1930s May Bell Recording Master
For a company that once boasted the highest production of
any banjo manufacturer, Slingerland remains something of an enigma. The company
was founded in 1912, but in its early years it focused primarily on teaching
materials and selling other manufacturers’ instruments. By the turn of the 1920s
it was producing banjos both under the Slingerland name and for other brands.
Two significant events bolstered the company’s fortunes in 1923: it purchased
its own factory building, and it inaugurated the May Bell brand name.
It’s not entirely clear why the new brand was created,
especially since it was so closely associated with Slingerland’s own name.
Banjos appear with both “Slingerland” and “May Bell” on the dowel and even
together on the headstock. The two brands were featured in the same catalogs and
advertisements, and on occasion were used interchangeably (a nominal Slingerland
model might say May Bell on the headstock or vice versa). The cheapest
instruments in the lineup were typically May Bells, though there was little
obvious reasoning behind the branding of the rest of the line. There was even
some confusion over how the brand was punctuated: “May Bell”, “May-Bell” and
“Maybell” all occur in company literature and trade magazine articles.
While a partial list of models can be reconstructed from
catalogs and other sources, the total sum of Slingerland’s surviving
documentation from the 1920s and 1930s is small enough that many instruments
remain hard to pin down. This banjo is a prime example. The headstock describes
it as a Recording Master, which has been seen on multiple guitars but possibly
only one other surviving banjo. The Recording Master guitars appear to be direct
counterparts of the Recording Songster banjos – which do appear in catalogs –
but both those guitars and banjos seem to be of a lower level of decoration than
my banjo. Those instruments were covered in green and white pearloid (and
occasionally a pinkish coral color on the banjos) and featured engraved
decoration and nickel hardware. They lack the additional painted decoration on
my banjo’s fretboard, headstock and resonator.
However, 1930s
Slingerland catalogs note that the Recording Songster banjos were available
with gold plated hardware (which upped the price from $80 to $140). I have not
been able to find a single example of a Recording Songster with gold plating,
but I have to wonder if the upgraded version is in fact my Recording Master
banjo. The hand-painted decoration might explain why Slingerland would list a
75% increase in price for what is catalogued as just a difference in plate. The
change in name is harder to understand, and the possibility remains that this
was a model available only on special order. It could also be a high-priced,
low-production model that was documented in a catalog now lost to time.
The Recording Master banjo features a gold sparkle finish
over ever surface except the fretboard and headstock, which are covered in white
pearloid. The one other example I have read about – but not seen – has the
two-humped tailpiece usually seen on higher-level May Bells, so it’s possible
that my banjo has a replacement tailpiece. If so, it still appears to be from
the same period. The hole in the back of the resonator is to allow activation of
the internal mute, which was available on
all upper-level Slingerland banjos for an extra $5 but I have only seen it on
the Recording models. Except for some minor playwear, this banjo is in
exceptional condition.
