This site is intended to catalogue and preserve information about one of the most maligned fretted instruments: the mando-bass.
The Mando-Bass or Bass Mandolin is, typically, a 4 stringed fretted instrument that is tuned like a double-bass though necessarily smaller, approximating the 5/8 size instrument.
It was, arguably, an integral part of the mandolin ensemble/orchestra explosion of the mid 1910s-1930.
There are several makers of this instrument, but the overwhelming majority of them were produced by Gibson. They were played either upright or using a side pin, with either a plectrum or the player’s finger.
Comparison
| Make | Overall Length | Scale Length | Body Depth | Body Width | End Pins |
| Gibson (pre 1914) | 62 5/8 | 36 | 6.5 | 32 5/8 | 2 |
| Gibson (post 1914) | 62 5/8 | 42 1/2 | 6.5 | 32 5/8 | 2 |
| Vega Flat Back | 63 1/4 | 39 3/4 | 7 | 26 1/8 | 2 |
| Vega Cylinder-Back | 62 5/8 | 37 1/4 | 7 1/4 | 27 1/8 | 1 |
| Kalamazoo | 62 5/8 | 42 1/2 | 6.5 | 32 5/8 | 2 |
| Lyon & Healy | |||||
| Wm. C. Stahl | 66 1/4 | 42 1/4 | 5 1/4 | 27 1/4 | 1 |
| Leland | |||||
Number Produced
The question that most frequently gets asked (usually in reference to the Gibsons) is “how many mando-basses are there?” While it is impossible to tell for certain, it is possible to estimate the number based on the mentions and pictures of clubs and orchestras that used them from the trade magazines of the era such as the Crescendo and the Cadenza (which was absorbed by Jacobs Orchestra Monthly in 1925). For non-Gibson instruments at best we can estimate by the number that have survived.
| Make | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 127 | The overwhelming majority of these are likely Gibson |
| Gibson | 119 | |
| Vega | 4 | Two Cylinder-Back, two Flat back |
| Leland | 1-2 | There are no surviving instruments so far |
| Wm. C. Stahl | 2 | |
| Kalamazoo | ~8 | There are 8 recorded FON’s in Spann’s Guide |
| Lyon & Healy | 1 | |
| Clifford Essex | 2 | |
| H.F. Meyers | 1 | Meyers was more known for the Contrabass Guitar |
| Lucien Gelas | 3 | |
| Favilla | 1 | |
| Tieri | 1 | |
| J.G. Abbott | 1 | There are no surviving instruments so far |
| J.E. Dallas | 1 | |
| O. Pagani | 1 | |
Acknowledgments
Everything about this website owes a great debt to and necessarily draws upon the work done by Paul Ruppa in his article American Mando-Bass History 101 without which I would never have seriously embarked on this journey after purchasing my first Gibson Style-J.
My intent is to honor the work Paul did and frame it in a slightly wider context drawing from additional sources and the discovery of new instruments.
Additional thanks go to J. Garber for scraping through for sale ads and capturing the images of many of these instruments.