Bell Shaped Ukulele

Of all the weird and wonderful shapes ukuleles come in, the bell shape is perhaps my favourite.

The originators of this shape were Lyon & Healy. They are famed for their unusual and ornate instruments. As well as the bell, they created the famed Shrine ukulele. Lyon and Healy ceased making ukuleles and now only make harps. But, the bell-shaped ukulele lives on.

The original distribution arm of Lyon & Healy was Washburn (the Lyon of Lyon and Healy was George Washburn Lyon). Today Washburn are a guitar producing company and their ukulele arm is Oscar Schmidt. I assume that Washburn had the rights to the bell design as Oscar Schmidt now produce a bell ukulele of their own: the OU250. Also, Ohana have brought out their own bell ukulele, the SKB-35.

On eBay

[phpbay]bell ukulele, 3, “”, “may”[/phpbay]