c.1925 Stella by Oscar Schmidt Tenor Banjo

You see these tenors pop up once in a while: they're Stella brand made by Oscar Schmidt in the 1920s and are lightweight, very resonant, and "alive" tenors, with a bright but mellow, poppy tone peculiar to this type. I used an almost identical one (but in rougher shape) to this guy as a stage instrument for a while and loved every minute of it. The neck is fast but not paper thin, so it's strong, the resonator is turned and shaped nicely which reflects the sound right back at the audience, and it's easily converted from closed back to open back with the turn of the (supplied in case) tuning wrench for the hex nuts.

Cool Stella headstock with mask decal. Those tuners are nicer-grade Grovers and hold perfectly tight and move well for friction pegs. This banjo is 100% original down to the original two-foot bridge, though I've replaced the head with a brand new skin head, polished up the frets, and cleaned it up quite a bit (as well as proper setup)

Good looks.

Original maple bridge and very cool stamped tailpiece with flowers motif.

I think the nickel-plated bands around the rim were possibly reinforcement of the rim... but for the most part they simply add an attractive element to it.

Side view.


Detail.


Back.


Back of headstock: nice bakelite buttons.


Cool turned resonator.

With fun multicolored/metallic decal.

Side view.

Tailpiece cover... I like these tailpieces. They open like a mandolin tailpiece and actually are a mandolin tailpiece, though in this application they're 10x better than the usual tenor tailpiece and look far more elegant.

Side.


Here I'm using the original hex tightener to open up the resonator.

And there you can see how it's been turned into a domed shape from one piece of wood. Very elegant solution compared to the usual flat resonator.

Back with the resonator off. Now it's incredibly lightweight!

Back again.


Front.


And here's the original chipboard case (good condition) that came with it. A good find!