This may be the belief of many, but I do not think it is entirely correct...

The idea that Martin purchased the Levin company for the stock of woods is commonly spread. The fact is however that the purchase was in the early 70:s (1973/74) and the stock of wood was still significant when the company (Levin)was terminated ten years later.

The Wood was sold on auction and Marting didn´t even place any bids thamselves, as I heard it they were adviced against it by their solicitors. I actually think I read that in a bulletin board posting by Chris Martin himself (!). I think it was sold in portions to several buyers.

And I don´t really think it is accurate to say that Levin was no threat, or at least disturbance to Martin. In the sixties Levin exported high quality guitars under the Goya brand in significant volumes. The best years as much as 16000 per year. Perhaps no competition for the most exclusive Martin models, but well compareable with the low to medium models, D-18 as example.

In 1976 Martin bought the rights also to the Goya brand, which was owned by the US distributor (Dude inc.), and started importing cheap guitars from Japan and Korea. This has resulted in the bad reputation of Goya guitars today.

Levin produced more that 800000 instruments between year 1900 and 1979, Goyas included. Martin produced their 500000th instrument in 1990 as comparision.

There is extremely little documentation on the Levin company (plenty of instrument catalogs though...), but I have spoken with some people with background in the company.

The picture I have been given is that Martin was looking for a capable manufacturer and distributor in Europe, for Martin guitars. In fact som 200 D-18:s were manufactured in Gothenburg, labeled Martin LD-18 (I have acually seen some).

However the competition from primarily Japanese manufacturers hit both Europe and US in the mid to late 70:s and also Martin was damaged by local union strikes. To save money production of Levin was moved to Finland and Japan. There are Levins made in Japan almost identical to Sigmas. Not to jeapardize the US operation cutdowns were made in Europe, and Levin was finally dropped...

Maybe they did what they had to do, but they shure sunk the Levin company effectively in the end.

/Magnus