When this Stella 12-string was made sometime around 1930, it was a well-designed, well-built guitar that sold at a modest price. This type of 12-string was popular with blues musicians like Barbecue Bob, Blind Willie McTell and Leadbelly, who liked the extra volume the extra strings added. This particular model is quite fancy and was close to the top-of-the-line from Stella. In its day, this guitar would have have probably been tuned down to D and strung with heavy strings, which led to our current dilemma.