Gibson guitar serial numbers are, like a lot of serial number systems from guitar manufacturers, a complicated beast.

Jul 01, 2012  Gibson Serial Numbers - 1977 to Present. Dating a Gibson Electric or Acoustic Guitar. The following information applies to Gibson USA Guitars From 1977 to Pr. Aug 04, 2010  i dont get it, you buy a used sg vos and cant find the date of birth, mine comes up pre 1977, no candy with the sg, serial number 055682 any info appreciated. Save 1977 gibson sg to get e-mail alerts and updates on your eBay Feed. + Items in search results. 2 pre-owned from $1,199.99. Gibson SG Standard Cherry 1989 Vintage Electric Guitar Made in USA. Leave feedback about your eBay search experience - opens in new window or tab. Additional site navigation. About eBay; Announcements. Continued to use the 6 digit serial numbers through 1978 and 1979. So double check the serial numbers on those 1970s L-5s, Super 400s, and Super 5 BJBs! Gibson's F O N System In addition to the above serial number information, Gibson also used Factory Order Numbers (F O N) to track batches of instruments being produced at the time. Certain guitar models built in the late 1970s can be used to demonstrate the old-style, six-digit serial numbers. It is estimated that Gibson’s Kalamazoo plant continued to use the six-digit serial numbers through 1978 and 1979. So double check the serial numbers on those 1970s L.

Electric Guitars built at the Gibson USA plant in Nashville are ranked from 500-999. Prior to 1984, the numbers 001-499 show Kalamazoo production, 500-999 show Nashville production. The serial numbers from the Custom, Art, and Historic division vary depending on the line. Gibson Serial Numbers - 1977 to Present. Dating a Gibson Electric or Acoustic Guitar. The following information applies to Gibson USA Guitars From 1977 to Pr.

Gibson Serial Lookup Banjo

But with a little bit of research you should be able to find out when your Gibson was built and in some cases where.

There are a number of distinct time periods for Gibson’s serial numbers, where the systems differed. There are also other ways of determining the age of your instrument, including FON’s and things such as logo designs.

FON’s

In addition to serial numbers older Gibson guitars also had Factory Order Numbers (FONs) imprinted. In some cases, in fact, only FONs were used and there was no serial number (this was mainly for early low-end models).

FON’s (and serial numbers) on Gibson guitars are usually found either on the inside of the back of the guitar (inside the sound hole) or on the back of the headstock).

FON’s were used from 1902 to 1961.

Other Identifiers

There are some other ways you can get an idea of the age of your Gibson.

Logo

Gibson’s logo has been largely unchanged since 1947 but before that time the logo changed a bit, so you can use that to help identify the era your guitar was built.

Made in USA

From 1970 onwards a “Made in U.S.A” was engraved below the serial number. This can help determine if your guitar was from the 1960s or 1970s (some guitars during those 2 decades had the same serial number).

Other Features

You can also use other features to help identify the time period of your instrument. Some of these include:

• Volutes: Extra bits of wood carved into the headstock where it meets the neck. These were starting to be added in 1969 – so if your instrument didn’t have them then it’s likely to be pre-1969
• Things such as tuners, capstans, plates can also give you clues – though remember that an older instrument could have had these items replaced so it’s not a definite clue.

Serial Numbers

O.k. so why discuss all these other aspects, when this post is supposed to be about serial numbers!

Good question – and the answer is simply that the serial number system used up until 1977 wasn’t the easiest or most reliable system – so you may not be able to accurately determine anything about your guitar using the serial number alone.

O.k., let’s take a look at the different time periods of serial numbers from Gibson Guitars.

Gibson Guitar Serial Numbers Lookup

1902-1947

The following serial numbers apply just to acoustic guitars.

During this period, the system was actually relatively simple. Guitars were just given the next available number.

The chart below shows the year that relates to the serial number. The serial numbers shown represent the approximate last serial number for that year. The first serial number for acoustic guitars was 100.

1947 to 1961

Once the serial numbers hit 99999, Gibson decided to change to a new system, rather than go into 6 digits.

The new system used a letter to prefix the numbers. The first guitar in this new system was A 100 which was in April of 1947.

1961 to 1970

A new system, introduced in 1961, was made to cover all of the instruments in Gibson’s line (not just acoustic guitars). This was pretty poorly done though (IMO) and meant that some serial numbers were reused so a certain serial number could be from a guitar from different years.

1970 to 1975

It didn’t get any less confusing during this time either. The biggest telling factors for guitars from this period, as opposed to the guitars from 1961 to 1969 is the “Made in U.S.A” that can be found on guitars from 1970 onwards.

6 Digit Serial numbers were still used so a lot of the same numbers were also used on 1960s models. To make matters even more confusing, there wasn’t really an order for these serial numbers – so you could have something from 1975 that started with a 1 and something from 1972 that started with a 9.

Some serial numbers also used a letter (just because?)

1975 to 1977

Thing get a little simpler. These serial numbers started with either “96” “00” or “06” with the 96 representing 1975, the 00 representing 1976 and 06 representing 1977. Not sure why these numbers were used, but at least it was uniform!

1977 to Present

Finally, in 1977 a much more logical serial number system was introduced.

This is an 8 digit system and follows the format YDDDYPPP.

• The YY represent the year the guitar was made
• The DDD is the day of the year that the guitar was made
• The PPP represents the factory the guitar was made in and the number of production

So, for example, let’s take the serial number 80351045.

• This guitar was built in 1981 – 80351045 – remember in the format that the year is the 1^st and 5^th
• This guitar was built on the 35^th day of the year – so this would have been February 4^th – 80351045
• This guitar was built in the Kalamazoo factory and it was the 45^th instrument stamped that day.

So this serial number represents the 45th guitar built on February 4, 1981 in the Kalamazoo factory.

Factories

The Kalamazoo factory operated until 1984 and guitars made in that factory from 1977 to 1984 had the last 3 digits (the production number) that were between 001 and 499.

Guitars built in the Nashville factory from 1977 to 1989 used the production numbers 500-999.

For example, the serial number 81457556 – would be May 25^th, 1987 and the 56^th guitar built in the Nashville factory. The first guitar built that day would have the production number 500.

Guitars built in the Nashville Factory from 1990 onwards have production numbers 300-999 – so the first guitar produced that day would have the production number 300.

The Montana factory uses production numbers 001-299 and this was from 1989, when that factory was opened.

Exceptions

There are guitars that will be exceptions within all of these time periods.

If your guitar doesn’t seem to fit within any of these systems, check out the resources below to see if you can decipher your serial number.

Thanks for Reading

I hope this helped you to decipher your (often complicated) Gibson serial number.

Photo Credit

By Henry Zbyszynski from Cambridge, USA (P1060339) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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