It's tonally and structurally happy with the tension of this set, but I think it could be bumped a gauge to 42w, 28w, 17, 12 as I tuned it up to DAEB above standard CGDA with the strings on it and it seemed just fine. The bridge is compensated for 2-wound, 2-plain strings (and I looked back in my L&H Washburn book to see the original catalog drawings which also show that compensation - usually mandolas are compensated for 3-wound, 1-plain), so that's what I strung it with - 40w, 26w, 16, 11 gauges - like a heavier mandolin set. Work included fixing that brace, installing a rosewood "helper block cleat" over the cracked-up area near the endblock, giving it a fret level/dress, and setting it up. Ouch! Fortunately that was the worst of it aside from a couple interior glue drips and a detached main brace. It looked ding-dang clean, too, until I saw the severe punched-in area under the tailpiece. I was truly surprised to see this pop out of it. This one came waltzing in with a local customer, who carried it in a beat-up old tenor banjo case.
Healy began the company in 1864 as a sheet. Today best known for concert harps, the companys Chicago headquarters and manufacturing facility contains a showroom and concert hall. The high-grade L&H mandolins are rare enough (though the cheaper Washburn-branded, Regal-made ones are not too rare), but mandolas like this one are even harder to find. is an American musical instrument manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois and is a subsidiary of Salvi Harps. The back and sides are all heavily-flamed maple instead of birch, too, and the whole instrument exudes "high class violin." The fancy scrolled headstock with its top-mounted tuners is just icing on that cake.
How does it sound? - like a good Gibson mandola that's even better.
How is this carved and braced? - almost the same as a Gibson mandola from the same time - but thinner and lighter and with a little more nuance. The Lyon & Healy carved-top mandolin family strikes me as being composed of super-refined versions of the Gibson oval-hole A-style mold.