Oscar Schmidt 'Stella' c 1929 | HOLD | Another example of a Jersey City made Stella. This iteration is seen from time to time and represents likely the most basic of the OS offerings from that era. The guitar is made up of a birch box (top, back and sides), a poplar neck and painted maple fingerboard with four pearl position dots, and a tail piece with floating bridge and fret wire saddle.
This is a ladder-braced, concert-size guitar measuring 13 5/16" across the lower bout. Scale length is short scale at 24 3/4". The neck is carved into the typical 'V' and measures 1 13/16" across at the nut, and the string spacing is 2" across at the saddle. The sound hole and back are both adorned with colorful 'decalcomania'. 'Stella' is embossed in gold on the head stock.
We nicknamed this one 'Gash' because of the long (and old and poorly repaired) treble side crack. It appears to have been in a street fight and lost. It also needed tuners, a bridge, neck reset, all braces re-glued and fret level and dress ... more work than the guitar was worth in a money sense; but we love resurrecting these hopeless cases and saving them from the trash bin. So, we removed the top, re-glued all loose braces with hot hide glue; undid the falling apart side crack repair (we had a side from an old Stella, so the 'cleat' was cut from that and it was glued with hot hide glue the length of the seam, perfect fit and will hold forever); reset the neck; leveled and dressed the frets; installed StuMac relic tuners. We also had an old Stella floating bridge, nice and tall, so we used that for good down-pressure on the top when strung to tension. Consequently, we now have a great playing and structurally sound Stella that just happens to sound really good.
Action is set a 5/64", and with the straight neck, 11-50 strings, and strong down force on the bridge, the guitar plays and sounds fantastic! The birch box/tail piece set up really produces a haunting echo-like sound, very strong with good sustain and a pretty bold bass.
Check out the sound clip!
This is a ladder-braced, concert-size guitar measuring 13 5/16" across the lower bout. Scale length is short scale at 24 3/4". The neck is carved into the typical 'V' and measures 1 13/16" across at the nut, and the string spacing is 2" across at the saddle. The sound hole and back are both adorned with colorful 'decalcomania'. 'Stella' is embossed in gold on the head stock.
We nicknamed this one 'Gash' because of the long (and old and poorly repaired) treble side crack. It appears to have been in a street fight and lost. It also needed tuners, a bridge, neck reset, all braces re-glued and fret level and dress ... more work than the guitar was worth in a money sense; but we love resurrecting these hopeless cases and saving them from the trash bin. So, we removed the top, re-glued all loose braces with hot hide glue; undid the falling apart side crack repair (we had a side from an old Stella, so the 'cleat' was cut from that and it was glued with hot hide glue the length of the seam, perfect fit and will hold forever); reset the neck; leveled and dressed the frets; installed StuMac relic tuners. We also had an old Stella floating bridge, nice and tall, so we used that for good down-pressure on the top when strung to tension. Consequently, we now have a great playing and structurally sound Stella that just happens to sound really good.
Action is set a 5/64", and with the straight neck, 11-50 strings, and strong down force on the bridge, the guitar plays and sounds fantastic! The birch box/tail piece set up really produces a haunting echo-like sound, very strong with good sustain and a pretty bold bass.
Check out the sound clip!