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Joined:
February 2016
Posts: 1802
Location: When?? | Curious... does a serial number range for a particular production year represent the actual sequential order of the guitars as they were produced during the timeline course of that year?? |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10582
Location: NJ | Not exactly |
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Joined:
October 2014
Posts: 270
| I know this is a rhetorical question, but why don't serial numbers make sense? I don't understand why so many manufacturers complicate things so much by not adopting some form of logical, interpretable numbering system. Some combination of model/date/sequence makes all the sense in the world. It can't be that hard. |
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Joined:
April 2014
Posts: 103
Location: Ontario Canada | apparently for Ovation it can be that hard. |
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Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7222
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | Actually Ovation is a bit more straight forward than some especially with serial numbers. Essentially any non-Adamas model is a one-up number, you just have to look up which range of those numbers were for any particular year. Even Ovation model numbers are pretty easy to decode. However, the problem arises when trying to come up with a model number from an unmarked guitar. That is something DW is attempting to correct, but there is a lot of history for them to get past. I think one of Ovation's biggest miscalculations (IMHO) is that in many cases even experienced Ovation enthusiasts can't just look at a guitar and identify what model it is.
Wanna have fun with model numbers... visit Ibanez.. and do so at your own risk. I recently had joined their forums to get a guitar ID'd and some of the most hardcore vintage collectors narrowed the model to a solid "it's most likely a ....."
To answer the question, I think a lot of serial number and model number issues arose from how these companies got started. Maybe they used 3 and 4 digit serial numbers because they only expected to make a few units a year. Or maybe an initial model number made perfect sense, but they changed the material, and the parts enough that they had to come up with something new, but they already painted themselves into a corner. |
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Joined:
January 2014
Posts: 402
Location: Taxed To Death State | The serial numbering is fairly simple however it doesn't help identify the model. The 8 Digits represents:
Example for Today's Date of 8/22/17: 17082201 YY(Year Made)MM(Month)DM(Day of Month)PN(Number guitar Built that Day) |
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Joined:
February 2016
Posts: 1802
Location: When?? | I fully agree what Miles is saying. Some companies (guitars or otherwise) have a serial/model numbering system that reads like a Rubik's cube. It can be very irritating when a matter arises that requires the equipment holder to know when/how/where something was manufactured. And I agree with danomyte on the date system. A great way for serializing and modeling reference right down to the very day (or closer if need be). As for the loin's share of production Ovations having two separate numbers, I have just always assumed that a particular guitar's build date could be [roughly] determined by the overall range of serial numbers for that year (also assuming that the production pace stayed consistent year-round). |
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Serial Number Question...
