Stella

12-string

The prestige makers left the twelve-string to the cheap factories. The blues found it there.

Before the war, a jumbo twelve-string from Oscar Schmidt’s shop on Ferry Avenue, Jersey City, was ladder-braced, long in the neck, and tuned way down until it boomed. Lead Belly made one famous. Barbecue Bob and Blind Willie McTell are in the photographs.

Introduced: 1921
Type: Acoustic 12-string
Class: Production

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The short version

1909
The name, registered
Oscar Schmidt had used the Stella name since the late 1890s. It’s registered this year.
1921
In the house catalog
Oscar Schmidt’s catalog covers 6-string and 12-string guitars. Twelves from the shop go back earlier.
1924
Barbecue Bob
Robert Hicks takes up the 12-string after he comes to Atlanta.
1927
Blind Willie McTell
McTell takes up the 12-string he’d become famous for. The few surviving photos appear to show Stellas.
1929
Schmidt dies
Oscar Schmidt dies while visiting a European factory.
1935
The custom order
One account has Lead Belly custom-ordering the Stella you see in the films. Others just say the 1930s.
1938–39
Sold to Chicago
The Stella name goes to Harmony in 1938 or 1939. Different factory, shorter scale.
1974
The brand ends
The Stella brand is dissolved.

Side A

Not a Martin

The fancy makers didn’t want it. A twelve-string was a working player’s guitar: loud, cheap, and hard on its neck. The prestige shops left it to the volume houses, and the biggest volume house in the business was on Ferry Avenue in Jersey City.

Oscar Schmidt was born in Saxony and trained as a bookbinder. He went into music publishing in 1879, was making instruments by the 1890s, and was using the Stella name before the century turned. By 1920 his company was said to be the largest maker of stringed instruments in the world. In 1925 it was making forty-seven different styles of guitar.

Twelve-strings show up in American catalogs in the very late 1890s. The Jersey City shop kept making them through the mid-1930s. Its 1921 catalog has them in print.

Built to boom

The catalogs called the big ones auditoriums. Collectors call them jumbos. Same guitar.

Here’s what you got. A flat-top with ladder braces running straight across the top. A pyramid bridge, with the strings pulled on to a tailpiece. A scale about an inch longer than a modern guitar. No truss rod. Heavy strings. That neck will not take modern pitch, so you tune it down to D, or C, sometimes lower.

That’s the sound. Twelve slack strings on a long scale and a big box, ladder braces instead of X-bracing, and the whole guitar sounds like a room. Ladder bracing wasn’t a corner Schmidt cut, either. It was the European steel-string custom the shop came over with.

The top of the line was a mahogany jumbo with a spruce top and wide colored-wood purfling, around $28.00 new. The same shop built birch twelves with decals and an unbound top. Both said Stella.

A pawnshop in Dallas

Lead Belly is the guitar’s reason for being famous.

The accounts of how he got there don’t line up. One has him buying a used Stella twelve in a Dallas pawnshop around 1912. Another has him starting on twelve-string in the 1920s, then buying a new Stella after prison. Family legend says the famous one was custom-ordered from Fulvio Pardini at Oscar Schmidt. One account dates that order 1935; another just says the 1930s. Keep all of it.

The famous one is easier to describe. A specially made Stella with extra-heavy bracing, 16 inches across the lower bout, tuned down to C. It’s the one in the films and most of the photographs. Woody Guthrie remembered the moment before he played:

“I listened as he tuned up his twelve string Stella.”

Flip the record · By the numbers

12
Strings on a ladder-braced box with no truss rod.
26½"
Scale on the big Jersey City jumbos, about an inch longer than a modern guitar.
C
Where Lead Belly tuned his, as much as a major third below standard.
$28.00
A top-of-the-line mahogany Stella jumbo 12, new, in the 1920s.

Side B

Atlanta, in photographs

Atlanta had its own twelve-string men. Barbecue Bob took up the twelve after he came to town in 1924, and Columbia’s publicity photograph has him in chef’s whites holding a Stella Grand Concert 12. McTell took up the twelve-string in 1927, and the few surviving photos of him appear to show Stellas.

Don’t pin McTell to a single guitar, though. He traded for a new one regularly, and he played Stellas, Regals, and Harmonys. The hotel-room photo of him in Atlanta in November 1940 comes after Harmony bought the name.

Then there’s the Paramount session of 1931, where the company handed Skip James a jumbo Stella twelve strung with only six strings. Not his guitar. The record company furnished it, which tells you how ordinary these were. A Mississippi talent scout put it more simply:

“Stellas, they all played those old Stellas.”

