The guitars they produced were ladder braced, not because it was the “cheap” way to build a guitar, but because this was the customary way steel stringed guitars were built in Italy, France and Germany until the mid-twentieth century. The work force at the Oscar Schmidt factory in Jersey City was to a large extent comprised of European-trained craftsmen. Untrue. Although “x-bracing” is somewhat more labor intensive than ladder-bracing, this was not the primary reason Stella guitars were made using this bracing technique. Stella guitars are ladder braced because it is a cheaper way to build a guitar. High-end Harmony flat tops feature solid mahogany and solid spruce components. Harmony Stella guitars usually have a poplar neck with a dyed maple or birch fingerboard. Their Stella instruments were made from solid slab-sawn birch, which to the untrained eye often has a grain pattern that looks rather like “plywood”. Until the 1970s, the Harmony Company used only solid woods for just about every acoustic flat top instrument they made. Harmony-made Stella guitars are made of “plywood”. Conversely, it is worth noting that other manufacturers occasionally mixed square and beveled kerfed linings on their instruments. And we have seen others with beveled in both the top and back position, a feature most often seen on very fancy koa wood models. There are more than a few Schmidt instruments that have square along both surfaces. It is true that most guitars and mandolins that Schmidt produced have square-shaped kerfed lining along the top edge and beveled along the back. It is commonly believed that only Oscar Schmidt used a combination of square kerfing along the top and beveled along the back, therefore this is the key to identification of genuine Oscar Schmidt instruments. One can always identify an Oscar Schmidt-made guitar by the shape of the kerfed lining inside the instrument. Others were entirely made in their Chicago plant. Some of these instruments were made from remnant parts acquired after their buyout of the Schmidt organization. After buying out the bankrupted Oscar Schmidt Company, from 1939 until about 1942 Harmony continued to use the old underlined Oscar Schmidt logo on their “Stella” instruments. All instruments with an “underlined” Stella logo were made in Jersey City. Still others were purchased from various large Chicago factories like Kay, Regal and Harmony. Although many Galiano guitars were relabeled Stellas made by Schmidt, a fair number of them were made by independent Italian American luthiers such as Antonio Cerrito, Raphael Ciani, and Joseph Nettuno. Galiano” guitars were made by Oscar Schmidt. Here are some highlights to share.A Few Stella Guitar Myths & Factoids 1. Over the years, with the help of EBAY, many have surfaced and found their way into my collection. Many of these “budget” guitars were purchased by our parents as student guitars and found their way into the back of a closet. Although primarily distributed throughout Europe, some models found their way to North America in the 1960’s via Milwaukee’s LoDuca brothers.
It soon became the largest guitar manufacturer in Europe producing a half million guitars a year. EKO GuitarsĮKO Guitars started in Italy in 1959 by Oliviero Pigini. Here is another story with some photos (to the best of my deteriorating memory) from the Back Catalog of myRareGuitars.
Looking at these photos have stirred up some memories. Recently I discovered a file folder on my backup drive with TONS of photos containing just about every guitar I’d ever bought and sold over the years. Before that I was doing it with pen and paper.
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