c.1935 Slingerland "May-Bell" Style No. 7 Guitar

January 01, 2013

c.1935 Slingerland "May-Bell" Style No. 7 Guitar

I originally posted this a month or two back when I'd just gotten it in. Since then I'd been using it as a lap (Hawaiian-style) slide guitar and had it setup that way. I just recently converted it over to a regular guitar ("Spanish" style) which meant that I needed to do a neck reset, fretboard extension re-glue, bridge shave and compensation of the saddle, fret level/dress, and of course a full setup. These were repairs that were unnecessary before conversion back to a Spanish-style guitar.

The result is, of course, an extremely enjoyable guitar. This fella was made by Regal in the mid-1930s for Slingerland who sold it under the May-Bell name. As part of the Slingerland line, this one's neck got a rounder, faster shaping than the standard Regal types (usually a big, hard V). At the same time, it has incredibly cool styling and features Regal's "transverse" bracing which is a ladder-style bracing that has the main brace set at an angle (sort of like a half-x bracing) which greatly improves bass response and overall sweetness and sustain compared to a usual straight-across ladder-type bracing.

So, what's that mean? This works great for fingerpickers (who will enjoy the 1 3/4" nut) and flatpickers (who will enjoy a more "Martin-y" response in terms of tone) both and the sound is more complex than most of this guitar's contemporaries which tend towards the honky, bluesy/old country sound.

Here's an original catalog page scan that I grabbed from the Slingerland Guitars site. It's essentially a size-2 instrument being 13" across the lower bout with a shorter 24 1/4" scale and a body length that's just a little under a standard Martin 12-fret "0" size. This makes it super cozy to play on a couch or in a chair and easier on the arms for longer playing durations (say, when you're writing a song).

This has a profuse amount of decoration...! Beautiful red/maroon sunburst all over... fancy pinky-red to cream celluloid pickguard, fretboard, and heastock veneer... classy inlaid purfling around the soundhole and top, bound fretboard, back, top, and soundhole... deluxe engraved tuner plates... and a super decal across the lower-bout front.

Add to that -- no cracks at all and clean finish -- and you have a winning example of a guitar type that would typically have been knicked-up and worn to heck. At least half of the excellent condition is probably due to its having lived in a good case all its life, though!

Regal used maple bridges which they dyed black for the most part. I had to cut this one down to get proper action, then re-stain and finish (since when you cut it down it's a bright cream color since it's maple). This bridge was reglued at some point in the past (a good job) and a small hairline crack in the bass bridge wing must have been addressed at the same time. After I cut the bridge down I also recut the saddle slot at a compensated angle which greatly improves intonation up the neck. I re-used the original fret saddle which is why it doesn't extend 100% to the edges of the new slot.

Action is quick and fast (3/32" at the 12th) and the neck is almost perfectly straight. It had very tiny, minor relief that was taken out by leveling the frets.