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 (one is currently on sale by Music Guy Mike for a staggering $26,000). 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.