Founded by George Washburn Lyon and Patrick J. Healy, Lyon & Healy was the biggest musical instrument distributor in Chicago during the mandolin orchestra craze and sold instruments under the Washburn, Leland, American Conservatory, and Lakeside lines.

However it wasn’t until 1917 that Lyon & Healy began advertising their “own-make” line of branded mandolin and banjo family instruments. There is no evidence that Lyon & Healy produced a mando-bass outside the Leland line in any of its catalogs or advertisements, which makes the existence of one difficult to pin down.

In 2021, a Lyon & Healy mando-bass surfaced at TR Crandall Guitars in New York. It bears all the hallmarks of a Lyon & Healy mandolin, from the two-point body and detailed scroll work to the carved maple back. There are several examples of Lyon & Healy using the sheraton brown stain instead of the usual natural. The bass has no internal markings, and but for a stamp on the tailpiece clearly reading Lyon & Healy, it could have been misattributed.

The following is conjecture based on available evidence, but provides a plausible explanation for the existence of this instrument.

In October 1915, the American Guild of Banjoists, Mandolinists, and Guitarists promoted a contest that would award prizes for various chapter metrics (number of members, largest growth, etc) with prizes to be awarded during the Guild convention the following year. First Prize was a Lyon & Healy Mando-Bass. Note specifically that it did not say Leland, but Lyon & Healy by name. The mando-bass was awarded to the Washington Chapter led by Walter Holt.

Walter Holt was the founder and conductor of the Nordica Mandolin & Guitar Club which continued performing well into the 1920s often with multiple mando-basses. There is no clear photograhic evidence to determine what makes of basses they were. Eventually it found its way to a violin store in Western Massachusetts, and eventually to TR Crandall’s.

If indeed this mando-bass is the one referenced above, then it must have been built between 1915-1916, which was a full year before Lyon & Healy released their “own make” line. I contend that this is a prototype/one-off from that process and that Lyon & Healy abandoned further production by 1917.

The Lyon & Healy Mandobass has these appointments

• Carved spruce top
• Single-piece carved maple back; maple sides
• Ornately carved scroll-headstock
• Side-Pin