I have Grand Stick number 1406 - how do I tell whether it's the newer or older instance? Here's a closeup of the bridge area if that helps?

The headstock will give clues as well, along with the nut.....

Does this help? What do I look for?

Yes it does, tremendously.....

While it is not one of the first batch of serial numbers, that is an early Grand Stick in that it still had the individual height adjustable screw slotted nut.

The really old ones had/have a similar bridge assembly - like the old Ironwoods - with the slotted screws, along with a squared off cut headstock [yours is round] and I believe the metal plate was the typical Stick plate used at the time - not the Grand Stick plate yours has - although I might be wrong on that...

The S.E. website has a very good history/timeline of instrument advancements on it - but even so - that gets a little confusing too, but it might help you get a little closer with dating your instrument: http://stick.com/about/history/timeline/

Can you tell if your belt hook is adjustable ??
That also helps when dating an instrument on ones own...

If you send those two pictures to either Cambria or Grace with your serial number - they will tell you exactly when it was made.

My own opinion - the Grand Stick which you have is super super desirable because it is one of the earlier ones - relatively speaking...

May it serve you well

Thanks! I've seen "lively discussion" on here on whether the earlier ones really are that "desirable" (for anyone other than a collector) due to the new ones being so superior in many ways. But I'm certainly loving this one - way easier to play than the piece of "teflon" I picked up a couple of years back (non-Stick 10 string tapper).

Oh and the belt hook is slightly adjustable - multiple hole sets to choose from - but certainly non-trivial to adjust.

Here's a couple of snaps of it - I don't actually use it as a belt strap, I hang it from a sax harness instead. (Too fat for the belt hang thing to work, sadly, gut in the way.)

How can I identify the year of manufacturing of my sticks?

Both polycarbs are all fixed bridge and nut and without a trussrod.

The maple SB8 has a 3D bridge and a truss rod, but no flaps.

All three sticks are 34” without an X fret, inlays on frets 2-7-12-17-22


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bholder, all that stuff helps... again, see the time line of Stick inovations....

Walt, I would say email Cambria @ S.E. and send her your serial numbers plus maybe a picture of the overall instrument and she should get back to you with that info, although it might be a little bit, but I'm pretty sure those were all mid/late 1980s, no ??

Will do! Although Emmett already confirmed that #2609 is from 1989 in an email I sent him a while ago.

Polycarb Stick #2142 is identical to the other so it must be between 1985 and (the latest) 1989 since the serial is prior to that.

SB8 #1608 must be somewhere between 1998 (introduction of the SB8) and 2000 (intro of flaps).

The list of innovations is very handy for this. http://www.stick.com/about/history/timeline/

From the timeline, it looks like mid/late 90s, since it's got the adjustable belt hook and the factory installed GK-2A pickup ("the Grid").

So is this rare / valuable enough that I should not do a minor mod to install a switch to route both outputs to the jack tip for mono output? Seems simple enough and reversible, other than leaving a small hole in the side of the pickup housing. I already opened it up and checked inside - plenty of empty room to do what I want. It would just be so much nicer to be able to route the whole signal through the GK-2A "normal guitar" input so that I can control it and use the effects portion of the GR-55 on it. (Right now, I only get the bass side signal there, which has uses certainly, but I'd like it to be switchable for both in mono.)

Would that ruin any "vintage" resale value? (Not that I'm planning on selling, I hope to have this until I die.)