The company's instruments were intended to be relatively easy to play for amateurs. The company also operated a wide number of guitar brands such as Stella, Sovereign, La Scala, Oahu, Bruno, Galiano, Miami, Reliance, Bluebird, Collegiate, Avalon, Marcia, Lyra, Victoria and Jewel, all the instruments manufactured by Schmidt. The company continued to thrive and manufactured a large array of string instruments, with over 150 instruments exhibited at the 1926 Music Convention. The company's salesmen kept detailed records of the buying habits of customers, and the selection of special editions was made annually with the intent to sell additional instruments to existing customers.Īutoharp, ukulele OU5, mandriola, 1930s Stella parlor guitar These special editions would include a small dedication commemorating the event and sheet music also written to commemorate the event. Each year, the company would offer new " special editions" of its products linked to newsworthy events likely to appeal to the sympathy of customers the salesforce would encounter. The company often employed current events as a marketing strategy. The instruments were primarily sold door-to-door by travelling musical salesmen from the early 1880s until 1965. At its peak in the early 1920s, the company operated manufacturing facilities in five cities.
In 1912, the factory had about 150 employees. By those times, Schmidt expanded its range of products, also making banjo and guitars.
By 1903, the production of mandolins outstripped production of zithers. In 1900, Schmidt bought out the company, taking total control. Schmidt established distributors in several cities of Europe and also in South Africa and Australia. The success of the guitar zithers by Menzenhauer & Schmidt spread not only throughout the US but worldwide. Having realised the potential of Menzenhauer's invention, Schmidt partnered with him in 1896, forming together the Menzenhauer & Schmidt Company, therefore expanding the factory and enjoying commercial success. Menzenhauer, who had a factory in the same city and had developed a fretless guitar zither. History Īt the same time, he was buying guitar zithers from another German immigrant and manufacturer, W.F. Music Corp, a subsidiary of Canadian corporate group Exertis | JAM. Oscar Schmidt is currently a brand of U.S. Products currently sold under the Oscar Schmidt brand are electric, acoustic and classical guitars, autoharps, banjos, ukuleles and mandolins. Through its history, the company has changed its name several times, selling under the names "Oscar Schmidt Inc.," "Oscar Schmidt Musical House," "Manufacturers Advertising Company," "Oscar Schmidt-International Corporation," and "Oscar Schmidt-International, Inc.". During its long existence, Oscar Schmidt has produced a wide range of string instruments, not only guitars but also numerous models of parlour instruments such as autoharps, celtic harps, guitar zithers, the "guitarophone" (a zither/metal-disc playing hybrid), marxophones and bowed psalterys (or "ukelins"). Oscar Schmidt was a musical instrument manufacturing company established in 1871.
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