1930s Slingerland MayBell No. 6 000-Size Flattop Guitar

According to the old Slingerland catalogs, this guy looks like a Style No. 6 -- though it's refinished blonde so it's awfully hard to tell exactly. I'm not sure who made the guitar for Slingerland, but it may have been an Oscar Schmidt build as it's not quite right for the usual Chicago fare that Slingerland also bought for its catalog. Size-wise, it's like someone fattened-up a 00-size guitar with a 000's lower bout width. Tone-wise, it sounds like a Kalamazoo KG-14 but with a lot more warmth on the low-end. It's punchy, very loud, direct, and growly with a bit of that "open" ladder-braced thing going on.

The main work on this guitar was done by someone else (it's had a neck reset, new bridge, new frets, and refinish on the body with perhaps just an overspray on the neck), but I went-about adjusting this for its consignor maybe a year ago to get it playing on-the-dot.

Work included: a fret level/dress (heavy-handed as the old refret job didn't involve any board-planing!), compensation of the saddle and adjustment at the bridge, restring, and setup. The neck has only the tiniest relief tuned to pitch (~1/64") and it plays bang-on with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret. I have it strung with 54w, 40w, 30w, 22w, 16, 12 gauges -- my "standard" set for tougher ladder-braced guitars. It's just a touch lighter in the middle than usual 54w-12.

Scale length: 25 1/8"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

String spacing at nut: 1 1/2"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/4"

Body length: 18 5/8"

Lower bout width: 15 1/8"

Waist width: 8 1/2"

Upper bout width: 9 3/4"

Side depth at endpin: 3 7/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid maple sides, ply birdseye maple back

Neck wood: 5-piece maple

Bracing type: ladder

Fretboard: rosewood

Bridge: rosewood

Neck feel: medium C/very soft V, ~10" board radius

Condition notes: old repair work noted above, frets not all the same height (they're low at the fretboard extension -- though to most players this will be a non-issue), refinish to natural is satin on top and semi-satin on back, with semi-gloss on neck. There's not-quite-finished-perfect areas throughout and the sides and back show more wear and tear (minor, but there). There's one repaired crack near the fretboard extension (on-center) and one repaired crack (both of these are small) near the endpin on the side. The bridge, frets, and side dots are new/replaced, and so are the saddle and bridge pins. The tuners are replaced, too (they're 1950s/60s types that look like '30s/40s types.

It comes with: a chip case.