Gibson Hummingbird Lookup Serial Numbers Started With

Well, good news its very easy to figure out the age of Fender and Gibson instruments from the last 30 years.

Heres a brief rundown of how to do it, plus resources for more information.

Serial dating is easiest for instruments made in the USA or Mexico, but is also possible for those made in Japan, Korea, China, and Indonesia.

Test it out next time you are checking out a friends guitar and collection share the knowledge.

Gibson Hummingbird Lookup Serial Numbers Started With

These serial numbers started with either 96 00 or 06 with the 96 representing 1975, the 00 representing 1976 and 06 representing 1977.

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 Gibsons serial numbers, where the systems differed.

There are also other ways of determining the age of your instrument, including FONs and things such as logo designs.

Contents hide 1 FONs 2 Other Identifiers 2.1 Logo 2.2 Made in USA 2.3 Other Features 3 Serial Numbers 3.1 1902-1947 3.2 1947 to 1961 3.3 1961 to 1970 3.4 1970 to 1975 3.5 1975 to 1977 3.6 1977 to Present 3.6.1 Factories 4 Exceptions 4.1 Thanks for Reading 4.1.1 Photo Credit FONs 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).

FONs (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).

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

Logo Gibsons 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.

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 didnt have them then its 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 its not a definite clue.

Serial Numbers O.k.

Good question and the answer is simply that the serial number system used up until 1977 wasnt 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., lets take a look at the different time periods of serial numbers from Gibson Guitars.

During this period, the system was actually relatively simple.

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.

Year Last Aprox Serial 1903 1150 1904 1850 1905 2550 1906 3350 1907 4250 1908 5450 1909 6950 1910 8750 1911 10850 1912 13350 1913 16100 1914 20150 1915 25150 1916 32000 1917 39500 1918 47900 1919 53800 1920 62200 1921 69300 1922 71400 1923 74900 1924 80300 1925 82700 1926 83600 1927 85400 1928 87300 1929 89750 1930 90200 1931 90450 1932 90700 1933 91400 1934 92300 1935 92800 1936 94100 1937 95200 1938 95750 1939 96050 1940 96600 1941 97400 1942 97700 1943 97850 1944 98250 1945 98650 1946 99300 1947 99999 1947 to 1961 Once the serial numbers hit 99999, Gibson decided to change to a new system, rather than go into 6 digits.

The first guitar in this new system was A 100 which was in April of 1947.

Year Last Aprox Serial 1947 A 1305 1948 A 2665 1949 A 4410 1950 A 6596 1951 A 9420 1952 A 12460 1953 A 17435 1954 A 18665 1955 A 21910 1956 A 24755 1957 A 26820 1958 A 28880 1959 A 32285 1960 A 34645 1961 A 36147 1961 to 1970 A new system, introduced in 1961, was made to cover all of the instruments in Gibsons 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.

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.

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 wasnt 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.

Number Year 0XXXXX 1973 1XXXXX 1970-1975 2XXXXX 1973-1975 3XXXXX 1974-1975 4XXXXX 1974-1975 5XXXXX 1974-1975 6XXXXX 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975 7XXXXX 1970, 1971, 1972 8XXXXX 1973, 1974, 1975 9XXXXX 1970, 1971, 1972 Some serial numbers also used a letter (just because) NUMBER YEAR XXXXXX A 1970 A XXXXXX 1973, 1974, 1975 B XXXXXX 1974, 1975 C XXXXXX 1974, 1975 D XXXXXX 1974, 1975 E XXXXXX 1974, 1975 F XXXXXX 1974, 1975 1975 to 1977 Thing get a little simpler.

Gibson Hummingbird Serial Number Lookup