Stick Timeline

1970's

10-1974 First commercial Stick® delivered to customer, made of ironwood with ironwood pickup housing and ironwood belt-hook.
04-1975 Metal trapezoidal nameplate on headstock.
09-1975 Height adjustable individual bridge screws.
05-1976 Neck/fingerboard widened to approximate present width.
05-1976 All strings raised a whole tone to present standard tuning.
01-1977 Large size “jumbo” guitar frets.
03-1977 S-shaped sheet metal belt-hooks with black anodized finish.
03-1977 Black anodized sheet metal tailpiece protruding from tail end.
06-1977 Black anodized sheet metal pickup module replacing wooden module.
01-1978 Entire pickup module height adjustable.
03-1978 Rigid, spring tempered steel trusses of 1/2” by 1/4” bar stock inlayed along rear neck.

1980's

12-1981 Detachable shoulder strap with twist-lock stud.
01-1982 Round-wound bass strings replacing flat-wound strings.
04-1982 Height adjustable individual nut screws replacing rectangular wooden string spacer and zero fret.
07-1982 Curved design detail from nut to headstock surface.
10-1982 Injection molded plastic pickup housing with metal fiber shielded interior and molded bobbins for pickup coils.
01-1983 Fur dampers replacing velvet ones.
09-1983 Injection molded plastic belt-hook replacing sheet metal version.
10-1983 Oval nameplate.
11-1985 First injection molded black polycarbonate Sticks with stainless steel Fret Rods? replacing “jumbo” bass guitar frets.
11-1985 Introduction of loop style damper with polycarbonate Sticks.
06-1987 First Grid® MIDI fretboard instrument with MIDI’d melody strings.
07-1987 The ten-string “dedicated” Grid with all strings uniformly thin and tuned to the same pitch.
08-1988 Rubber-mounted pickup module, isolated from direct vibrational contact with the instrument.
10-1989 Hardwood instruments with single adjustable truss rod and stainless steel Fret Rods.

1990's

12-1990 First three Grand Sticks(R).
07-1991 First commercial production of Grand Sticks.
07-1991 Adjustable bridge/tailpiece unit for 3-dimensional adjustment of individual strings, including a protruding “butt” for standing the instrument on end.
05-1992 Headstock with modified round tip.
01-1993 Convertible interior nut screw to re-group strings from 5 melody plus 5 bass to 6+4, and on The Grand Stick from 6+6 to 7+5.
03-1993 Larger Fret Rods with 3/16” dia. open-”O” grooves in fretboard.
04-1994 Injection molded Grand Stick pickup modules, elongated for the wider Grand Stick instrument body, including molded pickup coil bobbins for 6 and 7 strings.
09-1994 Adjustable belt-hook for elevation of instrument on the player.
10-1994 Shell inlay set of five sizes in paua, abalone, white pearl and black pearl.
01-1995 Introduction of heavy gauge strings as an option.
10-1995 Introduction of the Roland GK-2A customized Grid pickup and Roland guitar synth products for all Stick models.
05-1996 Mounting Wings height adjustable assembly for mounting bar pickups on 7-string Stick Bass(R) and customized Sticks.
07-1996 Laminate hardwood construction.
08-1997 First NS/Stick® prototype.
03-1998 SB8 with The Block(R) ACTV-2 pickup module with 2 active EMG-FTs.
09-1998 12-string Block ACTV-2 pickup module on Grand Sticks.
01-1999 10-string Block ACTV-2.

2000~

01-2000 Rails 90 degree pointed frets in stainless steel.
02-2000 First NS/Stick dual role tapping/plucking guitar basses.
06-2000 Flaps dual nut with tripodal adjustment of each string group.
01-2001 First graphite long-scale 10-string Stick production with Moses Inc.
05-2001 PASV-4 model of The Block module for 10 and 8-string Sticks with Villex’s 4 passive single-coil pickups and versatile tone controls.
10-2001 PASV-4 Grand Stick pickup module.
07-2002 First graphite long-scale 12-string Grand Stick production with Moses, Inc.
01-2003 First hardwood laminate long-scale 10-string “Stick X36” production.