I was just cruising around Tom Crandall's inventory page and found this one-of-a-kind beauty from around 1918. I don't recall seeing any mention in my old catalogs (but will take another look) and I didn't see anything about an L&H mandobass in Hubert's book either. I have seen a good handful of mandocellos but never this. I would love to play this one but it looks like the same quality of the other L&H instruments. I also wonder about the provenance. Most mandobasses were played in mandolin orchestras and in some cases the orchestras themselves purchased them. I believe that the NY Mandolin Orchestra owned a Gibson back in the 1920s but when I joined in the 1980s they had a contrabass balalaika.
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