Vintage Archtop Guitar Levin De Luxe Deluxe Super 400 1940s Jazz Giant

Description: Vintage Archtop Guitar Levin Deluxe 18” 1940s Jazz Giant LEVIN ARCHTOPs are rare in the U.S. Fred Guy is probably the most famous American associated with Levin’s guitars. While in the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Guy played a non-cutaway De Luxe like the one listed here. There is also a famous photo of Django Reinhardt playing Guy’s guitar during his 1947 U.S.A. tour with the Ellington band. The De Luxe was Levin’s finest archtop, the top of his line of guitars. Available from 1937 to 1947, these fancy 18 1/2–inch non-cutaway jazz boxes featured a carved Romanian spruce top and flamed maple back, rims, and neck. Levin fashioned the fingerboard with ebony, and embellished it extensively with multi-ply binding and elaborate art deco mother-of-pearl inlays. Specs. for the De Luxe listed here: Body size at lower bout: 18 5/8" (475 mm) Scale length: 24 3/4" (630 mm) Nut width: 1 5/8" (42.60 mm) Body depth: 3 3/8" (85 mm) Serial Number: 151953, with dates it to 1944; or 154933, which dates it to 1945 Materials: Hand-carved bookmatched solid Romanian spruce top; solid bookmatched curly maple back and sides; solid mahogany neck; ebony fingerboard with scribed mother of pearl block fingerboard and peghead inlay; 5-ply body, neck, head and pickguard binding, triple bound f-holes; solid bone nut. Hardware: Original gold hardware includes engraved trapeze tailpiece, open back Grover Sta-Tite style tuners, adjustable compensated ebony bridge. The Pickguard has deteriorated. I’ve taped it together the best I can. I can serve as a template for building a replacement. Includes old hardware; not certain it is original factory. History and Condition: I have owned the guitar for several years; it’s one of my collection of large body archtops from the 40s. As so often happens with vintage instruments, the history of this De Luxe has been lost with the passing of time. Close examination suggests that a very good luthier restored the guitar years ago. He seems to have made some repairs to the guitar before refinishing it. First, it has a thin (1/8th inch) strip of maple joining the two halves of the back. It blends in beautifully. I’ve looked at images of Levin DeLuxes online and as far as I can tell none have this strip on the back. I doubt it was originally built with the maple strip; it was likely added before the refinish. I’ve examined the inside of the guitar and it looks like the top and bottom seams were reglued. I saw no cleats. It has a single brace running at an angle across the inside of the top. Sometime before the guitar was refinished it appears to have suffered a fall: There’s an impression likely from a coffee table corner in the top to the left of the fingerboard extension–about 3/4" to the left side of the neck extension. Because the finish is unbroken and sound, I think the dent occurred before refinishing the guitar. I have no idea why it wasn't filled or repaired in some manner prior to refinishing. In the right light and in the right direction the impression is visible. Since the repair, the clear lacquer finish has some cracking in it. The area where the pickguard screwed in has worn. The screw probably stripped out years ago. Attachment of a new pickguard will probably require a little repair. I noticed one hairline crack area under the bottom bout side, above the tail piece. It looks old. See the pictures. The guitar has a good case, probably from the 80s. It isn’t the guitar’s original case. See pics. Playability: The guitar plays well. The strings are set on the low side, especially for comping. The neck doesn’t need resetting. The bridge can be adjusted up or down. The strings are old and need replacing. Sound: By comparison to my ‘37 D’Angelico, it sounds more on the brighter side of big body guitars. It’s closer in sound of my ‘40s Stromberg 400. Like Stromberg, Levin created his DeLuxe with its single diagonal top brace to have a percussive sound with great projection, which is what players needed to cut through a band or orchestra. In my opinion the Levin De Luxe is a rhythm guitar, not a solo lead guitar or “modern jazz” instrument. Serial Number: According to the Stockholm, Sweden, Vintage Guitars, Levin serial numbers site, Levin stamped the 6 digit serial number of his archtops on the top of the headstock. On the one listed here, the number was mostly covered by the refinish. The numbers were probably sanded down some during the refinishing as they are hard to read. I remove the finish down to the wood to expose the number. Under magnification I was able to read most of the numbers. The Stockholm's Levin experts sent me their catalog of photos of 1940s Levin number stamps. In short, the third number could be either a 1 or 4; and the fifth number could be a 3 or 5. The other numbers were easier to read. A short History of Herman Carlson Levin career: Levin was a leading Scandinavian manufacturer of guitars from 1900 to the mid Seventies, when the company was purchased by Martin Guitars. From the 1950s until the ‘70s, Levin guitars were distributed in the U.S. under the brand name Goya. Mr. Levin apprenticed in the United States in the late 1880s with C.F. Martin. Afterward, he opened his own workshop in New York City. Levin visited his native country, where he found a demand for guitars. He relocated to Gothenburg and began producing both nylon- and steel-string models, in addition to mandolins. Levin’s craftsmanship was so skilled that he beat out traditional Spanish makers at the 1907 Madrid Expo, where he won a gold medal and the grand prix. Happy to answer questions. More pictures are available. This is an 80-year old instrument, so it’s vintage with some “road wear” and repairs. She’s does have a classic Art Deco look along with her rarity. I don’t accept returns. I’m a nervous wreck while fine instruments travel through the postal system. So I don’t send instruments out for testing and return. If you want to adopt the guitar, let’s settle everything so that you get exactly what you’re expecting and we keep her travels to the minimum.

Price: 5999.99 USD

Location: Pisgah Forest, North Carolina

End Time: 2025-01-03T20:27:05.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD