant]

Hei, hei. Rolig å finne dette på youtube! Hvor mange Levingitarer har du egentlig?? :-) Har akkurat funnet ut at jeg har en gammel Levin model 2 s fra 1913. Den må fixes litt, men tipper jeg klarer det selv. De er vel ikke verd så mye i kroner? I så fall bør jeg kanskje la noen andre fixe den.. :-) De tåler vel ikke så tykke strenger heller? Jeg bruker vanligvis 012, men det går kanskje ikke?

Hilsen Jøran

[BottleneckJohn]

@joerant

Hej!

Jag kör alltid med 0.10 stålsträngar på dessa gamla Leviner, funkar fint!

[wordtide]

very cool sounding gitboxes. I need one!

[BottleneckJohn]

@wordtide

Get one!! They're cool, old and cheap(sort of)

[derkaderk31]

Hey, nice video.

What do you know about the new Levins? They appear to have some nice, handcrafted ones on their website, but do they compare to the older models? Thank you.

[BottleneckJohn]

Thanks!!

I have no idea about the new so called "Levin" models?!

[fatguildsound]

I have been watching your vids, awesome playing and fat tone vintage guitars.. There is a Levin for sale on ebay, LEVIN PARLOR GUITAR Vintage 1953 Model 28 Nevada Do you think this would be a good guitar for the asking price. Your experience with vintage parlors is much appreciated. Thanks

[wordtide]

@BottleneckJohn I'd love one love these Levin's. Do you want to sell one?

cheers,

Rick

[10mey]

wonderful sounding little boxes played by a blues mamster. I really enjoy listening to your music. Have you tried republic parlor guitars? How much a levin would cost? I've got to get one those...

[MonkeyHanger303]

Hi John, loving these old guitars and have searched high and low but not many coming up in my part of the world, you clearly have too many wanna sell me one?