December  2016

This nice concet size Stella has one of the best  preserved rosewood finish we have seen yet. It is an early Oscar Schmidt Stella from the late 1910's.

It has a great solid spruce top and solid birch back and sides with that great finish. Nice black, white and red  color purfling. The top and the back edge are bound in white celluloide, unlike most of the later examples, on which only the top edge  has a binding.

The black stained maple fingerboard has pearl position dots at the 5th,7th, 10th and 12th fret. Same type of braces like the Decalcomania guitar from November 2016,  high and triangular in profil, but this one has 3 top braces, like most Stellas have.

All over very clean guitar with a beautiful woody, dry sound. The neck is made of poplar, thick and v shaped. The scale length is 63,1 cm (24,85")

It has a 45,5cm (17,91'') long concert sized body with a lower bout of 33,8cm (13,3''), and a upper bout of 24,1cm (9.5'').

Solid spruce top, with multicolor purfling and celluloide binding.

Soundhole bindig and multicolor rossette

Birch back and sides with fantastic rosewood finish

Body is  9,4 cm (3,7") deep at the lower bout

Decalcomania strip through center of back

Brown stained poplar neck

Original Stella paper lable

New rosewood bridge with bone saddle

New bone nut. Nut wide is 46mm (1,81")

Original tuners

Woody and throaty tone. Balanced with a strong mid range. And a very loud Stella again. I really beautiful sounding instrument. Great for country blues, ragtime picking. Great for playing Charley Jordan style.

I recorded his  great  "Keep it clean".

Charley Jordan was born on January 1, 1890 in Mablevale, Arkansas.

He became  a St. Louis blues singer and guitarist and is well known for his

unique guitar style. He was part of the St. Louis blues scene, which was one of the most distinctive blues scenes ever.  Jordan recorded a  larger number of songs between 1930 and 1937 for Vocalion and Decca. He died on November 15, 1954.

"Keep it clean"  was one of the first songs he recorded for Vocalion.

He recorded it in mid of June 1930.