1946 Levin Solist Archtop Strings question

**carlones** · 12-17-2019, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by oldane

Some older Levin guitars had a peculiar truss rod adjusment, likely to circumvent the Gibson patent which may still have been in force at that time. The adjustable nut was located inside the box at the neck block. To access it one had to remove the end pin and use a very long tool which could reach all the way throug the length of the body. Whether that's the case with this guitar, I don't know.

BTW, with the Stromberg guitars one had to remove the (non glued) string nut to access the truss rod nut.

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Hi oldane!

Do you know where to get that rod or some useful information to make one?

I would be very grateful for the information, I need to straighten the neck of my Levin 335, it has rained too much this fall ...

Thanks and best regards.

**sys** · 12-17-2019, 01:07 PM

Lovely! I own a Levin Royal which is very much my prized possession, sounds really wonderful.

Regarding the peculiar adjustable truss rod, I believe that is found on the 300 series guitars, while the royal, solist and deluxe models are non adjustable.

Carlones - I don't own one so can't comment but if you don't find an answer here, I suggest you head over to the ackegura forum. Seems like the De facto Levin forum - lots of posts in Swedish but many in english, and I got a lot of useful information there when I was researching Levins before purchasing my Royal.

Jorge - doesn't sound like you are going down that route at all but might as well share that on mine I recently went to Monel 13s from Martin 80/20 bronze 13s, and I noticed the neck started to bow just a little bit more than I am comfortable with (though according to my tech, very much within a reasonable level, just a little more than I like). Turns out the monel 13s are actually a little tiny bit higher tension than most standard bronze sets at about 190lbs of tension (measurement found online, and since these are short scale, it's probably a little less, but point being they are somewhat higher tension than most regular bronze strings). I promptly went back to the old strings and am now on a bit of string journey myself. Again, sounds like you are happy with the pyramids, but figured I'd mention it anyhow. Enjoy it, these are wonderful guitars!