Tune it down three or four half-tones

Oscar Schmidt died in 1929, visiting a European factory. James Carver took over guitar production in 1935 as Stella Co. and sold the Stella and Sovereign names to Harmony, in 1938 or 1939, depending who you ask. For a few years Chicago kept the old underlined logo, so the badge alone won’t tell you which city made the guitar.

Harmony’s twelve-string, the H922, ran from 1940 into the 1960s. Rounded body, all birch, a 25-inch scale. Chicago, not Ferry Avenue. The brand was dissolved in 1974, and when Harmony brought the name back in 2026 it was on a six-string X-braced parlor.

A lot of the old Jersey City jumbos got X-braced later, too, which changes the sound. One with its original ladder braces, still playable, is the hard thing to find now.

But Harmony’s own 1960s catalogs said the thing that matters. Don’t tune a twelve-string to regular six-string pitch. Experienced players, the catalog said, go three or four half-tones lower. A factory in Chicago, taking its tuning from the players. That’s about right for this guitar.

Put this on

You’ve read about it. Now hear it. Here’s what this guitar sounds like, and what to listen for.

Lead Belly ·
The Midnight Special
One of the songs Smithsonian Folkways puts at the center of Lead Belly’s twelve-string Stella music, with “Irene” and “The Bourgeois Blues.” Which guitar is on which take isn’t logged, so listen for the sound, not a serial. That low, ringing wall is the downtuned Stella idea.
Find it on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

1930s
Lead Belly
Stella 12-strings, including one custom-ordered in the 1930s
The player most people picture with one. Played them tuned down to C. The famous one is a specially made Stella with extra-heavy bracing.
1927
Blind Willie McTell
Stella, Regal, and Harmony 12-strings
Atlanta’s twelve-string man. Traded for a new guitar regularly. His 1940 hotel-room photograph is after Harmony owned the name.
1920s
Barbecue Bob
Stella Grand Concert 12-string
Holds one in chef’s whites in a Columbia publicity photograph. Which 78s it’s on isn’t known.
1931
Skip James
A jumbo Stella 12, strung with six strings
The recording company handed it to him at the Paramount session. Not his guitar.
1920s
Paul Geremia
Tonk Brothers 12-string made by Stella
His main twelve-string, a 1920s auditorium-size box.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

Ladder braces, a long scale, and twelve strings tuned down to C — Oscar Schmidt’s Stella, not a Harmony parlor, and not a Martin.

Body: Auditorium / jumbo flat-top; ladder-braced. RetroFret c. 1925 mahogany jumbo: 15 3/4" (40 cm) lower bout, 4 1/8" (10.5 cm) deep, 42 1/4" (107.3 cm) overall. Style 450 c. 1919: 15 7/8" (40.3 cm) / 4 3/8" (11.1 cm) / 42 3/8" (107.6 cm). Acoustic Guitar (Michael Simmons, Nov. 1997): 16" across the lower bout. Smaller birch 12s exist — RetroFret c. 1930: 14 13/16" (37.6 cm) / 3 3/4" (9.5 cm) / 41 1/2" (105.4 cm). Mix flagged. Do not average.
Neck: Mahogany on RetroFret’s jumbo 12s; poplar on the c. 1930 birch. No truss rod. Soft V on the c. 1930 (RetroFret) and on Geremia’s (StayGold).
Fingerboard: Ebonized maple typical (RetroFret). Pearloid / “mother-of-toilet-seat” on fancier 12s.
Scale: 26 1/2" (673 mm) RetroFret jumbo (c. 1919 Style 450 and c. 1925). Fretboard Journal on a c. 1929: 26 1/2". RetroFret c. 1930 birch: 26 1/4" (667 mm). StayGold on Paul Geremia’s auditorium: 27.0". Mix flagged. Do not average.
Pickups: None
Hardware: Pyramid bridge; strings run to a 12-string tailpiece with guide posts (RetroFret). Pin-bridge deluxe jumbos exist (12 String Summit).
Electronics: None
Finish: Natural varnish on mahogany jumbos. Birch examples: brown stain, stenciled rosette, decalcomania.
Nut: 2" (51 mm) RetroFret Style 450. 1 15/16" (49 mm) on the c. 1930 birch. StayGold: 2.0" on Geremia’s. Mix flagged.

Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Classic living example = 1920s–30s Oscar Schmidt Stella auditorium / jumbo 12-string (Jersey City). Concert and grand-concert 12s are the same factory, smaller boxes. Style 450 is RetroFret’s jumbo number, not a Harmony SKU. H922 / H912 / H913 are Chicago Harmony 12s after the name sale — not this table. Current Harmony Stella Parlor (harmony.co) is a six-string, X-braced parlor. No current Oscar Schmidt Jersey City 12-string SKU this pass. No Gibson SKU. Mixed inch/mm flagged. Do not average 15 3/4" / 15 7/8" / 16", 26 1/4" / 26 1/2" / 27.0", or 1 15/16" / 2".

Construction

The job was volume a working player could buy. Twelve strings. Ladder braces. A long scale. Tuned down until the box boomed. Jersey City, not Nazareth, and not Kalamazoo.

Oscar Schmidt, Ferry Avenue. Vintage Guitar (Michael Wright, July 2007): born in Saxony, trained as a bookbinder; music publishing in 1879; instruments by the 1890s. Stella and Sovereign names in the late 1890s, registered 1909. Factory at 57 Ferry Avenue, Jersey City. Incorporated 1911. Wright: by around 1899 Schmidt was supplying Sears’ better-grade guitars. Wikipedia: in 1920 the company was said to be the world’s largest manufacturer of stringed instruments. Music Trade Review, 7 November 1925 (via leavingthisworld.com): forty-seven different styles of guitars. That is the factory. This plate is the twelve-string it put in the book.

Name years, not one invention date. Twelve-strings first appear in American catalogs in the very late 1890s (Fretboard Journal; Gregg Miner). 12 String Summit: Jersey City 12-strings from just before 1900 through the mid-1930s. Vintage Blues Guitars: a Bruno-badge jumbo 12 listed in a 1912–13 C. Bruno catalog, Oscar Schmidt factory. RetroFret: Style 450 jumbo 12, c. 1919. Neil Harpe’s 1921 Oscar Schmidt catalog reprint covers 6-string and 12-string guitars. This plate’s YAML introduced: 1921 is that named house catalog, not a claim that no Stella 12-string existed earlier. Keep 1890s, 1912–13, 1919, and 1921.

Catalogs called the big ones auditoriums. Collectors call them jumbos. Same guitar. What you get is a ladder-braced flat-top with a tailpiece, a pyramid bridge, and a neck that will not take modern pitch. Acoustic Guitar (Simmons): Lead Belly’s Stella measured 16" across the lower bout; he tuned it down to C. Fretboard Journal: old Stellas set up for D or C, scale about an inch longer than a modern guitar. Guitar World (Dale Turner): slack standard, as much as a major third down to C, occasionally lower. No truss rod. Heavy strings. That is the sound.

The name covered a range. Wright on the six-string line: Sovereign the better woods, Stella the more plebeian birch, true by the early 1930s. The jumbo 12s straddle it. RetroFret’s c. 1925 mahogany jumbo — spruce top, wide colored-wood purfling, original ladder braces, “top-of-the-line ‘Stella’” — list around $28.00 new. Historical, not 2026 street. The same shop also built birch 12s with decals and an unbound top. Do not flatten every Stella 12 onto the mahogany jumbo.

Neil Harpe: ladder bracing is the European steel-string custom the Jersey City shop brought with it, not a cheap shortcut. Square kerfing on the top and beveled on the back is common on Schmidt instruments. It is not an infallible maker’s mark. Galiano is not automatically Oscar Schmidt.

Not a Martin. Not a Gibson. Prestige makers left the 12-string to the volume houses (Simmons). No Gibson SKU.

Oscar Schmidt died in 1929, visiting a European factory (Wright). Wright: guitar production taken over in 1935 by James Carver as Stella Co.; Carver sold the Stella and Sovereign names to Harmony in 1938; first Harmony Stella and Sovereign models in the 1939 catalog, a new round shape. Wikipedia and Harpe date the Harmony acquisition 1939. Keep 1938 and 1939. Harpe: Harmony kept the old underlined Oscar Schmidt logo from 1939 until about 1942 — some remnant Jersey City parts, some Chicago. The trademark alone does not settle the maker.

Not a Harmony Stella. Harmony Database: H922 (FF922 in the 1940 catalog) 1940–1964, rounded body, then H912 1964–1968 and H913 1969–1971. RetroFret on a 1961 H-922: in production since 1940, the only production 12-string through the 1950s; all-birch, 15" wide, ladder-braced, 25" (635 mm) scale, 2 1/16" (52 mm) nut. Harmony Database H912: birch, 25¼" (642 mm). The 1964 / 1965 catalogs (Harmony Database): do not tune a 12-string to regular six-string pitch; experienced players recommend three or four half-tones lower. Same advice. Different factory, different scale. Chicago, not Ferry Avenue.

