Sanox Logabass Designed by Leduc

[Green Knight]

I love the hybrid bridge / tuner design...smacks of Kubicki although it appears to accept the ball-end rather than the tapered (tuner) end. Just a clarification: Kubickis were strung backwards with the the ball-end at the headstock. In any case, the Logabass is just 8 shades of cool and one bass I'd like to see re-introduced.

Riis

I pulled the trigger on a fretless Logabass 4, and there are indeed many more than 24 fret positions. I was attracted to the headless feature, the Barts, the small body allowing crazy good access to the upper positions, and the overall weird design ... also the price, the lowness of which was almost, but not quite, negated by the crazy shipping prices from Japan now that EMS won't set foot into Canada.

 

[Jazz Ad]

Excellent design, Leduc is a master of ergonomy.
Near perfect construction, Sanox specialize(d?) In small series and custom work for many brands.
Perfect electronics as long as you enjoy the deep tone of original Barts.
The headless bridge however tends to feel wobbly and get stuck, far from being as good as true Leduc systems that work effortlessly.

 

[Jazz Ad]

The word was that Sanox was established by a team from the Matsumoku factory after H. Noble dropped the ball but I don't know if it is true.

 

[mc2ny]

FYI….These are great basses. I was one of the U.S. endorsers and had a bit of input on the final design (got the passive/active push pull added; had the scalloped “pop” area moved just a hair for better playability, etc.)

They were only discontinued because Mr Sano, head of company in Japan, passed away unexpectedly. Great guy, very sad.

When I was at Mike Tobias old shop in Hollywood back when these first came out (1990-91?) Mike knew I played headless (Kubickis since ‘86.) He wanted my opinion on his first headless he was just finishing for Derek Smalls/Harry Shearer of Spinal Tap…and pulls out a cool Green Tobias! Played great but was heavy….Anyway, right then Mike says, “The guy who makes the best headless bass in the world is CHRIS LEDUC, over in France!” I laughed and said, “I’m real glad to hear that because I JUST became his endorser at NAMM!” So, that is a pretty good recommendation. BTW Chris Leduc came up with a cool updated string lock system for the headstock on headless basses that can be put on these.

I got them to make me a custom Green 4-string after I had a Blue 5 for nine months and they matched a color chip from a Robin catalog for me. Came out great and they used it in the NAMM and Frankfurt show booths. BUT when they first pulled it out of the case too
surprise me, BOTH Chris and Sano laughed at me and called it “hideous!” But at the end of Frankfurt Musikmesse, when I came to pick the bass up, they both had weird looks on their faces. I asked, “What’s wrong?” They said, “Everyone wanted the Green one…we could have sold 100 of them.” They truly look confused over it…haha. A month later they sent a fax asking if I would mind if they did a run of Green because wveryone was still asking for them…So I said “Sure, no prob!” Funny.

Here I am picking up the original Green one from Sano, at the end of the Frankfurt Musikmesse…Chris Leduc actually took the pic.

 

[mc2ny]

BTW…regarding the neck being “neck-thru” or “set-neck.” It’s a three-piece neck that extends all the way up and under the bridge but inside a channel on the body. So, not quite full length neck-thru but also not just a normal Gibson-style set neck. Assuming it is supposed to transfer the neck/string resonance better like that. I think it also provides much more glue surface area for attachment that a traditional neck-thru, with it sitting in a wide two-piece body channel…rather than just the side edges being glued in a traditional neck thru..

 

[Barticus]

FYI….These are great basses. I was one of the U.S. endorsers and had a bit of input on the final design (got the passive/active push pull added; had the scalloped “pop” area moved just a hair for better playability, etc.)

They were only discontinued because Mr Sano, head of company in Japan, passed away unexpectedly. Great guy, very sad.

When I was at Mike Tobias old shop in Hollywood back when these first came out (1990-91?) Mike knew I played headless (Kubickis since ‘86.) He wanted my opinion on his first headless he was just finishing for Derek Smalls/Harry Shearer of Spinal Tap…and pulls out a cool Green Tobias! Played great but was heavy….Anyway, right then Mike says, “The guy who makes the best headless bass in the world is CHRIS LEDUC, over in France!” I laughed and said, “I’m real glad to hear that because I JUST became his endorser at NAMM!” So, that is a pretty good recommendation. BTW Chris Leduc came up with a cool updated string lock system for the headstock on headless basses that can be put on these.

I got them to make me a custom Green 4-string after I had a Blue 5 for nine months and they matched a color chip from a Robin catalog for me. Came out great and they used it in the NAMM and Frankfurt show booths. BUT when they first pulled it out of the case too
surprise me, BOTH Chris and Sano laughed at me and called it “hideous!” But at the end of Frankfurt Musikmesse, when I came to pick the bass up, they both had weird looks on their faces. I asked, “What’s wrong?” They said, “Everyone wanted the Green one…we could have sold 100 of them.” They truly look confused over it…haha. A month later they sent a fax asking if I would mind if they did a run of Green because wveryone was still asking for them…So I said “Sure, no prob!” Funny.

Here I am picking up the original Green one from Sano, at the end of the Frankfurt Musikmesse…Chris Leduc actually took the pic.

That’s an awesome story!
Do you still have that bass?
What band were you in at the time?

 

[mc2ny]

Just ran across this fretless Logabass demo on Facebook. He even gets extra points for using the extended frets.

 

[Vene]

Hi there,
Just got a 5 string fretless. Strung E-B. Looking to go C-G this week.. Does anyone know about original tuning? Also curious about the preamp. The mid/high/low controls do not have a center detent. The preamp is not encased as the typical bartolini. It is a discrete circuit with a trim in the side. Anyone has any background on this?