STACCATO GUITARS & DRUMS

Founder/Designer:

Pat Townsend

Investors:

Chris Jagger

Mick Jagger

Bill Wyman

Engineers/Technicians/Fabricators:

Paul Holden

Coherent Ric

Karl Dawson

Tony Mortar

Tony Melnyk

Details below were taken from the Jedistar website 21/05/2020:

Staccato was a little British company that made a name for itself painstakingly making out of fiberglass the oddest drums you’ve never seen. But founder Pat Townshend’s real passion was to make truly great and equally odd guitars. And with the financial backing of a band called the Rolling Stones, his dream became a reality for a short while (about 200 instruments were produced between 1985 and 1987). Staccato players included Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Gene Simmons of Kiss, and Lemmy of Motorhead.

[ The statement above has been corrected by one of the build team Tony Melnyk who said despite making one for Lemmy he never played it but adds they did make one for  Roger Glover TM2020]

The Staccato MG bass features a magnesium alloy neck-through-body core elegantly mated to an ergonomic fiberglass shell with four Allen screws, much like a Travis Bean. Unlike the Travis Bean design, however, the Staccato’s strings don’t have to come off to detach the body and all of the goodies therein are attached directly to the neck core. The fingerboard is made of industrial plastic. The tuners are at the body in Steinberger headless fashion.

The date of manufacture is written under the scratch plate – pick up assembly

Drums info from the internet archive:
It certainley was a gaint leap, Staccatos were the worlds first and only asymetricle drums. Putting the invention and its inventor in a unique position as the only person to have done this, not only in the U.K. but thoughout the world. Being granted full world wide patents in 1978. The product received world-wide sales and has now become an icon, seen in many many music videos around the world to this day. A far more familar site on U.K. television than the clock-work radio, yet Pat has never received acknowledgement from the Bristish media as an inventor/designer/artist, Almost in the Divinci mold.

We are offering three options, all of which come fitted with replica Hayman hardware, as fitted to the original Staccato drums. Custom artwork and special colour options are available at an extra cost.

Option One – the lowest in the price range:

The original Staccato drums were produced in fibreglass and we are offering the same GRP technology for the shells.
Option Two – is further up the price range, being more labour-intensive and using more costly materials. These Staccato Thunderhorn drums are constructed in lightweight Carbon fibre with a coloured finish.

Both these options come with an impregnated colour finish – no paint is used. Colour options include Monochrome (Black/White) and any combination of Red/Yellow/Blue/Green or Orange. Because we are not building these drums on a production line but only to order, your custom kit will be built to your own interior and exterior colour specification. True, this is pretty exciting but the third option is the most special that Staccato has to offer…

Option Three – is Staccato Thunderhorn drums constructed in lightweight Carbon fibre with a gloss transparent finish that allows you to see the holographic effect of the carbon fibre weave, which effect you may have seen on some motor racing machines such as Formula 1 cars.
Obviously these unique instruments are the most exclusive drum kits in the world. As a result of the expense of the materials, the complexity of production and the workmanship involved, this is the most expensive option.

Every kit that we build, from number 001 to number 100, will be a Limited Edition and after the one hundredth kit we will be going over to ‘standard’ production only, so each of these one hundred kits will be very, very special. The Limited Edition number of each of the 100 kits will appear on a tamper-proof plate, alongside Pat Townshend’s personal signature and name of the purchaser (or custom title), impregnated into the shell. Each kit will be numbered according to confirmed orders received. For example, the first kit ordered will be numbered 001/04; the second will be 002/04 and so on.

Numbers will be allocated on a strictly first-come-first-served basis. As soon as each order is confirmed, the next number in the sequence will be allocated. After the 100th order is confirmed, all prospective purchasers will be advised that the Limited Edition has been sold in it’s entirety and ‘standard’ production kits only are available. The quality will be the same, all drums being hand-built, but there will be no personalized details, signature or Ltd Ed number.

"I know very Little apart from what Paul, Tony and Ric have told me ... Paul Holden will be the guy that can help with the best info as he worked there the longest ... Pat Townsend was a great designer and innovator but not a businessman ... Staccato was heavily financed by The Rolling Stones ... Pats business partner was Chris Jagger (micks brother ) Chris's Wiki page says.... Chris Jagger and his business partner Pat Townshend developed the guitar company Staccato in the mid-1980s. Townshend designed the magnesium alloy guitar, The Staccato. It features a neck and bridge system that could be swapped out. The user could interchange a bass neck for a six-string neck. Some models featured no volume or tone pots. The user could activate the volume controls on a touch sensitive LED pad. A prototype bass was built in Norfolk, England in 1983, and a business partnership was formed to produce Staccato guitars, at the old school house in Woodbastwick, Norfolk. The partners on equal shares were Pat Townshend, Bill Wyman, and Chris and Mick Jagger. The company went under in 1987. Gene Simmons played a Staccato bass during Kiss' Crazy Nights World Tour." KD 21/05/2020