Oscar Schmidt was a

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

manufacturing company Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a range ...

established in 1871. During its long existence, Oscar Schmidt has produced a wide range of

string instrument String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...

s, not only guitars but also numerous models of parlour instruments such as

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of ...

s, celtic harps,

guitar zither The guitar zither (also chord zither, fretless zither, mandolin zither or harp zither) is a musical instrument consisting of a sound-box with two sets of unstopped strings. One set of strings is tuned to the diatonic, chromatic, or partially chr ...

s, the "guitarophone" (a zither/metal-disc playing hybrid), marxophones and bowed psalterys (or "ukelins").Oscar Schmidt Company (1897 – c.1939)
by Charles Robinson on LeavingThisWorld.com, 13 Dec 2018 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.". Products currently sold under the Oscar Schmidt brand are electric, acoustic and classical guitars,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

s and

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

s. Oscar Schmidt is currently a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

of U.S. Music Corp, a

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company or having a s ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

corporate group A corporate group or group of companies is a collection of parent and subsidiary corporations that function as a single economic entity through a common source of control. These types of groups are often managed by an account manager. The concep ...

Exertis , JAM.

History

Oscar Schmidt (1857–1929) was a German immigrant to the United States who was involved in selling musical instruments in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s in musical instruments and related equipment. The Oscar Schmidt Company was formally incorporated in 1911. Oscar schmidt factory

At the same time, he was buying

s from another German immigrant and manufacturer, W.F. Menzenhauer, who had a factory in the same city and had developed a fretless guitar zither. 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. The success of the guitar zithers by Menzenhauer & Schmidt spread not only throughout the US but worldwide. Schmidt established distributors in several cities of Europe and also in South Africa and Australia. In 1900, Schmidt bought out the company, taking total control. By 1903, the production of

s outstripped production of zithers. By those times, Schmidt expanded its range of products, also making

and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s. In 1912, the factory had about 150 employees. At its peak in the early 1920s, the company operated manufacturing facilities in five cities. The instruments were primarily sold door-to-door by travelling musical salesmen from the early 1880s until 1965. The company often employed

current events News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. New ...

as a marketing strategy. Each year, the company would offer new "

special edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

s" of its products linked to newsworthy events likely to appeal to the sympathy of customers the salesforce would encounter. These special editions would include a small dedication commemorating the event and

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

also written to commemorate the event. 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. The company continued to thrive and manufactured a large array of

s, with over 150 instruments exhibited at the 1926 Music Convention. The company also operated a wide number of guitar brands such as

Stella Stella or STELLA may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media Comedy *Stella (comedy group), a comedy troupe consisting of Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and David Wain Characters *Stella (given name), including a list of characters with th ...

, Sovereign, La Scala, Oahu, Bruno, Galiano, Miami, Reliance, Bluebird, Collegiate, Avalon, Marcia, Lyra, Victoria and Jewel, all the instruments manufactured by Schmidt.''The Stella Guitar Book: The Guitars of the Oscar Schmidt Company'' by Neil Harpe, published 2005 – The company's instruments were intended to be relatively easy to play for

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

s. Oscar Schmidt designed small,

portable Portable may refer to: General * Portable building, a manufactured structure that is built off site and moved in upon completion of site and utility work * Portable classroom, a temporary building installed on the grounds of a school to provide a ...

, durable instruments intended to be easy to learn, and useful for

family entertainment ''Family Entertainment'' is the second album by the British progressive rock band Family, released in March 1969. The cover of the album was a takeoff from the sleeve of the Doors' second album, '' Strange Days'', as Family admitted. Backgrou ...

in the decades between the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and the emergence of

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

and later

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

. The company struggled during the early 1930s —following the death of Oscar Schmidt in 1929—and was finally dissolved on May 18, 1937. However, in October 1936 just prior to the company's dissolution, a new company had been formed—Oscar Schmidt-International Inc.—which thrived until the spring of 1978 when falling under Chapter 11 control it was purchased by the owners of Fretted Industries Inc., later renamed Washburn International.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt Inc, Oscar Musical instrument manufacturing companies of the United States Manufacturing companies based in New Jersey History of Jersey City, New Jersey Manufacturing companies established in 1871 JAM Industries Musical instruments brands