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Goya "Classic Grand Concert" G-30 Classical Guitar - Vintage 1955 Swedish

$ 665.28

Availability: 100 in stock
  • Modified Item: No
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: Sweden
  • Item must be returned within: 14 Days
  • Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
  • Restocking Fee: No
  • Refund will be given as: Money Back
  • Brand: Goya
  • Exact Year: 1955
  • All returns accepted: Returns Accepted

    Description

    Awesome sound from a rare, vintage, well made guitar. She has an old-growth flame maple back with tight grain that puts out great punch. Guitar has been professionally serviced in 2016 by well-known guitar builder & luthier Jim Hewitt of Hewitt Guitars hewittguitars.net (see 5 invoice) who brought her neck and soundboard up to perfect structural and playing condition including a first-class fret job for optimized playability. Replaced tuners with new Schaller's but old set is included as well as individual tuner options. The all-original finish was left untouched.
    Solid wood guitar built in Sweden, serial number #332955 made in 1955. An interesting tidbit from the 1957 Goya Catalog/Price List has this G-30 model (their top of the line) listed at 0 back in 1957, which in today's dollars would be over 00.
    Serial number verification at https://www.vintage-guitars.se/Levin/Goya_serial_numbers.php
    Hear it being played at https://youtu.be/5ptMyh7oCm0 or buy it and try it out with a 14 day return policy.
    Specifications:
    Grand Concert Size
    Body width: 380 mm
    Body length: 480 mm
    Body depth: 98 mm
    Fingerboard width: 50 mm
    Scale length: 650 mm
    Solid old-growth Alp spruce top
    Solid European Flamed Maple back & sides
    Mahogany neck with non-adjustable T-shaped duraluminum truss rod
    Unbound Ebony fingerboard
    Brazilian Rosewood bridge
    Gold plated Schaller strip tuners - Hauser style new
    Original Hard Shell Goya case
    Goya History:
    1954-1974
    Goya guitars were a brand first designed by Hershman in 1954. The brand was produced in Goteborg, Sweden by the Levin Company who already was engaged in the builing of quality guitars under their own Levin brand name. In the late 1950's some Goya electric guitars were produced by Hagstom, and were re-branded with the Goya name. Levin continued producing the acoustic and classical models until about 1974. In that time, the brand was owned first by Hirshman as stated above, then later by Kustom (maker of the well-known 'pleated' amplifiers of the 60's and 70's, then by Dude Inc. or Chanute Kansas. Although Hershman, Kustom, and Dude were all USA-owned companies, the guitars continued to be made in Sweden.
    1974-1996
    Some time in 1974, the Goya brand was purchased from Dude by C.F. Martin--maker of Martin guitars (Nazareth, PA). The Martin guitar company was interested primarily in the brand name and loyal following of the instrument, and promptly discontinued the relationship with Levin, and contracted the guitars to makers in Japan and later in Korea. During this same time, Martin was producing their own spinoff brand, Sigma, to appeal to a lower priced guitar-buying market. Labels in Goya guitars produced after 1974 were changed to carry the Martin brand, and generally are not sought after by Goya collectors. Pricing/resale values today, generally, are lower for the Martin-era Goya brand guitars.
    MOVIE: THE SOUND OF MUSIC
    The Goya guitar used by Julie Andrews, who played Maria in the movie classic THE SOUND OF MUSIC, is a Goya model F-19, which was built as a steel-string folk guitar (small bodied). The guitar was fitted with folk (hybrid) strings for the movie, which was actually not unusual for that model and others similar to it. In a photo at this link, you can see the pins in the bridge--proving it is not a G-13--as is stated in some other resources, or even a classical model at all. It is said that the model was frequently strung with LaBella classical strings for play in Europe.
    From the Goya forum of Acoustic Guitar Magazine's web site: GOYA FORUM. Mr Hultin quotes about the movie and the Goya guitar used by Julie Andrews:  "Goran Levin told me about this guitar, which was specially prepared for the movie-set, by making it in matte finish, to avoid reflections from the lights used by the camera-men. What they did forget (the movie people) was to remove the logotype, obviously nothing that Levin or Herschman Music prioritized. Here is a picture from the movie-set where the guitar is very visible. the F-19 was the "grand concert size", same as G-17, G-20, G-30 and G-40, but had the same neck as the F-25 and F-27. A 12 fret neck slightly narrower than a classical and with an aluminum T-shaped trussrod."