Levin 335

I recently was given 2 Levin archtops, a 330 and 335. both 1958. They both have bolt-on necks. The fingerboards are flat and very thin with small size frets. The have sunburst nitro finish. The shape is a little quirky with the waist not narrow enough for my taste. The tope is quite thin and carved , the sides and back are maple. The 330 is a little upmarket so has fancier binding and headstock inlay. The neck is thick like a bassball bat. The top has a proper recurve but the back is pressed into shape with no recurve and has several braces to hold the shape. The tuners are total cheap crap. The guitar has a good tone with light strings and moderate playing but cannot handle heavy strumming without breaking up. They have potential but suffered from cheap shortcuts and out-of-date set-up standards and are obviously an amateur's instrument.

They are good for chord-melody and light solo work
They are both acoustic instruments

The manufacturing standards were very good, just some quirky ideas let them down, The finish is standard nitro sunburst in 3 colours. I had to reset both necks, a fairly easy task. I had to make a long driver bit to fit the screws in the neck block. There is a 1/2" hole drilled in the tail bloc, normally hidden by the tailpiece, that gives access to the neckblock. These guitars have a little binding shrinkage, and the laminations in the neck have started to fail due to unequal wood movement in the layers.

There are fairly fragile instruments, compared to other archtops.

n/a

Year 1958 ?
manufactured Gottenburg. Sweden.
Electric.
dual pickups (cHrome with black rectangular openings( black)
Archtop
colour-Sunburst
controls two volume - one tone
bridge - Looks like rosewood.- fixed hight adjustable.
finish..... laquer is crazed length ways to the body.
head stock repaired at some stage. - needs a little finishing
playability....very good 8.5
sound....... full range 9.0
neck and frets 10.00
Price --- paid $1000 Australian for it. Have no idea of what it is worth.

deep rich sound to bright
great for all purpose
definarely for valve set up
dislikes... none realy..need to use notch filter for live gigs but no problem

This guitar was obviesely hand crafted

No problems on a gig,
This has not been touched since 1958 so I guess the electrics could use a little work.(only wireing) pots fine pickups fine

I have been playing Guitar and Harmonica now for over 30 years.
Istill gig around and teach those that have the heart for it.I have owned many Guitars over the years. This guitar oozes out character and soul. The minute you play it ,you can hear a sound that is somewhat lost these days .You can walk into the soundbeam comming from your amp and control the sustain by a simple movement of you body.
In short I love it.

Was manufactured in 1962 in Sweden, with a floating De Armond pick up.
Volume and tone control, cutaway acoustic-design plus additional pick-up.
Mechs renewed with Schaller-mechs in 1977, along with new frets.
(The original guitar was kind of a ruin and needed some care...)

Used it for Gypsy Swing, Modern Jazz and even Metal!
Best with a VOX AC 30 or just a mike.
Very sensitive for my working with my fingers. Levin is a Lady...
You can create any sound with this fine guitar, from classical guitar to metal, it just depends from your amp and your fingers.

A perfect guitar. A masterpiece.

I`m more than fine with that guitar.
My first gig was above 28 years ago, and that Levin 335 is still doing it`s job.

Due to the fact, that LEVIN is not more existing, I cannot say a word about this.

It`s especially the natural sound of that guitar, I love.
When amplified, it still sounds like a guitar.
It does not need any electronic "sustain", since it HAS sound.
And I can modify this due to my talents as guitar-player.
The perfect guitar!