Clocking in at 78 years old - this 1944 Levin Archtop is the oldest guitar I've ever had the pleasure of working on. Old frets (what was left of them) removed, fretboard pits like craters, the fretboard had a re-radius of 17" before using vintage tang Stainless Steel fretwork.

The tuners had started to crumble away, have replaced with modern, vintage style. New handcrafted bone nut, cut specifically for Rotosound Jumbo Kings 12-52".

Quite an odd sound on this Archtop and research leads to the 'pre-war' guitars being made specifically for max volume, with bass and sustain being secondary. This is definitely evident in this model, which is closer to the tambre of a banio than a modern day acoustic.

Gallery 📸