Wikipedia: the Stella brand was dissolved in 1974. In 2026 Harmony brought the name back as a six-string parlor: solid spruce, mahogany, modern X-bracing (Premier Guitar, 13 May 2026; Guitar World, 1 May 2026). harmony.co this pass: $299.00 with gig bag. Premier Guitar’s launch copy: starting at $349. Keep both. Six strings. X-brace. Not this table.

Classic vs current: 1920s–30s Jersey City jumbo 12 — ladder-braced, long scale, tailpiece, tuned down — against no new Oscar Schmidt Stella 12-string you can order, and a Harmony parlor that shares the name.

Players

Do not hang a Harmony H922 or the 2026 parlor on this plate. Do not recruit Kurt Cobain’s Stella. Do not flatten Charley Patton’s six-string onto a twelve.

Lead Belly — Huddie Ledbetter. The guitar this plate is named for. Smithsonian Folkways puts a 12-string Stella at the center of his music, with “The Midnight Special,” “Irene,” and “The Bourgeois Blues.” Woody Guthrie, via the Smithsonian Center for Folklife: “I listened as he tuned up his twelve string Stella.” Acoustic Guitar (Simmons): around 1912, a used Stella 12-string in a Dallas pawnshop; family legend that he later custom-ordered the famous one from Fulvio Pardini at Oscar Schmidt; tuned to C; 16" lower bout. Fretboard Journal: started on 12-string in the 1920s; after prison he bought a new Stella like the c. 1929 jumbo. 12 String Summit, citing Harpe’s book: ordered in the 1930s. earlyblues.com: one custom-ordered in 1935, the guitar on the films and most of the photos. FolkWorks: specially made Stella, extra-heavy bracing; niece Tiny Robinson tried to auction it at $300,000 and did not meet the reserve; on loan from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Keep 1912, the 1920s, and the 1935 order. Album-to-guitar credits for named Folkways sides are unpublished here. Artist-owned — not a comps tape.

Blind Willie McTell. Atlanta 12-string. Acoustic Guitar (Simmons): from 1927 he took up the 12-string he became famous for; the few surviving photos appear to show Stellas. Library of Congress (Lomax Collection): November 1940, hotel room, Atlanta, McTell with a 12-string — after Harmony bought the name. Harpe: most photo-documented of the country blues players; traded for a new guitar regularly. earlyblues.com: various huge Stella, Regal, and Harmony 12-strings. Paul Brett: a c. 1938 Stella Westbrook 12 is “the model that Blind Willie McTell played and was photographed playing.” Brett’s claim. Do not flatten “Statesboro Blues” onto a Jersey City serial.

Barbecue Bob — Robert Hicks. Jas Obrecht: Columbia publicity photograph, Stella Grand Concert 12-string, chef’s whites. Wikipedia: 12-string after Atlanta in 1924. Named photo. Which Columbia 78s sat on that guitar are unpublished here.

Skip James, 1931 Paramount. Harpe: a jumbo Stella 12-string strung with six strings, furnished by the recording company, not Skip’s guitar. Session prop. Not a player credit here.

Also known to play stays short. FRETS.COM: Paul Geremia’s main 12-string is a Tonk Brothers model made by Stella. RetroFret lists the mahogany jumbo for the styles of Lead Belly, McTell, Barbecue Bob, and Lydia Mendoza — not a Mendoza serial. H.C. Speir, via Harpe: “Stellas, they all played those old Stellas.” Six-string blues generally. Charley Patton’s black Stella with a white pearlette board is Rev. Pearly Brown to Gayle Dean Wardlow, via Harpe — a six-string. Off this plate.

Not this guitar. Wikipedia names a Stella on Nirvana’s Nevermind (“Polly,” “Something in the Way”). 1991 is not Jersey City. Harmony’s 2026 parlor copy names him. Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged Lead Belly cover is a Martin D-18E (Simmons). Off this twelve.

Rarity

You cannot buy a new Oscar Schmidt Stella 12-string from Jersey City. The Ferry Avenue run ended with the company. Harmony’s H922 / H912 / H913 are other factories on the name. The 2026 Stella Parlor is a six-string. They are not a 1920s jumbo 12.

