1920s Oscar Schmidt First Hawaiian Conservatory of Music Parlor Guitar

I've worked on a bunch of these Oscar Schmidt FHCM guitars and they're always fun to have around. They're roughly 0-sized and have 12-fret neck joints and an "immediate vintage country-blues sound." Compared to the other ladder-braced competition of the time, the Schmidts tended to be warmer-sounding and chunkier-sounding and can take heavier string gauges without falling apart.

This one certainly has the tone people are chasing for with this model in particular and it's got a bit more of a "hollow chamber" or "reverby" tail to the notes that's intriguing. Usually these guitars are sort-of flat sounding in that you pick them, they thump it out, and there's not a ton of decay. They sound like a really-played-in Gibson LG-1, maybe, for the most part? This one has something extra going on and it's kind-of neat to hear it.

Post-work it plays spot-on and is ready to go. I use a drop-in saddle slot to make action adjustment down the road easy, too.

Repairs included: a neck reset, fret seating and level/dress, side dots, saddle slot fill/recut, pin holes fill/recut, new bone saddle, new bridge pins, new bone nut, brace reglues (minor), cleaning, setup, etc.

Weight: 3 lbs 4 oz

Scale length: 25"

Nut width: 1 7/8"

Neck shape: big V

Board radius: flat

Body width: 13 5/8"

Body depth: 3 3/4"

Top wood: solid birch

Back & sides wood: solid birch

Bracing type: ladder

Bridge: ebonized maple or birch

Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck wood: poplar

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 52w, 40w, 30w, 22w, 16, 12

Truss rod: none

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium/lower

Condition notes: aside from a long (old-repaired) crack in the bass side, it's in fairly good order for an old Schmidt. The finish is, of course, fine-checked everywhere and shows plenty of light scritchy-scratch throughout. The finishes on these are so thin that they scratch easily with a misplaced fingernail. The nut, saddle, and bridge pins and endpin are all replacement but otherwise it's original throughout. This would have come with stickers all down the fretboard for aid in learning how to play in Hawaiian-style tuning/stringing, but they were mostly-removed when it got here and I took off whatever else was flaking-up into the frets. The saddle slot and pinholes needed to be filled and recut because the original locations were completely incorrect (as usual).

It comes with: no case, sorry.

Consignor tag: A26