The hills are alive with the sound of Goya

[John K]

Originally Posted by erhino41

Wait I thought he played a guild?! [emoji12]

According to an in-depth article in Fretboard Journal, the guitar (and the shoes) on the cover of one of his albums belonged to the photographer. They also show the receipt to Nick from the London shop (Foote acoustic) where he bought the Levin.

[Silly Moustache]

Back to 2012 and the Sound of Music, if there were any guitar paying & singing nuns prancing about in Austria during WW2, she would NOT be playing a guitar with "Goya" written on it as Levin, only started making guitars for the US market in 1952.

Of course - the brand name was changed for the USA as it was felt that it sounded "too Jewish" " and possibly it was decided not to use a Levin branded guitar in the movie as the brand might have been questionable in Austria during those sad times.
Whether Hermann Carlson (the founder of the great company) was jewish or not is of no relevance.

The Levin company were by far the most popular brand across Europe for most of the 20th C.

Their products covered a wide demographics but the higher quality items surely rivalled Mrtin and Gibson.

Sadly they went into a partnership with CF Martin who ended up buying the family out and assuming that they could manage it like they would in the USA. They were VERY wrong, and in a fit of pique, sacked the staff - who whilst probably saddened about the business, sat back and took their full pay and pensions which Swedish law demanded of the Martin.

So, instead of expanding into the Europeans market, Martin lost a load of cash, and killed off a great company.

I've just look at the Wikipedia page and found a few errors.

This website tells the story: vintage-guitar.se, and the Levin section.

In the '70s I shared a flat in London with two beautiful Swedish ladies, one of which had a Levin classical, and it was the finest classical I've ever played.

I'd get one if I could.

p.s.there are often a number of Levin Dreadnought on ebay, currently four, one of which is obviously a fake.

[PHJim]

Levin and Goya were exactly the same guitar with a different decal and a different model name. I own a '58 Goya M-26 and my friend Jude owns a Levin LM-26 from the late fifties and, except for the decal, they are exactly the same.
They even both have Levin metal truss rod covers.

[John K]

I can add that I own a Levin tenor mandola from the forties. Very nice instrument!

[RILEY31]

I own several mid 60's Goya guitars. They are fantastic guitars The Goliath size (dreadnought) models will give any guitar a run for it's money.Here are some pics of mine Models T-23(dreadnought),M-24 (00 size),N-22 (0 size)

[Silly Moustache]

Originally Posted by PHJim

Levin and Goya were exactly the same guitar with a different decal and a different model name. I own a '58 Goya M-26 and my friend Jude owns a Levin LM-26 from the late fifties and, except for the decal, they are exactly the same.
They even both have Levin metal truss rod covers.

Hi, I think we all understand that.

It is thought that the name was changed for the American market because of the "ethnic" implications of the original company name. A very sad mindset of the '50s I guess.

To me, who has known Levin guitars - which we available in the UK and Europe when there was an embargo on US made goods for a long time, Hofner, Egmond (ugh!) Hagstrom and Levin were the only games in town

Sometime in the mid/late '60s (?) I bought a Harmony Sovereign but I could have bought a Levin Goliath for exactly the same price (£65), and I always felt a bit of a traitor.
Obviously the Levin was a far better instrument but I had no way of knowing that at the time, and the thin fretboard might have given me trouble even back then.

I'm a great admirer of Martin but I doubt that I'm alone in feeling rather bitter that they destroyed the finest European brand out of ignorance of Swedish employment law.

[Proclaimer888]

Love the movie, love the music.....this thread is to become epic.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

...Levin only started making guitars for the US market in 1952.

Of course - the brand name was changed for the USA as it was felt that it sounded "too Jewish"...

They were high-quality midline instruments when they were introduced over here, and a favorite among folkies who couldn't afford a Martin/Gibson/Guild and needed something better than the Harmony/Kay instruments that held down the low end in the '50s-60s; BTW two of my Semitic bandmates used to make jokes about "Goyishe" guitars whenever we went shopping in Sam Ash back in the day - I wonder if they knew the maker's name...

...In the '70s I shared a flat in London with two beautiful Swedish ladies, one of whom had a Levin classical...

I'd get one if I could...

Should we assume you're talking about the guitar here...?