How To Date a Guitar? The Serial Number

Want to know how to date a guitar? The production date of a guitar can sometimes be determined by its serial number. See below how to find out where your guitar’s serial number is located.

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We’ve compiled comprehensive information on guitar serial numbers, manufacturing dates, and factories from top guitar brands worldwide. Our collection is always expanding.

To find the manufacturing year of your guitar or amplifier, select the brand and use our easy-to-navigate serial number lookup tools, such as decoder, database, charts, and detailed guides.

Information about guitar serial numbers for Fender, Squier, Gibson, Epiphone and Ibanez can be found on this website – guitarinsite.nl.

Manufacturers sometimes want to change their serial number format, especially in Asian countries to which many Western companies have outsourced their production. Our decoders and guides are updated when a new guitar serial number format from a recognized manufacturer is known.

If you couldn’t identify your serial number with help of these lookup tools, it doesn’t mean your guitar is a fake. See below how to check if your guitar is fake or real.

In the absence of serial numbers or if they are illegible, the electronic components of an electric guitar can provide information about its production date. For instance, the production code of the potentiometers can tell you about the date when your guitar was made.

4 Steps To Find When And Where Your Guitar Was Made

To check your guitar’s serial number and determine its manufacturing details, follow these 4 steps:

1. Identify the Manufacturer

Determine the guitar’s manufacturer or brand. Different brands have different serial number formats and locations.

The coding methods of each guitar brand have undergone frequent changes, leading to some brands having overlapping serial numbers with different coding methods.

You may need to consult a brand-specific resource.

2. Locate the Serial Number

The guitar serial number is typically found on the back of the headstock (the top part of the neck where the tuning pegs are located) for most electric and acoustic guitars. On some guitars, you may find the serial number inside the soundhole or on the neck plate (for electric guitars). Serial numbers are usually a combination of letters, numbers, or both.

3. Use Online Resources

Some guitar brands offer online tools or databases where you can get information about your guitar’s age, place of manufacture, and sometimes even more details.

There are also websites and forums dedicated to helping guitar owners decode serial numbers for various brands and models. You can use these websites to get more information about your guitar.

4. Contact the Manufacturer or a Guitar Expert

If you can’t find information online, you can contact the manufacturer directly. They may be able to provide you with details about your specific guitar.

Incomplete registration records and illogical guitar serial numbers may result in an unclear history of the instrument. Additionally, certain brands reuse the same serial numbers every 10 years.

To accurately date a guitar, it’s crucial to consider its external features and match them with the correct decade. For assistance with this, guitar experts and enthusiasts can be found in various guitar forums.

Remember that the availability of information can vary depending on the brand and model of your guitar. Some guitars have well-documented serial number systems, while others may require more research and expert assistance to determine their history.

How To Check If Your Guitar Is Fake Or Real

If a serial number is not listed or recognized in the guitar serial number decoder, it does not necessarily mean the guitar is fake.

If you can’t find it, you should pay attention to other details, such as how old the instrument is, what kind of wood it is made of, as well as other indicators on the body of the guitar: stickers, inscriptions, and logos. In the case of an electric guitar, you can determine the year of manufacture by the serial number of the potentiometer (if it is original).

Guitar websites and forums will help you determine the year of manufacture and authenticity of your guitar by serial number or other characteristics. However, it is best to consult a guitar expert because serial numbers can be fake and do not always guarantee the originality of the guitar.

The authenticity of a guitar can never be fully guaranteed as serial numbers are easily replicated. Even if a certificate of authenticity is provided by brands such as Gibson, Fender, or PRS, it could still be subject to fraud.

When considering the purchase of a guitar, pay attention to the price. Authentic and vintage guitars typically hold or increase in value depending on their condition. Suspiciously low prices should raise red flags.

While authorized dealers are unlikely to sell fakes, caution should be exercised when buying privately or online.

Additionally, carefully inspect the appearance of the guitar, including the headstock shape, font, and placement of the serial number. Fret inlays and other features may also differ from the original model on a fake guitar.

Headstock

Note the shape of the headstock, the font used, and the position where the serial number is affixed. You can compare this with the original images of the model.

Fret inlays

The manufacturers have advanced equipment to accurately place the inlays between the frets. On a fake, you often see a deviation with respect to the original model.

There are more external features that you should pay attention to, such as the logo and printed or stamped serial number, but that differs per brand.

With acoustic guitars, the most common trick is that forgers use cheap plywood instead of solid wood.
To do this, look at the inner edge of the sound hole to see if the wood grain also continues.

If you are in any doubt about the guitar’s authenticity, please first contact the manufacturer’s service department and provide the features (or a photo) that you are unsure about.
The manufacturer will certainly respond to this because they want to combat counterfeits and will take action against them.

“Used” stamp on Headstock – MIRC Guitars

It is often said that guitars that have “USED” printed on them and have a gold-colored or white sticker are fake.
This is definitely not the case! These guitars are refurbished by the company MIRC and sold to dealers at a discounted price.

MIRC (Musical Instrument Reclamation Corporation) is an American company that has been renovating used guitars since 1993.

The used guitars are offered to MIRC by reputable dealers. MIRC also repairs guitars from manufacturers that do not meet the set quality requirements. Major brands with whom MIRC has partnership agreements include Fender, Squier, Gibson, Epiphone, Ibanez, ESP, Guild, and Gretsch.

In most cases, the MIRC guitars are stamped with “USED”, depending on whether the manufacturer has approved this. The stamp “USED” can be seen as a quality sign that the guitar has been refurbished and adjusted by MIRC.

Another feature is that the guitars are provided with a gold-colored or white sticker consisting of 9 numbers starting with 311.

This is not a serial number but an inventory number of MIRC. No production dates can be derived from these digits.

If you are lucky, the original serial number will be below this sticker, but usually, this number has been partially or completely made illegible by MIRC.

The reason for making the serial number illegible, according to MIRC, is to protect the interests of the manufacturer
and to prevent the submission of incorrect warranty claims.

A bad argument from MIRC to remove a serial number from this point of view. In the guitar shop, the serial numbers of (non-MIRC) used guitars are not removed or made illegible. The serial number is important during registration and in case of loss or theft of the instrument. In addition, information about the year of manufacture and location is lost, which can be inferred from the serial number.

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