How can I find out when my American-made instrument was manufactured?
Vintage Guitars, SWEDEN - Levin serial numbers.
What year is the model of your guitar? On Martin Guitars the serial number is usually located on the heel of the neck inside the soundhole. There will usually be 2 numbers in there. The first number the top number will be the model number. The second number the bottom number will be the serial number. The serial number for each year shows the serial number of the last guitar that was built in that year.
The Gibson serial number decoder Date a Gibson guitar by serial number From to Gibson have used an eight or nine digit serial number on all of their guitars that can be easily decoded to show the exact day that the guitar was manufactured along with the location of the Gibson factory. From onwards Gibson changed the serial number format to a simplified nine digit number which can still be used to find the year of manufacture. For earlier guitars or if this tool fails you can use the pot decoder to get a date of manufacture for the pots. Enter your Gibson guitar's 8 or 9 digit serial number in the box below to find the date of manufacture. This decoder currently supports Gibson guitars from to date older guitars coming soon.
In Tacoma instruments simply used a 4-digit serial number. In , there were still some 4-digit serial numbers but most were 6-digit numbers of which the first two digits were the numbers In , Tacoma introduced a serial numbering scheme that is still in use today. Successive years are associated with the alphabet in sequence. These three numbers identify the date of manufacture by their respective numerical order.