Is there a way I can find the year of a Gibson Les Paul Standard model? I know this guitar is at least a few years old, but I am not sure just what vintage it is…
Gracias…
A pretty safe bet that Gibson will maintain that information on their site. Try here:
There are many subtle differences that can be used to date Les Pauls. The best place to start is generally the serial number.
For Gibsons made after 1977 the serial number format is:
YDDDYPPP
where the first Y is the 3rd digit of the year, the DDD is the day of the year and the second Y is the 4th digit of the year.
For example, a guitar produced on January 3, 1997 would have a serial number starting with:
90037
The final three digits are used to track which factory produced the instrument and what number instrument of the day it was.
For older instruments you’d have to consult the serial number logs, although with enough practice you can date an instrument fairly accurately without checking.
There is another way to date an instrument fairly accurately, although I wouldn’t recommend going through the hassle unless you are trying to verify the age of a vintage item. If you open up the insturment and inspect the potentiometers inside (the round thingys under the volume and tone knobs) you will see that they are stamped with a serial number also.
The date code on a potentiometer is 6 or 7 digits long. The first 3 digits are the source or manufacturer code. The final 3 or 4 digits are the date code. Sometimes there is a space or a dash seperating the manufacturer code from the date code.
In 3 digit codes, the 1st digit is the last number of the year, the second 2 digits are the week of productions. Generally, 3 digit codes were used in the 1940s and 1950s.
In 4 digit codes, the first 2 digits are the last 2 digits of the year and the second 2 digits are the week of production. Generally, 4 digit codes are used from the 1960s through present day.