Life took over and raising two kids have kept me from buying, restoring and selling guitars. Now I’ve realised that I didn’t even post about the 6 track EP I recorded last summer called Claes Anderson – Anderson’s Son. I managed to get the old trio together and book Litel.cat with Antoine for the day and we recorded six songs live. I really enjoyed the experience and the result, it felt and sounded acoustic and natural. The first four songs are the actual EP, the second two were added when I had to re-release the songs on Spotify, I had to change digital provider and didn’t want to pay twice for music that was already online. The EP has a strong family theme to it, I wrote a song for everyone in the household. The first song The Fine Lines In Between was written about my struggles to accept that you can’t take love for granted and it might not last forever. I wrote Anderson’s Son for my son Vilke when he was born and about the Anderson name. One Day You’ll Understand is about the struggles we had to have my daughter Frida. I wrote Come and Lie Down Beside Me for my wife Araceli as a wedding song when we got married back in 2014.
It’s been fairly quiet here for 2-3 years and I’m terrible sorry for that, I’ve been busy trying to raise two kids and get through a pandemic. In August 2020 I turned 40-years old and bought a lovely old guitar for myself, as I sometimes do when it’s my birthday. It’s a 1965 Levin LS/LT-18 and I wished I would have had time to take pictures, record a video and write about it earlier but I just never got around to do it. This guitar is a bit odd, but as they say, anything can happen in a guitar factory. It has a LT-18 neck on a what appears to be a LS-18 body and it looks like it left the factory that way. The body has an old LS-18 label inside, just like the 1960 Levin LS-18 that I got, but the body is stamped inside with a Goya serial number for 1965, 227210, while the head is stamped with a Levin serial number from 1965, 450431. So if we move away from the fact that the body is Goya stamped and the head is Levin stamped, I have a couple of those guitars at home so that seems to have happened now and then, the big mystery is the LS-18 label. According to Vintage Guitars Sweden the Levin LS-18 was discontinued in 1963 even though the latest known example is from 1965, 451584. Did one of the old men who built the Levin guitars refuse to start building the new Levin LT-18 and just continued to build Levin LS-18 in secret for two more years? Did they have a lot of bodies and necks lying around and released a Levin LS-18 once in a while as a treat? They did open the new factory in Lessebo in 1965 so perhaps everything was a bit of a mess around that time because of the move? Either way I really like my 1965 Levin LS/LT-18, it has a lot of bass and bottom and reminds me in sound of my 1960 Levin LS-18 but with the feel of playing my 1968 Levin LT-18 which I love and use as my main guitar. I’ve always felt that my two late 1950’s Levin LM-26 sounds in one way, they are very light and airy, and my LS-18 is very bassy and woody, and my four mid-1960’s Levin LT-18 are very punchy in the mid-register and loud. The specifications are the same from year to year but it feels like they all have their differences. The best part of this Levin LS/LT-18 for me is the neck, it’s really fat and perfectly cut so it feels like this guitar was built by one of the older builders that liked things how they were in the past, no modern nonsense like thin and easily playable necks.
Levin LT-18 / Goya T-18 Goliath size: Body width: 400 mm, body length: 505 mm, body depth: 95/120 mm Fingerboard width: 43 mm, scale length: 630 mm Spruce top, flame maple back and sides, 4-ply bound top, single-bound back Mahogany bolt-on neck with adjustable truss rod Single-bound ebony fingerboard with bass side pearloid block inlay Nickel plated individual Van Gent tuners with metal buttons Ebony bridge, natural finish and ten year warranty
Marketed by U.K. distributors as Super Goliath Model 1855
I know the blog has been quiet for a while and I’m sorry about that. It’s because of my family situation, I’m trying to raise two small kids, so I haven’t had much time for buying, restoring and selling guitars. I’ve done what I could to get rid off what I had lying around the house to make room for the kids and just kept my favourite Levin guitars. Hopefully things will change when the kids gets older and I will have time to work on guitars again. For now you can enjoy this music video I recorded over the weekend with Laura Pacios on fiddle for Gems On VHS for their #GemsInTheRough2021 contest. I’m playing my trusted 1968 Levin LT-18, my favourite guitar and the video was recorded on Montjuïc, Barcelona.
