~1930 Unknown Stella type Red 'burst

Unknown 'Stella-esque' Catalog Acoustic Guitar c 1930 | HOLD | (v1827) This is another 'rescue' guitar that most vendors would not put the effort into getting it playing again, and relegate it to the 'parts' pile. But we here at VBG like to find the hidden gems, and this one proved to be worth the effort. The guitar is unmarked, and has no tell-tale features that point to a certain maker. Although, at first blush, it does resemble the Oscar Schmidt First Hawaiian Conservatory of Music guitars, it's surely not a Schmidt-made instrument. It's a factory-produced, low-budget guitar likely sold in a mail order catalog or five and dime store back in the day.

The body is solid slab-sawn birch, set off with a bright red/orange burst. The neck is likely poplar, and carved in a very comfortable and modern-feeling 'C' shape. The fingerboard is 'ebonized' maple with three inlaid position markers. The bridge is maple, painted black.

The body measures 13 1/16" across the lower bout, and scale length is 24". The fingerboard measures 1 3/4" across at the nut, and string spacing is 2 3/8" across at the saddle. The bass-side tuner strip appears to be a replacement and winds the strings in reverse.

Overall, the guitar is in very solid condition and crack free. We recently reset the neck; the bridge was reglued; we removed the fret wire saddle, slotted the bridge and installed a bone saddle (excellent intonation); we glued a number of braces with hot hide glue and added a finger brace under the area where you'd expect a pick guard in order to flatten the top in that area; the frets were leveled and dressed; we installed a new bone nut. Okay, that repair value exceeds the price of the guitar .. we know, we're nuts.

With its comfortable neck carve and excellent set up, the guitar plays easily and produces a sound that is surely worth much more than its asking price ... on par with the many FHC guitars we've offered in the past! It has the ladder-brace 'bark', with strong mids, good bass and nice sustain. A really fun-to-play vintage blues guitar for sure! If you've had a hankering for and old 'blues' fingerpicking guitar, give this one a look!

No case.

Check out the sound clip!