Gary Levinson has two, the lad who runs a guitar shop in Nottingham UK has another two courstesy of his very close involvement and stake in the company in the. Beautiful guitar. I have 2 x Levinson Blade strats and they are awesome. That could even be early 90's. What are the first 2 digits of the serial? Chris' Guitars. Ball G& L Godin Hamer Kramer Peavey Warmoth. Ordering/Contact Info. Acoustic & Ac/Elec. Misc Electric.

Anyone know how I can find pricing or values on these guitars? I have a Swiss made Thinline Tele. I actually contacted Blade a few years ago, and they told me that because of the lower quality Korean made series, the one that I have does not hold it's value. He did not offer a value of the guitar, just that people are not looking for the Swiss made ones -and the few that are looking are wanting to score a Swiss one at the Korean model prices. I was also told that they are not listed in the blue book, but I have no way of checking that.

Is there any way to find out? I would like to know that value for insurance or possibly to evaluate the trade in value. From what I recall, Levinson had different phases: - in the beginning he built the guitars in Switzerland - shortly therafter, he moved production to Japan, and only kept a small custom shop in Switzerland; both the Japanese and Swiss models are great guitars - at some point of time, he closed the shop in Switzerland and moved production to Korea As fo the values of the Swiss made guitars: at the time, they cost about 2000-3000$ new. And yes, they don't hold their value, so today, they are real bargains in the used market. Any other Swiss made Blade owners? I've been trying to find one for sale casualy for a while to see what the asking prices are (yeah, about 4-5 years!!) and have not seen one for sale.

Now my guitar needs some work; the selector switch is crapping out, dings in the finish, worn frets, etc. Amazing guitar. I'm thinking of fixing the 5 way switch, refretting it and putting it back into rotation! What an awesome guitar. So I'm bumping this to see if there are any other owners, then I'm off to GBase for another look.

Any other Swiss made Blade owners? I've been trying to find one for sale casualy for a while to see what the asking prices are (yeah, about 4-5 years!!) and have not seen one for sale. Now my guitar needs some work; the selector switch is crapping out, dings in the finish, worn frets, etc. Amazing guitar. I'm thinking of fixing the 5 way switch, refretting it and putting it back into rotation!

What an awesome guitar. So I'm bumping this to see if there are any other owners, then I'm off to GBase for another look. Hello Franklin, The shop where Gary Levinson first began making his Blade guitars is still in existence and is where they set up all the new Blade guitars prior to distribution. Although Gary is no longer there, it is owned by a company called Job Factory which has a music store as part of it's offering.

My early Japanese RH4 is being brought back to it's original splendor with original parts that are still in the shop. I bought it at a very, very good price here in Switzerland and spending $700 to perfectly refurbish her. You can get a hold of Philip Baumgartner at who is working on mine. He is a fantastic guy who is honest and loves his work as well as being very talented at what he does. Other info is.

Job Factory Basel AG Bordeaux-Strasse 5 4053 Basel Telefon +41 61 560 01 23 Fax +41 61 560 01 31 (+ means dial 00, 0041 being the country code for Switzerland) I hope that this info can help if ever you want or need someone ultimately Blade experienced, just can call Philip and he will do what he can for you. Cheers.Cleve Christie.

In 1991 I bought the only Strat I ever owned, a beautiful Blade R-4 Honey, made by former luthier Gary Levinson in my Hometown. I loved the noise-free single coils, the finish of the guitar and the sepia mirror pickguard. Anyway the Strat had a hard life beside the PRS and Gibsons those days, so I didn't play her often and sold her to a band member a couple of years later. Unfortunately blade doesn't do the Classic Series R-4 anymore, they have been replaced years ago by the RH-4 with a H/S/S pickup configuration.

Anyway those are great playing and sounding guitars. Some infos from wiki: Levinson had been repairing guitars since 1964 and, in 1977, during his graduate studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland, he founded Guitars by Levinson. Using the experience he gathered from his work, he decided to start Blade Guitars in 1985. By 1986, he was refining the idea of a line of guitars based on the concept he defines as 'Classic Design, Creative Technology'; at this time, he was also determining the features that would characterize his range of guitars.

In January 1987, a manufacturing deal was reached for the production of the guitars. Blade Guitars made their debut in October 1987, at the music show of Tokyo. Their presentation at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in 1988 signalled their European launch. I'm a fan of Blade guitars, especially their VSC active tone control and thin nitro finishes, but I'm not sure how many are made in Switzerland.

The ones I've seen were MIC, including my Delta. I will try to figure this out as good as I can Gary Levinson opened his 'Guitars by Levinson' in 1977. For 10 years it was a classic Custom Shop, building custom one-off guitars and modifying our babies. From 1982 on the first prototypes of the 'Blade' Strats were built.

There was a good interest in those upgraded Strats. Gary's Words about this time: ' I began doing on-site consulting in Japan and Korea for other manufacturers in the early 80’s. During this time I learned in great detail about manufacturing techniques and also developed new ideas for electronics and hardware but was told by manufacturers that my ideas were “too revolutionary.” So I decided to do it myself.' ' In 1987 Gary made a manufacturing alliance with Moridaira (Japan) who also manufactured guitars of H.S. Anderson, Morris or Hohner. The guitars for the local market in Europe were - in the beginning - all manufactured in Switzerland in Garys Custom Shop, while the large scale 'export' ones for Asia and overseas were manufactured in Japan. For the understanding - Switzerland is an extremely tiny country, almost no natural resources (all needs to be imported), very high salaries and NO acces to the sea (mass imports need to come via Germany, France, Italy or Netherlands).

So the cost for a serial production on large scale in Switzerland would have been extreme. By 1990 Blade had become the best selling custom high-end guitar in Europe and received endorsements from many of the world's finest players. In the mid 90's the production was moved to Moridaira and only the Custom Shop remained in Switzerland.

Both, the swiss and the japan guitars were excellent instruments. Even that Gary has since retired from Blade the custom shop is now owned by a company called Job Factory which has a music store as part of it's offering and restoring old Blade/Levinson guitars. I can't tell who is the current owner of the brand - maybe it is still Levinson. Somewhere in time the production was moved to Korea with some models still built in Japan. To identify 'real' swiss Blade check the headstock or the little tag at the base of the neck. It's either labelled 'designed in Switzerland' or 'Blade Designs of Switzerland' or finally 'Gary Levision. Made in Switzerland, recent ones have 'advanced concepts by Gar Levinson, (Switzerland) under the Blade logo on the headstock.

But yes I agree it's rather complicated and there are no production figures around on the web. I am linked with Gary so I will try to get some light into this confusion.