Slingerland Songster 881-h

 

I posted this guitar a few years back but it merited another visit due its fantastic upgrade.  Here we have a 1930's Slingerland Songster model 881-h.  I will refrain from giving Slingerlands history in the world of stringed instruments mainly because a guy named Dave Kolar does a great job with that on his website - slingerlandguitar.com.  I highly recommend it if you are into these guitars as well as their cousins in the Maybell brand.

I have owned this guitar for years in a somewhat unplayable state, finally getting it together and sending it off to Scott Baxendale in Athens, GA.  Scott has a penchant for taking old catalog guitars and turning them into incredible instruments.  I have done four instruments with Scott and the tone on this one was the biggest surprise yet.  A beautiful tight tone that will be a killer in the recording studio.  It is just right, not too boomy, not too thin.  You add the killer vintage vibe that this guitar exudes and you can see why I cant put it down.  Very simply(and obviously) stated... Guitars that make you want to play make you a better player!

Scott takes the back off and rebraces the instrument, planes the neck, refrets the neck, resets the neck, replaces the bridge and tuners if necessary and dials everything in perfectly.  You can't buy a guitar that is this cool for what he charges.  Its a good deal and he guarantees the work.  If anything goes wrong you can send it back to him.  He has multiple presences on the web, just google his name to learn more.

Spruce top, laminated maple back and sides, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard.  1.75" nut, fairly deep C shaped neck profile.  Original specs state 11' upper bout and 15.5 inch lower bout.  The lower bout on this guitar tops out at almost 15.75.  This guitar does it all... fingerpick, flatpick, strum.  You wouldn't think so given it looks like it is wearing a corset, but it responds beautifully.  These are pretty rare guitars.  I have only seen one other in my time.

New bridge, saddle and bridge pins.  Oftentimes it is not practical to keep these guitars all original.  The original bridge was lifting and pretty clunky.  I would imagine this change alone added greatly to the tone, there is way less height and mass to this bridge.

Love this old repair!

Oftentimes Scott will change out the tuners. In this case we kept the original Grovers, it would have been a shame to drill new holes.

You can see the flame in the maple back.  This old dog has had quite a life and is now on its second go around.