You should be able to use this guide to determine the year of your instrument and then consult the Reverb Price Guide to find its value, all for free. For many vintage instruments, determining the date of manufacture involves little more than running the serial number through a reference guide. Whereas Martin guitars have been using a single, consistent numbering system since the 19th century, Gibson has used several different serial number formats since its inception in , meaning that some formats and numbers overlap across decades.
This makes it especially important to first identify the general era during which your instrument was made before pinning down the exact date of manufacture with a serial number. If you know the backstory around when the instrument was purchased, this can provide some rough clues about its era. The most general physical piece of evidence on the instrument, however, is going to be the logo on the headstock. The original logo featured the words "The Gibson" inlaid in pearl at a slant, with an almost hand-written cursive font.
This is sometimes referred to as the slanted script logo. Some earlier specimens from to did not slant the logo, or went without a logo entirely.
Specimens built before had a star inlay or crescent in place of a logo. The script logo continues without the slant. Some flattop guitars of this era started to omit the word "The" from the inlay. By Gibson had dropped the "The" from all of their logos while retaining the script "Gibson. From to , the logo was a thick golden script, known as the banner logo. The block logo debuted after WWII and remains the face of the company. There were minute changes to which letters were connected in the font between to , but the main logo had the same look.
Gibson stopped dotting the i in their logo on some of their instruments. Most models get a dotted i again in , with the rest following suit from onward.
Aside from the logos, each era of manufacturing included certain identifying traits such as the hardware tuners, knobs, plates, etc. But not a final verdict. Many older instruments may have reproduction or other non-original parts, including a non-original finish. This makes relying entirely on the physical features of a guitar potentially misleading.
The thickness of the headstock, however, is not as vulnerable to modification or replacement. Before mid, most Gibson headstocks were thinner at the top when looked at from a side profile. Someone asked if I could make the color obvious in the listings in the registry. I said sorry I could […]. Unfortunately, our records are not complete enough to provide precise dating information for many Fender acoustic guitars from the early s through the s and s.
Although the tables below are as accurate as possible, serial numbers of these acoustic guitars have never been archived and are of no assistance when attempting to date these instruments. The information contained in this guide was culled from our archives of Fender price lists and catalogs, beginning with Unknown information is indicated with a question mark. This guide can help you determine the approximate age of your instrument, what the price range was during its years of production or what it sold for in the last year it was available, and what woods were used in its construction.
These early U. These early acoustics were made in Sweden and imported and distributed by Fender from the mid- to late s. They used laminated construction. This is a site devoted to the Golden Years when Valley Arts Guitars was an independent boutique guitar company located in California, before the sale to Samick, and later Gibson.
The name 'Valley Arts' is a reference to the firm's original location. The first guitar in this new system was A which was in April of A new system, introduced in , was made to cover all of the instruments in Gibson? 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. It didn? The biggest telling factors for guitars from this period, as opposed to the guitars from to is the?
To make matters even more confusing, there wasn? Thing get a little simpler. These serial numbers started with either? Not sure why these numbers were used, but at least it was uniform!
So this serial number represents the 45th guitar built on February 4, in the? Kalamazoo factory. The Kalamazoo factory operated until and guitars made in that factory from to had the last 3 digits the production number that were between and For example, the serial number ? The first guitar built that day would have the production number Guitars built in the Nashville Factory from onwards have production numbers ?
The Montana factory uses production numbers and this was from , when that factory was opened. If your guitar doesn? Or it could be , or Their serial number system around that time was not great! I have a Maestro by Gibson electric that belonged to my dad.
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