Rare Slingerland "SeLu" Tenor Banjo

Here is a mystery: an extremely rare Slingerland “Selu” Tenor Banjo in fantastic condition.

No one who has seen this old tenor banjo has a clue what “SeLu” means. I have talked to dozens of instrument collectors and dealers and received the same answer–it is a great little banjo, very well-made and obviously from a respected maker. The best guess is that the name “SeLu” stamped on the stick may refer to a store that has since faded from memory. It was customary back then for department stores to put their name on instruments made by large manufacturers like Regal, Slingerland, Washburn, etc.

The banjo was made in Chicago by Slingerland in the early 20’s. It has a nice pot and tone ring. It is in wonderful shape for something that old. As near as I can tell, most everything is original, save a tiny repair to replace some missing binding on the fingerboard that I had done. The headstock has a simple elegant inlay; mother of pearl diamond inlays decorate the fingerboard.

It has a skin head and a sweet tone well suited for rags, jug band music & old time tunes. I’ve got it strung currently for Irish tuning, one octave below a mandolin, but I have played it in standard tenor tuning, too, and it sounds great.

I’ll toss in a gig bag and an extra set of strings.

This is one swell little banjo and I hope it finds the proper home soon.

Here’s a link my CD “It Sounds So Sweet.” The tenor’s got the intro on the first song, “Papa’s On The House Top.”

A picture of the rare SeLu Tenor Banjo