The first Steinberger basses, as opposed to the NS instruments built with luthier Stuart Spector, were produced in 1979 in Brooklyn, New York by Ned Steinberger, essentially alone. A company, Steinberger Sound, was duly set up to manufacture the basses and later the guitars on a larger scale at Newburgh, New York, however demand always outstripped supply and the company was eventually sold to Gibson in 1987. Since then Gibson has has worked closely with Ned Steinberger and introduced a number of new models.