Levin 320 M/2

This is in fact a Levin 320 M/2-N. The N stands for natural. It??s an archtop hollowbody with handcarved solid spruce top and maple sides and back. Mahogany one piece neck with a fretboard of ebony with 20 thin frets. 3-way selector and two DeArmond single coils. No laminates, no plywood! Regarding the quality of the wood this guitar is second to none.

I like jazz and rock all the way from Cream to the modern shredders. It suits jazz and jazzblues very well. You can hear the Jesse van Ruller play it on his cd??s (Jesse van Ruller was the first European musician to win the prestigious Thelonious Monk Competition in Washington in 1995).
It can be used in countryinspired rock like CSNA because the brigdepickup almost is as crystallic as a piezo. The guitar doesn??t go well together with distortion, overdrive and that sort of effects though. It is a jazz guitar, so I??ll rate it like that.

I don??t know how well the guitar was set up by the factory back in 1958, but it has low action, you can play with light gauges if you want to - without string buzz. The neck is a little too thick for my taste but that was common in the 50??ies. The neck is not very rounded and a little broad - almost like a classical guitarI think that is an advantage for jazz chords and a disandvantage for bar chords. I can play blues and bend the strings one or one and a half note without problems.
There is a tiny crack in the very beautyful sptuce top because of the shrinking celluloid pickguard. It doesn??t look like a guitar that is almost 50 years old.

Almost 50 years and it is as playable as the best gibby you buy new. It won??t be neccesary to have a spare.

Martin bought the company sometimes in the 70??ies.

I??ve been playing for 50 years. I own a Menzel grand piano, this Levin 320 M/2, a Levin 325 M/2 archtop, a Fender light ash Stratocaster, a Yamaha SG1000 (from 1977), an Ibanez Ael20 and a Levin W36. I started out buying the flattop Levin W36 after having compared it to C.F. Martins. Thr big brands of american guitars were way more expensive, but at that time I had just inherited very much money so the price wasn??t an issue.
I??ve compared my inferior Levin 325 to hollowbodies from Ibanez and Gibson and I liked the 325 M/2 more. The 320/M2 is much better than the 325/M2. The Ibanez was very cheap, so it??s OK, and american guitars are so overrated that it??s absurd. I havent tried out all hollowbodies, but the 320/M2 is second to none if you want to play standard jazz. If I were a magician I could use som extra scale length and af couple of frets more.

I live in Denmark and bought it for 18000 swedish crowns (2,578.02 USD). I am very satisfied with this company and the price isn??t too high. We are talking about handcrafted ALL WOOD guitars with ebony fretboard.

Made by the Levin factory in Gothenburg,Sweden in 1960.
20-fret bound neck with fancy pearl block inlays with one or two parallel lines across.
Solid sprucetop (no flames).
2 volume,1 tone & 1 mastervolume (on the lower horn).Clear plastic knobs.
2 white DeArmomds (single coil),with goldplated rims.
3-way toggle/pickup switch.
Maple back and sides body(very flamed).
Mahogany neck (with skunk stripe).
Dark brown sunburst finnish (no red).
16" body Venetian cutaway with triple binding around body.
Single binding in f-holes.
3-bound pickguard made of celluloid with a brass holder.
All wooden bridge made of ebony and a engraved brass tailpiece.
Goldplated Van Gent tuners (3+3)with engraving on the back and pearl buttons.
Very fancy metal bellplate with a crown on top saying Levin.
Rather fat neck with 25" scale lenght.
Levin logo on headstock in pearl and triple-bound head.
Exclusive pearl motif inlay on headstock.
The guitar comes with an original black leathercase with green interior.
The serial no. is 406069

This guitar sounds perfect for vintage jazz,swing,rhythm and blues or blues.It has that old acoustic sound even if it's electric.

It's very easy to get a low action because of its rather flat radious.The original frets are very thin and low ,so a fretjob will be necessary if you like to bend the strings or play with heavy gauge strings.

This guitar will work great playing live if you don't too loud.Use of a smaller amp will work best.You will easily get than Tiny Grimes,Bill Jennings,Django Reinhardt or T-bone Walker sound.

The Levin company went out of business in the late 1970's ,so the warranty is no longer valid...........

The quality of this guitar is easily comparable with all the famous american brands you are used to play.If you find any of these Levin model 315,320,325,330 or 335 made between 1957-68 ,go and try them out.You will get a great guitar for a fair amount of money.