1966 Levin-made Goya TG-15 Flattop Tenor Guitar

My friend Ted has brought a group of Levin products over for consignment and this is the first one I've finished. Ya know, there is sort-of a tenor guitar boom going on. This was made by Levin in Sweden and, like all of their products, is well-made and of good quality.

It sounds and handles a lot like a ladder-braced mid-'60s Gibson TG-0 tenor guitar, though because it has a spruce top it has more sparkle and depth to its sound. It's not as dark or thunky as the TG-25 Gibsons, though, with their spruce tops. The neck is considerably wider at the nut, however, and so folks who prefer more spacing will enjoy this a lot more than the super-skinny Gibson necks and Gibson-like necks that tend to dominate the modern tenor guitar scene.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, side dots install, bridge recut and new saddle slot with new bone saddle, replacement bridge pins, cleaning, and a setup. There's one hairline crack on the guitar on the top below the bridge and that was cleated/sealed with pretty-oversized cleats at some point in the past.

Setup notes: it plays bang-on perfect with 1/16" action overall at the 12th fret and has a straight neck. I've strung it with 42w, 30w, 18w, 12 gauges for "Celtic" GDAE tuning low-to-high. It'll handle CGDA strings just fine with the same saddle but I will need to compensate it a little for Chicago-style DGBE stringing.

Scale length: 22 3/4"

Nut width: 1 3/8"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/8"

String spacing at bridge: 1 5/16"

Body length: 18 1/8"

Lower bout width: 14"

Waist width: 9"

Upper bout width: 10 5/8"

Side depth at endpin: 3 3/4"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid mahogany

Neck wood: mahogany

Bracing type: ladder

Fretboard: rosewood, original nut

Bridge: rosewood, new bone saddle

Neck feel: medium C-shape, flat board

Condition notes: it has weather-checking and finish-cracking throughout as you'd expect for an old guitar from the '60s but it's very clean overall. There's a strap button added at the heel that's unoriginal and the (original?) endpin reads Levin across its rear. The bridge is modified and the saddle and pins are unoriginal. As mentioned, there are oversize cleats to a hairline crack on the top-lower-bout and said crack is stable and good to go.

It comes with: a nice old hard 00-size case.