Decoder Ring Anybody?????????

richardp69

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I got a Guild D 125 GAD model as part of a recent trade. Actually a really sweet guitar but one I don't need. All Mahogany with gloss finish. A real looker and it sounds great as well.

A young lady I know fell in love with it so I sold it to her. She'd like to get an idea of when it was built. I know the serial # is 1310200066. Does anybody know how to determine a year of production from that serial #???

If not, does anybody know the year the GAD models started production and year they ended??? At least that could give me a range..

Thanks for any help ya'll might have.
 

Stuball48

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Richard:
Believe that GAD is a 2013 made Oct 20 and was 66th guitar produced.
 

davismanLV

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I like when other guitar maker make it easy. My Washburn? 95....... was built in 1995. My Taylor 11...... was made is 2011. Why would I need to know how many guitars they made in a day? So silly.... just one opinion. For Guilds, i had to look on a website, which didn't even have my guitar listed. They didn't have a clue. But they had a link to Hans and he said, well, he said, give me what you got, I'm writing another book. This book best come out before I die!! And I wanna be heavily featured (i.e., D65S, serial numbers GC000001-GC0000020) or something similar. They really did a good job on those labels. Clear, and with a nice felt tipped pen!! No guessing.... apparently everyone was sober that day, and they got new pens!!!
 

Stuball48

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Hey Shelby, that's pretty specific. I personally had no clue. But, now that you tell me, that serial # does make good sense. I like it. Thank you Shelby.
I saw it somewhere on LTG from years past and the Epiphone Masterbilt I had was, similarly, coded.
 

walrus

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I like when other guitar maker make it easy. My Washburn? 95....... was built in 1995. My Taylor 11...... was made is 2011. Why would I need to know how many guitars they made in a day? So silly.... just one opinion. For Guilds, i had to look on a website, which didn't even have my guitar listed. They didn't have a clue. But they had a link to Hans and he said, well, he said, give me what you got, I'm writing another book. This book best come out before I die!! And I wanna be heavily featured (i.e., D65S, serial numbers GC000001-GC0000020) or something similar. They really did a good job on those labels. Clear, and with a nice felt tipped pen!! No guessing.... apparently everyone was sober that day, and they got new pens!!!

My PRS is the same. First two numbers - "08", built in 2008. And although you have to go to the web, my NH F-30RCE has a serial number that is easy to figure out and very specific.

walrus
 

fronobulax

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Why would I need to know how many guitars they made in a day?

I answer rhetorical questions.

Short answer is you don't need to know. But if the item is high end enough it needs a serial number that is one way to give it a unique serial number. I have also heard stories from quality assurance/control circles about debugging manufacturing processes. You get stories like there were a collection of parts with the same flaw that no one could figure out. Someone looked at the day count and estimated a clock time and realized they had all been made at about the same time of day. Someone then watched the line at that time and discovered a freight train went through and things that were not well secured shook a little. Tighten a few bolts and problem solved (or replaced by the problem of keeping the bolts tight).
 

chazmo

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Hey, Richard, according to what Ralf told us a while back, the "13" at the start of the serial number represents the year (2013). As for the rest of the detail that Stuball provided, I don't remember month and day being necessarily part of that -- but I can't find Ralf's post on the subject.

As for newer "Westerly-series" MIC guitars (CMG), there's this: http://letstalkguild.com/ltg/showth...ial-Number-quot-Decoder-quot&highlight=serial
 

richardp69

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Thanks folks. As usual, there's a lot of knowledge here on this site and it's very cool folks are so willing to share. I thank you all!!!
 

chazmo

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Oh, shucks..... Maybe it was just the "1" at the start that meant 2011... Sorry, Richard, I can't find Ralf's post on the subject to decode the older GAD serial number. Bah! Stuball's probably right, but I can't confirm it.
 

amnicon

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When this was posted before, I copied it onto my computer for safekeeping.According to this, Stuball48 is correct. I neglected to keep WHO said it, but here's what I saved:



You actually don't need a serial number list for GADs! It's all printed inside the GAD! The real manufacturing date is actually coded in the manufacturing number that is internally stamped on the base of the heel block! So you need to use a lamp and a mirror most probably.
FMIC's hotline just doesn't know that...We actually discussed this quite a few times here already.

The GAD manufacturing info is not on the label (that's just a factory number) but on the neck block inside the body!
All GAD instruments are stamped with a 10 digit internal manufacturing number located inside at the base of the heel block. This number embodies production information about the instrument.
As an example, we’ll use a random number 1104330026.
The first two digits of this number identify the production year. In this case, 11 would stand for 2011.
The second two digits identify the production month. In this case, 04 would stand for April.
The next two digits, 33, are of no significance and are an internal number used by the vendor to identify their order number.
The last four digits identify the unit number of the order. In this case, 26 would stand for the 26th instrument made to the 33rd order.
 

adorshki

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When this was posted before, I copied it onto my computer for safekeeping.According to this, Stuball48 is correct. I neglected to keep WHO said it, but here's what I saved:

It was Ralf (SFIV1967)
I can usually remember who said something but usually not where/when.
:glee:
 
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