Jorg wrote:
Yes, "a little outside the norm" is a good way to describe them.
A lot of stuff Mr. Hayashi did is considered mainstream by now, especially on bass guitars. Even so he has applied for a lot of patents over the years (single string tailpieces, height adjustable nuts, the bolt in neck... I think it was around 150 patents in total), a lot of companies are ripping off his ideas. Maybe the patents expired or he only applied for Japan? Anyway, a lot of the "new inventions" for example Warwick anounced over the years... were already patented by Mr. Hayashi more than 40 years ago.