Oscar Schmidt did not publish 12-string unit totals. None invented. Paper labels and catalog silhouettes date a guitar. They don’t count a year. That is why a first-year census is unknown, not the chapter.

What is actually thinner: auditorium / jumbo 12s (Fretboard Journal: large-bodied examples especially hard to find; RetroFret: this type rarely found playable and un-rebraced); original ladder braces (many were X-rebraced later, which changes the sound); un-refinned mahogany tops. Smaller concert and grand-concert 12s survive in larger numbers than the jumbo. Lead Belly’s Stella is one object. It is not a vintage Stella 12-string.

Value

Informal estimate, 21 October 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask vs sold labeled. Celebrity lots are not-comps. No invented medians or factory counts. Period around $28.00 (RetroFret, top-of-line Stella jumbo 12) is 1920s money, not 2026 street. Harmony H912 catalog $62.50 (catalog copy via Equipboard) is Chicago 1960s money on a different guitar.

New street. None under Oscar Schmidt Stella 12-string this pass. Harmony’s living Stella Parlor is $299.00 factory (harmony.co, with bag, fetched 21 October 2026). Premier Guitar, 13 May 2026: starting at $349. Six-string X-braced parlor — a different cart.

Used modern. Harmony H922 / H912 / H913 trade used. Named asks, not 2026 hammers on this table: current H-922 with a DeArmond $1,134; RetroFret 1961 H-922 listed (sold; no hammer printed here). Named older sold, not a series: Greg Boyd H922 $1,250; Vintage Blues Guitars 1963 H922 $675. Do not average those with Jersey City jumbos.

Vintage / collectible. No clean Reverb Price Guide band isolated on Oscar Schmidt Stella 12-string this pass. Flag: thin sold-comp access. Named dealer solds, not a 2026 median computed here: Vintage Blues Guitars c. 1925 mahogany jumbo 12 $12,500; same shop c. 1925 auditorium 12 (Ari Eisinger) $8,500. Named asks, not hammers: Fretboard Journal / Elderly c. 1929 jumbo $5,500 (January 2014); Time Traveler Guitars 1930s “Lead Belly Model” Sovereign-badge jumbo $7,000 (listing ended); Guitar Broker c. 1929 pearloid-board auditorium $9,995 (listing ended). Do not average those asks. Lead Belly’s Stella, Tiny Robinson $300,000 reserve not met, is one object. Not a comp.

