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Classical Guitar
Goya G-10 Natural 1958
No current price available
Availability: 0/10 (Very rare)
A Swedish-made folk classical from 1958: solid spruce over solid birch on a compact 00-size body, with an aluminum-reinforced mahogany neck and a shorter 24 13/16" scale - built by Levin in Gothenburg for the American Goya brand.
About the Goya G-10 Natural 1958
Goya was an American brand name; the guitars themselves were built by A.B. Herman Carlson Levin in Gothenburg, Sweden, one of the country's oldest guitar workshops. The G-10 uses a solid spruce top over solid birch back and sides on a 00-size body - a 14-inch lower bout with 3 3/4-inch side depth at the endblock - smaller than the standard classical guitars being built in Spain at the same time, and voiced more like a compact steel-string parlor guitar than a concert classical.
The neck is mahogany with an aluminum reinforcement bar running through it rather than a truss rod, which Levin used across its classical necks to keep them thin and stable without the flex typical of unreinforced nylon-string necks of the era. Scale length is a shorter 24 13/16 inches against the classical-standard 25.6 inches, making the G-10 comparatively easy to fret. The bridge and fingerboard are rosewood. Period examples from 1958 carry a gloss finish; a satin option appeared only in later production years.
Where to buy
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Sound character of the Goya G-10 Natural 1958
The solid birch back and sides are a brighter, thinner-sounding tonewood than the mahogany or rosewood typical of Spanish classicals, and the compact 00-size body and shorter scale further reduce bass output and sustain - a lighter, more delicate folk-classical voice than a full-size concert instrument.
Technical data for the Goya G-10 Natural 1958
| Top | Solid spruce |
|---|---|
| Back/Sides | Solid birch |
| Neck | Mahogany, aluminum-reinforced |
| Fretboard/Bridge | Rosewood |
| Body size | 00 (14" lower bout) |
| Scale length | 24 13/16" |
| Origin | Made by Levin, Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Introduced | 1958 (RRP $89.50) |
The history of the Goya G-10 Natural 1958
Levin built guitars for export under the Goya name specifically for the American market from the 1950s into the 1970s, alongside its own Levin-branded instruments sold in Europe. The G-10 was Goya's entry-level nylon-string model through this period, priced at $89.50 new in 1958, and is now mainly sought by collectors of vintage Scandinavian-built guitars rather than active classical performers.
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