Talk:Oscar Schmidt Inc.

I wish editors would read Wikipedia

Let's begin with basics. This article states

They manufacture Autoharps (the name Autoharp is owned by Oscar Schmidt)…

yet Autoharp says it was only the stylized logo that was registered as a trade-mark in 1926.

Actually, it's arguable that "they" don't manufacture anything. I'm moderately certain that it's NOT "a company" and hasn't been for some years. Rather, Oscar Schmidt is a brand that was subsumed a few decades back by Washburn International which then became U.S. Music Corporation which is now owned by Jam Industries. Like Washburn, all the Schmidt instruments are Asia imports, outsourced to contract-work factories not owned by Schmidt or Washburn or USMC or Jam.

The History section clearly needs work, beginning with the following section… which clearly belongs in History. Actually, it could use some actual history. Certainly, the company's early marketing strategy deserves to be its own subsection — speaking of that: aside from "five cities," why are we not told where those early instruments were made? and how about a few examples of HOW the instrument redesigns were "linked to newsworthy events"?

Needs updating as to what insruments OS actually builds at the moment. Maybe this will aid someone: http://oscarschmidt.com/
Weeb Dingle (talk) 06:50, 29 November 2017 (UTC)

1871 nope

I (local history librarian) was just looking into this company and I find that Oscar Schmidt (of NY) became a partner to Frederick Menzenhauer, zither manufacturer in Jersey City since 1887, in 1897. I don't know anything about an Otto, or 1871.

Here's what I wrote to the patron - I'd drop it into the article but it's pretty much original research, I think.When I have time to make it wikipedia-friendly I will, but if anyone else is inspired, they are welcome to the research (that's how librarians roll):

I believe that the company you are interested in in the "Oscar Schmidt" company , which manufactured guitars, mandolins, zithers, autoharps, ukuleles - apparently just about any non-bowed string instrument, including hybrids of his own invention (or at least inventions contracted by his company). An often-reproduced biography of him and the company, found in the 1910 Jersey City of Today: https://archive.org/stream/jerseycityoftoda01muir#page/80, describes him as a German immigrant who started his shop in the Hudson City (now better known as the Heights) section of Jersey City, an area where many Germans had been settling for years. In the early years of the 20th century he moved his operations to a larger factory in the a few blocks away, on Ferry Street (as an aside, it is not clear in the “pianotina” mentioned ever went into production).

Encouraged by your query to dig a bit deeper, however, additional research brings the first paragraph of that biographical entry somewhat into question. Contrary to that bio, some searching in a digitized version of the Jersey Journal and in our print city directories indicates that Schmidt was in fact a partner to Frederick Menzenhauer, zither manufacturer in the Heights section since 1887. Schmidt first shows up in the 1897 directory as a NY resident associated with the Menzenhauer Musical Instrument Co. In 1898 the company name has become Menzenhauer and Schmidt, which would be the name until 1901. Schmidt purchased a small estate property in Jersey City in 1900 and moved here the following year. A 1904 article refers to F. Menzenhauer as “retired,” but it is not clear what sort of falling out or other factor is the cause of his removal from the company history in the 1910 piece. A possible explanation is that Menzenhauer supported Schmidt’s early experimentation in production techniques, and the success of that experimentation brought Schmidt up through the ranks and into control of the firm by the beginning of the 20th century. Thus the “small shop on Palisade in 1896” could be true – but that still leaves the question of Menzenhauer’s erasure.