Nobuaki Hayashi / H. Noble

[Fionn]

Those who are familiar with the earlier "batwing" Aria SB's will have noticed the name "H.Noble", written amongst the blurb on the headstock. This was the western-sounding pseudonym of [color=#252525]Nobuaki Hayashi, of Matsumoku ... designer of the Aria SB series of basses, which are rightfully acknowledged as being[/color][color=#252525] highly innovative in their era.[/color]

[color=#252525]All these decades later, [/color][color=#252525]Nobuaki Hayashi is still thinking outside the box. Check out the basses that he's designing these days! ...[/color]

[url="http://atlansiaguitars.com/Bass-Guitar.php?type=bass"]http://atlansiaguita...r.php?type=bass[/url]

And from the same website, a little bio' of that bright man ...

[url="http://atlansiaguitars.com/About.php"]http://atlansiaguitars.com/About.php[/url]

Edited April 10, 2014 by Fionn

[EMG456]

In fairness, at the time the SBs were really a mass production "take" on Alembic basses and I would guess that most SB1000s (mine certainly) were bought because they were affordable and had most of the attributes of the unaffordable Alembics. They were also manufactured to exacting standards by Matsumoku.

His big innovation which doesn't seem to get mentioned these days, was the tapered thickness of the body which down at the bridge end was noticeably thicker than up at the heel. This changed the weight distribution of the bass and meant that a SB balanced better and had no neck dive despite the long scale and 24 frets.

His Atlansia instruments are certainly visually interesting but are definitely not designed for the mass market!

I wonder how they play...

Cheers

Ed

[BigRedX]

[quote name='EMG456' timestamp='1397134968' post='2421008']
His Atlansia instruments are certainly visually interesting but are definitely not designed for the mass market!

I wonder how they play...
[/quote]

I own a 1-string Solitaire Bass. It plays brilliantly.