Sources

Vintage Guitar, Michael Wright, Stella Concert (July 2007) — Schmidt 1879 publishing / 1890s instruments; Stella and Sovereign late 1890s, registered 1909; 57 Ferry Avenue; incorporated 1911; Sears better-grade c. 1899; ladder bracing; 10th-fret markers; Sovereign vs Stella woods; Schmidt dies 1929; Carver 1935; Harmony 1938; 1939 Harmony catalog
Neil Harpe, Stella Guitar Myths & Factoids — underlined logo Harmony 1939–c. 1942; kerfing not an infallible Schmidt mark; Galiano not all Schmidt; ladder bracing as European custom; Harmony Stellas solid birch, not plywood
Neil Harpe, What did they play? — H.C. Speir “old cheap Stella guitars”; Patton photo vs Pearly Brown black Stella; Skip James 1931 Paramount jumbo 12 strung with six, not his; McTell traded regularly
Neil Harpe, 1921 Oscar Schmidt catalog reprint — 1921 catalog covers 6-string and 12-string guitars
Acoustic Guitar / FRETS.COM, Michael Simmons, Twelve String Power (Nov. 1997) — late-19th-c. origins; Pardini family legend; McTell Stella photos; 1912 Dallas pawnshop; tuned to C; 16" lower bout; Geremia Tonk Brothers Stella
Gregg Miner, The Birth of the American 12-string Guitar — 12-string catalogs vs Mexican / Oscar Schmidt theories; Sears 1896–1918 scanned with no simple 12-string
Fretboard Journal, Catch of the Day: Circa 1929 Stella 12-String (Jan. 2014) — catalogs late 1890s; McTell, Barbecue Bob, Lead Belly; 1920s then a new Stella after prison; D or C; 26 1/2" scale; Elderly ask $5,500
RetroFret, Oscar Schmidt Stella Jumbo 12, c. 1925 — Jersey City; mahogany / spruce; ladder braces; purfling; pyramid bridge and tailpiece; ~$28 new; 42 1/4" / 15 3/4" / 4 1/8"; scale 26 1/2" (673 mm); Lead Belly model
RetroFret, Stella Jumbo Style #450 12, c. 1919 — Style 450; 42 3/8" (107.6 cm) / 15 7/8" (40.3 cm) / 4 3/8" (11.1 cm); scale 26 1/2" (673 mm); nut 2" (51 mm)
RetroFret, Oscar Schmidt Stella 12, c. 1930 — birch; poplar neck; ebonized board; 41 1/2" (105.4 cm) / 14 13/16" (37.6 cm) / 3 3/4" (9.5 cm); scale 26 1/4" (667 mm); nut 1 15/16" (49 mm); Fretted Instrument Manufacturers by 1935
RetroFret, Stella H-922 12, Harmony, 1961 — H-922 since 1940; only production 12 through the 1950s; 39 1/2" (100.3 cm) / 15" (38.1 cm) / 3 7/8" (9.8 cm); scale 25" (635 mm); nut 2 1/16" (52 mm)
Harmony Database, H922 — 1940–1964; FF922 in 1940 catalog; 1964 catalog downtune caution; replaced by H912
Harmony Database, H912 — 1964–1968; birch; 25¼" (642 mm); 1965 catalog downtune caution
Harmony Database, H913 — 1969–1971; natural; 1969 catalog downtune caution
Wikipedia, Stella (guitar) — Oscar Schmidt Jersey City; Harmony 1939; world’s largest 1920; brand dissolved 1974; Cobain Stella on Nevermind
Wikipedia, Barbecue Bob — 12-string after Atlanta 1924
Jas Obrecht, Barbecue Bob’s 12-String Georgia Blues — Columbia publicity photo, Stella Grand Concert 12-string
Smithsonian Folkways, Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection — 12-string Stella; “The Midnight Special,” “Irene,” “The Bourgeois Blues”
Smithsonian Center for Folklife, Lead Belly — Guthrie “twelve string Stella”
FolkWorks, Lead Belly: King of the 12-String Guitar — specially made Stella; Tiny Robinson $300,000 reserve not met; Rock Hall loan
Library of Congress, Blind Willie McTell with 12-string, Atlanta, Nov. 1940 — Lomax Collection photograph
Guitar World, Dale Turner, 12-String King (23 Feb. 2017) — slack tuning to C
Premier Guitar, Harmony Revives Stella Brand (13 May 2026) — 2026 parlor; Oscar Schmidt 1899 / Harmony 1939; X-bracing; starting at $349
Guitar World, Jonathan Horsley (1 May 2026) — Harmony Stella parlor relaunch
harmony.co, Stella Parlor Ivory — $299.00 with bag; six-string parlor; X-bracing (fetched 21 October 2026)
Vintage Blues Guitars / Gbase, 1925 Stella Jumbo 12 — sold ask $12,500; mahogany jumbo; Lead Belly purfling
Vintage Blues Guitars / Gbase, c. 1925 Stella 12 (Ari Eisinger) — sold $8,500; 15 5/8" / 26 5/8" / 1 15/16" nut
Vintage Blues Guitars, Bruno jumbo 12, 1912–13 catalog — Bruno catalog 1912–13; 15 3/4" / 26 1/2" / 2" nut
leavingthisworld.com, Oscar Schmidt Company — MTR 7 Nov 1925 forty-seven guitar styles; Harmony trademarks 1939
StayGold Guitars, 1920s 12 String Auditorium (Paul Geremia) — 15 3/4" / 27.0" / 2.0" nut
Equipboard, Harmony Stella H912 — catalog copy: No. 912, 15 1/8 × 3 3/4 × 39 3/8 in, $62.50
12 String Summit — Jersey City 12s just before 1900 through mid-1930s; catalogs as auditoriums, collectors as jumbos; Harpe book: Lead Belly ordered in the 1930s; pin-bridge deluxe jumbo
Paul Brett, Stella Westbrook 12 String c. 1938 — Brett: the model McTell played and was photographed playing
earlyblues.com, Blues Guitar — McTell various huge Stella, Regal & Harmony 12-strings; Lead Belly Stella 12s, one custom-ordered 1935
Reverb, Harmony Stella H-922 1960-61 — ask $1,134
Greg Boyd, Stella H922 — sold $1,250
Vintage Blues Guitars, Harmony Stella H922 1963 — sold $675
Reverb, Time Traveler Guitars, 1930s Lead Belly Model jumbo 12 — Sovereign badge; 15 13/16" / 12" / 21" / 4 1/8"; ask $7,000, listing ended
Reverb, Guitar Broker, 1929 Stella 12 — pearloid board; ask $9,995, listing ended