[citation needed] Kurt Cobain of Nirvana played an acoustic Stella on the recording of the song "Polly", from the Nevermind album, and Mason Williams with Classical Gas.

The company produced low and mid-level stringed instruments such as guitars, mandolins, banjos and autoharps.

Top-of-the-line Stella and Sovereign guitars cost a fraction of the lowest-end Gibson or C. F. Martin instruments.

[citation needed] After struggling through the Great Depression, the company sold their fretted instrument division in the late 1930s, but continued to make autoharps.

Schmidt's Stella, Sovereign and La Scala brands were acquired by the Harmony Company of Chicago, Illinois in 1939.