Leadbelly has given two accounts of how he first came to buy a twelve string Stella:

"Well, I used to just have an ordinary guitar. One night I was playin' in a place - one of them sukey-jump places - and people was drinkin' and some was dancin' and it was warm. I was playin' there and one of the strings broke. I jest went on playin', though. Then a pretty girl come along and boy! She was a high-brown. Wow! She came over to where I was sittin' and playin', and she come and leaned down close. Jest then another string broke, but I didn't let on. I jest went on playin'. It was hot and she jest leaned down over my shoulder and pushed against me - you know. And another string broke, but I couldn't stop now. Not no how! So I jest kept on playin', `cause she was nice - fine as wine in summer time. And then you know what? Another string broke, and I jest had one string left. I played that one string `cause I liked that thing. But I made up my mind right then that I'd go out and get me a 12-string guitar"

OR

"I saw one of the old 12-string Stellas sitting in the window of a Dallas store. The year before I'd heard a man play it in one of those medicine shows where they sold a cure-all for fifty cents a bottle."

"The price of the guitar was $12 and I knew I had to have it" He apparently then got work as a farm hand for a week or so to get enough money to buy the instrument.

This was around 1910. Years later in the 1920s and 1930s Stella twelve-strings became favourite guitars with a number of blues artists, including Barbecue Bob (Hicks), his brother Charlie Lincoln, and Blind Willie McTell.

Stellas in general were not very well made guitars, they weren't very durable and the interiors tended to be 'crude and hastily finished'. The exteriors looked good; they were made of Honduran mohogany for the sides and back, and German spruce for the flat top. The tough bridges were made of rosewood, but the fretboard was usually made of birch or maple that was stained or painted black - which eventually caused it to rot.

They were a lot cheaper than Gibsons or Martin, and sounded good for the price, but most of them eventually fell apart and so few survived more than a couple of decades. Leadbelly, apparently,went through several during his career.

There's more information on this in Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell (1992) 'The Life and Legend of Leadbelly'

I hope that answers a few questions

Brian