collapse

* Member Info

 
 
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
I don't wanna hear none of that blee blop - Chester Howling Wolf Burnett

Author Topic: Stella Guitars?  (Read 4379 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Lyle Lofgren

  • Member
  • Posts: 245
    • Lyle & Elizabeth Lofgren
Stella Guitars?
« on: February 02, 2012, 10:19:22 AM »
Over the years, I've read people raving about Stella guitars. My first guitar was a Stella, bought new in about 1958 for $35. It was made of plywood and had almost no sound, and if I hadn't spent my youth milking cows by hand, I wouldn't have been able to fret the thing. Fortunately, I began to get some income about the same time, and upgraded (to a Harmony!), but it sticks in my memory as the worst guitar I've ever played.

Obviously, there was a downhill slide in quality somewhere,  but I wonder when it happened and/or if Stella decided to offer a piece of crap at a low price to entice would-be guitarists?

Any place I could find the history of Stellas? Thanks.

Lyle

Offline Slack

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 9213
Re: Stella Guitars?
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2012, 10:29:51 AM »
Neil Harpe seems to be the authority.  He has a booklet on the history.

http://www.stellaguitars.com/guitar%20book.htm


Offline Slack

  • Administrator
  • Member
  • Posts: 9213
Re: Stella Guitars?
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2012, 12:39:52 PM »
Also, the slide began in 1939 - when Harmony bought Stella.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_(guitar)

A Harmony was my first guitar... purchased in 1964, for $20 or $25 used, a real cheese slicer. It's amazing any of us still play!

Offline onewent

  • Member
  • Posts: 384
  • Mr. So and So
    • vintagebluesguitars.com
Re: Stella Guitars?
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2012, 04:21:12 PM »
Yes, the line between suitable and not suitable Stellas is ~ WWII.  Slack's link will give you the history of the OS factory.  Most guitars made before the war are pretty cool guitars..definitely a unique sound, even when compared to other factory-made-for-the-masses guitars of the era.  When you find a good one, they're really good..especially the 12-strings, nothing like them.
The 'Harmony/Stella Made in USA' marked guitars, while not made from plywood, just don't have much of a sound, but I do like the Harmony/Stella Made in USA 12-strings.  Tom

Offline Lyle Lofgren

  • Member
  • Posts: 245
    • Lyle & Elizabeth Lofgren
Re: Stella Guitars?
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2012, 05:06:23 PM »
I might have been mistaken about the "plywood" part, but it looked like it, and it certainly sounded as if it were made of plywood (D-D grade, at that). I now own a Martin , and it's definitely my terminal guitar, unless someone steps on it. I found that its better to start out poor and end up with enough money to live on, rather than vice-versa, and starting out by buying a $35 guitar (on cash, not credit) was part of that.

Lyle

Offline Mr.OMuck

  • Member
  • Posts: 2596
    • MuckOVision
Re: Stella Guitars?
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2012, 07:15:58 PM »
Lyle I got my first Stella close to when you got yours and it was just as you described. The people who claim they never used plywood, have a different idea about what constitutes plywood. If the grain is running one way on the face and in the opposite direction 0n the underside of the face...THATS PLYWOOD!
My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 - 1977)

http://www.youtube.com/user/MuckOVision

Offline Norfolk Slim

  • Member
  • Posts: 1002
    • Moonshine - Available at Bandcamp now...
Re: Stella Guitars?
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2012, 02:01:15 AM »
I think that Neil Harpe says they didn't use ply before 1960 something (edited having checked Neils site:  "
Until the 1970s, the Harmony Company used only solid woods for just about every acoustic flat top instrument they made. 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". Harmony Stella guitars usually have a poplar neck with a dyed maple or birch fingerboard. High-end Harmony flat tops feature solid mahogany and solid spruce components."[/i]

I have a Stella from shortly after the war (so in the Harmony period, but only just) and its fantastic.  Cost me ?90 on ebay a few years back.  I guess people assumed that because it was post Schmidt it was no good, but it was definitely early enough to still be decent.  When I had my Fraulini made, I specifically chose the model which was closest to the dimensions of that Stella, and had Todd carve the neck to be the same size and profile.  The Stella is still the guitar I pick up and play most readily.  It somehow just "fits".

Best guitar bargain I've ever had.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2012, 03:25:10 AM by Norfolk Slim »

Offline pete12string

  • Member
  • Posts: 46
Re: Stella Guitars?
« Reply #7 on: February 08, 2012, 01:00:35 PM »
My feeling is that when players rave about Stella's, they're talking about the Stella's from the early 20th century - 1920's and 1930's.  These guitars do have that "sound" - since that's what so many of the blues players used back then.  Now a Stella from post-WWII is a different beast altogether!   :D

Offline Annette

  • Member
  • Posts: 45
  • Howdy!
Re: Stella Guitars?
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2012, 09:27:03 AM »
I went to a Catfish Keith workshop 4-5 years ago and a guy there had a 1960's Harmony Stella and it was a great slide guitar - mind you my current slide guitar is a Melodija Menges guitar saved from a tip !

[attachment deleted by admin]
Annette

Tags:
 


SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal