The Oscar Schmidt Company was founded in 1871 and incorporated in 1911. By the early 1900s, the company had five factories in Europe and a factory on Ferry Street in Jersey City. They made all kinds of stringed instruments: guitars, banjos, mandolins, ukuleles, zithers, and Autoharps®.

The company prospered through the early 1920s. Oscar Schmidt instruments were sold in many rural parts of the country where no music stores existed. Salesmen distributed the products far and wide, making them available in general, small town furniture and dry goods stores. Country guitar pickers and blues musicians living in areas of the South and in Appalachia, far from the city, frequently played Oscar Schmidt instruments because they were both inexpensive and available locally. But equally important, they were often chosen solely on merits of their superior tone and volume.

Today at Oscar Schmidt, premium woods, quality hardware and modest prices create an ideal instrument. Each is inspected and adjusted in the USA by a skilled technician, your assurance for smooth fret ends, precision low action and resonant sound quality. Unequalled standards in easy playing comfort and tone response creates the perfect value…Oscar Schmidt.