Shanon Chaiken at Gibson in NY helped me on this one with getting the Gibson Custom Shop to match the bridge and the pick guard as well. I then thought, if a collector was going to want an acoustic guitar, what about creating the only two factory matched Martin and Gibson acoustic guitars ever made. That worked for all the guitars except the acoustic Martin. Once the decision was made to have Martin make a guitar for the collection, I started to think about the pairings of the guitars with the amplifiers that made legendary musical combinations.
Gibson custom shop serial numbers j200 serial number#
The orange labels inside hollow bodied instruments were discontinued in 1970 and replaced by white and orange rectangle labels on the acoustics and small black, purple and white rectangle labels were used on electric models.Auction: Musical Instruments - 2544B Location: Boston Date / Time: 12:00PM Description:Īmerican Guitar, Gibson Custom Shop, Bozeman, 2010, Model J-200, serial number 02799011, width of lower bout 16 7/8 in., expressly for the Pinkburst Project, with Pinkburst Project TKL custom case. There are many exceptions and sometimes letter prefixes were used. This would also explain why the occasional pre-1932 Martin guitar appears with a decal.įrom 1970-1975 all numbers were stamped into wood and assigned a six digit number. This implies that a number of ukuleles built in 1930 remained in the factory until being sold in 1932.
Interestingly, the original order for Martin decals was placed in June of 1932. The Martin logo decal on the front of the headstock. The Martin brand stamped on the back of the headstock. Ukuleles did not carry serial numbers but can be roughly identified and dated by the headstock: 1895 to 1932 1938 to 1940s model could also have a black case with a red strip around the outside lid. Also sold a cardboard aligator case for those on a budget. The mid-line case was a brown hardshell with a green or brown lining. Case: Brown hardshell case with a pink lining was the top-end Gibson case. Fortunately, they are often signed by the builder. Description: Gibson J-200 flat top guitar Available: 1938 to present. Many of these unique instruments pop-up today and don’t fit any clear category. The PPP represents the factory the guitar was made in and the number of production. The DDD is the day of the year that the guitar was made. The YY represent the year the guitar was made. This is an 8 digit system and follows the format YDDDYPPP. Ukuleles, taropatches, tiples and Hawaiian guitars were introducedĪfter workers at the Nazareth factory had been employed for a period of years they were permitted to fashion an instrument for themselves at the plant. Finally, in 1977 a much more logical serial number system was introduced. The 1st and 2nd indicate the year of manufacture for the 6 digit serial numbers which weve been using since 2000.
Some pre-1898 guitars have the date penciled on the top just inside the sound hole.īefore 1929, the model size and style designation was generally written on a paper label and glued inside the top of the instrument case. The 1st digit indicates the year of manufacture for the 4 & 5 digit serial numbers, these were used from 1989-1999. Model numbers were marked on the neck block, inside the body. Zoebisch & Sons” (Zoebisch was the sole distributor of Martin at the time). The original instruments had a paper label that read: “Martin and Coupa” 1833 to 1867 Prior to serial numbers, the different instruments were identified by the Martin brand which was stamped into the back of the headstock, the upper portion of the back or on the back binding strut visible through the soundhole (the eased blocking reinforcing the center joint between the 2 back pieces). Martin began producing instruments in 1833.