Sometimes I feel like a recovering Levin-oholic who keeps falling off the wagon time after time. I promised myself, and my wife to stop buying Levin guitars but just seems to be unable to. I recently found this beautiful and very unique Levin W-30 in Sweden that I couldn’t resist and had to buy. Now I’ve realised that I probably shouldn’t have. I’m running out of wall space for guitars and I could do with the money for other more pressing family related things, apparently guitars is not a high priority in the joint family account. Therefore I’ve decided to put it up for sale. I believe this guitar to be a rare one off, most likely built by one of the Levin builders for himself and outside of the normal production. They stopped making the Levin W-30 in 1975 so that’s the first sign that this is a unique one. The previous owner bought a lot of parts, material and finished guitars when the Levin factory closed down in 1979, well actually an old man called Friis did, who had a music shop in the north of Sweden and when he died and closed his shop the previous owner bought parts of his left-over Levin stock and this guitar was one of them. He claims that it was built in 1979, otherwise it wouldn’t have been around when the factory closed, which makes perfect sense. The original Levin W-30 came with block inlays while this has beautiful snowflake inlays in the bound ebony fingerboard instead. The alpine spruce top and the rosewood back and sides are bound with a five layer wood binding which looks really classy. It’s also treated with a thin layer of lacquer instead of the heavy clear coat that the mid 1970’s Levin W-30 came with. That gives a really open and beautiful sound, very Martin like. The guitar is in very good state but has some small marks around the body. The neck is in perfect condition and so is the frets. The spruce top has had a dry crack professionally repaired, these type of cracks are very common on Levin guitars because of the dry winters in Sweden. The guitar is equipped with an under saddle pickup and ready to play with live. This is a unique 40 years old hand built Swedish guitar for a third of what a vintage Martin would cost.
Levin W-30 Goliath size: Body width: 400 mm, body length: 505 mm, body depth: 95/120 mm
Fingerboard width: 43 mm, scale length: 630 mm
Spruce top with 5-ply bound wood binding and 4-ply bound three-piece rosewood back. Mahogany neck with adjustable truss rod. Bound ebony fingerboard with snowflake inlays. Bone nut and saddle. Nickel plated individual Levin stamped tuners. Ebony bridge, natural finish and ten year warranty
I have a lot of Swedish made Levin guitars but I’ve never actually had a Japanese made on in my hands, until now. After C. F. Martin & Co. purchased Levin in June 1973 they started to import Japan made Sigma guitars for the European market under the Levin brand. There are actually quite a few of these mid 1970’s low end Sigma’s, especially in Sweden, but it’s a lot rarer to see a high end 1979-1982 Sigma made in Japan with Levin on the label. There is a very rare version called Sigma DR-14, which is a DR-41 but with a 3-piece back, that was imported through Levin. When the Levin factory closed down in Sweden in 1979 they had a short run with making Levin guitars in Japan, mainly Martin copies. I have to say that owning a 1982 Sigma DR-41 and now a Levin LDR-28H, they are very similar in build, sound and feel. Even though they are two different models, you can tell they are made in the same factory and both are excellent guitars. Now when I have a fancy pants real Martin to compare them to, my 1999 Martin HD-28LSV, there is something very special about these Japan built Martin guitars. There is a punch in the mid range and a cleanness to them, less woody and more sparkly perhaps. It’s very hard to explain but I really like the sound and I guess that’s why I got in to Japanese built acoustics in the first place.
The Levin LDR-28H is in pretty good shape for it’s age. There is an old crack on the lower bought of the top but it’s well glued and doesn’t look too bad. I really like the eye for details on this Martin HD-28 copy, diamond volute, herringbone binding and zig-zag backstrip, just like on my Martin HD-28LSV.
The Levin LDR-28H and my Sigma DR-41, most likely made in the same factory in Japan under the supervision of C.F. Martin & Co.
Last week I changed the pickup in my new Martin HD-28LSV. It came with a LR Baggs Anthem SL installed which sounded good but I had a feeling that a LR Baggs Lyrics might sound even better. I’m also not a big fan of having things stuck under the saddle, when I installed the LR Baggs Anthem SL in my 1966 Goya T-16 I felt that the tone died a bit. I’m sure there might be some other pickup system out there that is even better, but for me, nothing beats the Lyrics for the dry and woody sound that I am after. Now I have the LR Baggs Lyrics system installed in my 1981 Sigma DR-41 and my 1968 Levin LT-18, my main guitar for the Claes Anderson Band. I really enjoy this new Martin HD-28LSV and will use it for our gig tonight at La Sonora de Gràcia but I think I will stick to the 1968 Levin LT-18 as my main guitar for playing live, it’s Swedish and just looks nicer on stage. Here is a quick comparison of the LR Baggs Lyrics and the LR Baggs Anthem SL.
I recently installed a LR Baggs Lyrics in my 1968 Levin LT-18 and I’m well pleased with the result. This has been my main guitar for the past year and I’ve already tried a LR Baggs M1A, M80 and now a Lyrics. I’ve had a LR Baggs Lyrics installed in my Japan made Sigma DR-41 for about two years but I never really use that guitar since I have so nice Levin guitars to play on. The Sigma sounds fantastic with the Lyrics so I decided to leave it there and buy a brand new one for the LT-18 instead. The LR Baggs Lyrics sounds similar to the LR Baggs M80 but better, more natural and woody. I’ve also had a lot less feedback issues with the Lyrics, the M80 has been a nightmare with a full band on stage. Here you can compare the LR Baggs M1A, M80 and Lyrics fitted in the same guitar, a 1968 Levin LT-18.
Martin HD-28LSV, Made in USA in 1999
Claescaster 