1920s Oscar Schmidt Koa Parlor Guitar (X-Braced Conversion)

This poor guitar was languishing for years in storage here at the shop. A consignor of mine bought it but when it arrived I was shocked to discover it had been through the workshop of a Canadian luthier and he had completely rebraced it (to scalloped x-bracing), reset the neck, fit a new fretboard, and refinished it in a thin satin (it looks nice and, well, old now). The problem was that the neck had been overset quite a bit and (the extra tall) bridge had split and needed replacing. Overset necks can be frustrating and I decided to let it sit on the sidelines until I had gotten through more of his collection of instruments.

Ancel, however, recently took a look through this consignor's stash up here to see what needed doing and found this one interesting so he started work on it. After a long slog, it's finished and ready for service and it's quite the dandy -- it's pretty in a folksy, Hawaiian-tinged way and it has oodles of sustain and a sweet, woody voice. It shines for fingerpicking. Since stringing-up, it's remained nice and stable, too. Koa sure is good stuff!

If you'd like to hear and see one of these in "original spec" with ladder bracing, check out this old blog post of a similar, Oahu-branded one.

Repairs included: a neck re-reset, new bridge, new saddle, replacement pins all around, side dots, fret level/dress, minor crack and seam repairs, minor brace repairs, replacement tuners, cleaning, and seutp.

Weight: 2 lbs 15 oz

Scale length: 25"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Neck shape: medium-bigger V

Board radius: flat

Body width: 12 1/2"

Body depth: 3 3/4"

Top wood: solid koa

Back & sides wood: solid koa

Bracing type: x-braced (scalloped)

Bridge: rosewood

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 52w-11

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium

Condition notes: the fretboard and bridge are replacements, it has replacement (older, though) tuners, the nut is an older replacement, the pins are replacements (though the endpin is an original Schmidt one from my parts bins!), and the entire instrument has been refinished in a thin satin. It does look good, though, and it has a similar finish look and style to how one of these might have looked when they were new. There's finish muck-up around the bridge foot but we decided to use a smaller, Martin-made, rectangle bridge anyway to retain the original aesthetic. There are a number of repaired hairline cracks on the top and a couple on the back. The top has been rebraced to a light, scalloped x-pattern. There are small scratches, scuffs, etc. here and there throughout and a perhaps a ding or two on the headstock.

It comes with: sorry, no case.

Consignor tag: A26