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For sale is a rare 1946 Levin Deluxe Archtop guitar. The guitar is in amazing condition for its age being in its 77th year. The guitar has had a pickup added (Benedetto) along with volume and tone controls. The pickguard has had some repair work as can be seen in the pictures. Just a few minor dings but no cracks or repairs to the body.
The guitar sounds really great plugged or unplugged. Easy to play with a nice action and very little fret or board ware. The guitar has been set up perfectly. Although very much a collectors piece this guitar can be used and enjoyed on a daily basis as if it were just completed. The guitar is supplied with its original case which is warn but serviceable.
At just 6 lb. 43oz. (2.84 kg) the guitar is lightweight for a super jumbo body, with a deeply resonant voice, excellent balance, and sparkling natural reverb in the treble register. Perhaps the most iconic portrait of the great Django Reinhardt shows him playing an earlier example of this very model, loaned to him for his 1946 US tour by Duke Ellington guitarist Fred Guy. So rare a guitar is the '42 Deluxe that even the invaluable Levin Information Pages of Stockholm lists only one other reported example at this writing, a fully refinished guitar from this model year.
By the end of WWII, the Levin company offered a full line of fretted instruments, including at least ten different models of archtop guitars, which they had been building as early as 1929. By the time the company officially closed a half century later, Levin had produced over 30 different archtop models, establishing themselves as the premier European builder of orchestra guitars.
This is a rare example of the Levin Deluxe model, the firm's top-of-the-line offering, which made its debut circa 1937. A super jumbo orchestra guitar comparable to the Gibson Super 400 or Epiphone Emperor, the Deluxe was carved of all solid European tone woods, ornately inlaid with scribed pearl position markers, and fitted with engraved gold hardware. With its massive 18 5/8" lower bout, the Deluxe is exceeded in size only by the fabled and costly Stromberg Master 400.
Happy to answer any further questions you may have and I can send further pics if required. Collection welcome.
