Gibson Serial Numbers
Gibson models may not be easily identified by serial number alone, and as of 1999 the company has used six distinct serial numbering systems. By 2006, that number had risen to seven.
In 1977, Gibson introduced the serial numbering system in use until 2006. An eight digit number on the back shows the date on which the instrument was produced, where it was produced and its order of production that day (e.g. first instrument stamped that day, second, etc.).
An exception is the year 1994, Gibson's centennial year; many 1994 serial numbers start with "94", followed by a 6-digit production number.
The Gibson website provides a book to help with serial number deciphering.
Read more about this topic: Gibson Guitar Corporation
Famous quotes containing the words gibson, serial and/or numbers:
“His ugliness was the stuff of legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was something heraldic about his lack of it. The antique arm whined as he reached for another mug. It was a Russian military prosthesis, a seven-function force-feedback manipulator, cased in grubby pink plastic.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“And the serial continues:
Pain, expiation, delight, more pain,
A frieze that lengthens continually, in the lucky way
Friezes do, and no plot is produced,
Nothing you could hang an identifying question on.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“I had but three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship; three for society. When visitors came in larger and unexpected numbers there was but the third chair for them all, but they generally economized the room by standing up.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)