1920s Oscar Schmidt Stella Grand Concert Guitar

Folks have taken to calling this size Oscar Schmidt product a "grand concert" model. It's somewhere between 00 and 000 in size but features a long scale length of around 26 3/8" in this case. The vast majority of players interested in these are of the country-blues persuasion and most use them as stand-ins for baritone guitars, using slightly heavier gauges and down-tuning. This one has 54w-12 gauges on it and I have it tuned down to D-to-D for the video, but it would probably be a perfect guitar strung with 56w-13 and tuned C-to-C or C#-to-C# in Leadbelly fashion.

Work had been done on this in the past, but the owner dropped it (oops!) and the side went destructo on him. So, in addition to fixing that and patching it all up with cleats and whatnot, we also leveled/dressed the frets and I filled/recut the saddle slot and pinholes so it could play in tune up the neck.

The result? Well, obviously, it's lovely. While these are not Martins, the quality level of the higher-end Oscar Schmidts is way above their "normal grade" gear an the tone is warm, woody, chunky, and delicious. Nothing else really sounds like these guys.

It has a spruce top, mahogany back and sides, a mahogany neck, and ebonized fretboard and bridge. It's entirely original save the saddle, bridge pins, and nut.