Leilani Amps?

http://elderly.com/vintage/items/130U-9686.htm

Is anyone familiar with these? This particular one is close by and cheap. Just wondering what they are like. Google didn't turn up much.

Apparently Leilani amps were built in the 40s & 50s by or for Gourley of Santa Monica, California to be used with Hawaiian Lap Steels of the same brand name. Charlie; if you get this amp and decide to throw a Luau in celebration, I expect an invitation. :grin:

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/v...anilap-amp.jpg

Interesting. If this amp was designed for lap steel guitar, I wonder if it would be better suited for emando? I may have to make some room in my schedule this week to get out to Elderly.

The Leilani amp shown is an early version of the Magnatone student amps sold with Magnatone lap steels. They can have a very cool distorted sound when cranked. They're not very loud. I don't know how well they would fit your electric mandolin, unless you want that sort of sound.
I remember back in the 1980s someone in LA built a wall of these amps about the same size as a Marshall stack. He couldn't always get them all to work at the same time, but when he did, he had an awesome sound.
Here's a discussion on the Steel Guitar Forum about these amps.

If it's cheap enough, and in good working order you might have a winner. Only thing I see that might be a problem for me would be the small speaker. I'm only saying "might" be a problem. I've tried a lot of amps lately and anything with less than a 12 inch speaker sounded thin. It may be a sound that you really like, or may not. You should at least go try it out. Old tube amps have a nice vibe you can't get with solid state circuts, even if it has a small speaker.