1970 Levin-made Goya GG-10 Classical Guitar


Swedish Levin-made classical guitars are still, I think, some of the best bang for buck you can buy. They're solid wood (the lowest rung ones, like this one, are spruce over birch), have a fast and stable neck, and once they're setup properly, play effortlessly and have a good, substantial sound. This one was made in 1970 and is a customer's guitar. I reglued the bridge, leveled and dressed the frets, and gave it a good thorough setup. She hums proudly, now.


Aside from weatherchecking in the fairly-thin gloss finish, there's nothing approaching a crack on this guitar. This same model was made for the longest time as a "G-10" but for whatever reason they changed it to "GG-10" later in production.


This has a mahogany neck with synthetic nut and saddle and a flat-profile rosewood board with nickel-silver frets. The back profile on these are thin and flattish with a D-shape round edges which makes them feel quite fast even though they have a distinctly classical width and shape.



Black top-edge binding and a red rosette give an upscale look despite a downscale market price.



I wish there wasn't so much glare today because the flamed birch back is awfully grand.




The only bit I don't like about later Levin classicals are the cheesier tuners: the earlier European ones are a bit classier even though they work about the same.

Comments

lindad said…
I found this exact same one in my basement as I was cleaning it out! It likely belonged to a long-gone relative. It needs some work, but the three strings that remain sound lovely, which prompted me to look into it further. Unfortunately, the serial number is smudged. I'm having a garage sale, but now I'm hesitant to sell it (and I have no idea for how much). Or, is it a treasure I should keep?