Oscar Schmidt First Hawaiian Conservatory 1920’s - Burgandy

First Hawaiian Conservatory Guitar 

The Blind Willie Johnson Model

Professionally restored FHCM guitar by Oscar Schmidt(Stella) made in Jersey City late ‘20s/early 30s.

This came to me in a dilapidated state but NO breaks; the back was separating, the bridge was loose, the neck angle was wonky and the fingerboard was covered with the remnants of the old gold paper.

My luthier Tom Hardy reset the neck, removed the back,re-glued  loose braces on the back and top, made a new ebony bridge and a new bone saddle and nut, new ebony bridge pins, stripped the old paper off the fingerboard, polished the original frets, painted the fingerboard matt gold(as an homage to the original gold paper), disassembled the original tuners and cleaned and lubricated them and restrung with phosphor bronze 12-52. 

Action: 

4/64” high E

5/64” low E

Plays nice and clean and rings like a bell and thunks like a good blues guitar should. 

The instrument plays like butter and sounds great, for either fingerpicking or Blind Willie Johnson approved slide blues. 

Quality hard case included in good condition. 

Reluctantly selling to fund purchase of a vintage National otherwise I’d be keeping it! 

Body has checking and dings but as mentioned no breaks. The neck is a hefty V profile and plays nicely. There is a hairline crack on the last three frets of the fingerboard but it hasn’t moved since the restoration. 
A great little blues machine at a very reasonable price.

See attached video and thanks for looking.