Goya was a brand name used originally in North America by Levin company of Sweden, founded by Herman Carlson Levin .
In 1952, Levin guitars were imported to the USA by Jerome Hershman, under the name Goya on the premise that this name would be more popular than ‘Levin’.
During the early 1960’s, many innovative electric guitars carried the Goya name, and these were commonly built in Italy by EKO or the Polverini Brothers. In the late 1960’s, the company was sold to Avnet Inc, a distributor of electronic components, which had acquired the Guild Guitar Company in 1965, plus the Blue Note and Liberty record labels.
In 1973, the Levin brand was purchased by the Martin Guitar Company. In 1976, Martin acquired the Goya name, and began importing Goya-branded, Japanese-made copies into North America. Many of these were built by Matsumoku.
