1990 Date Stamp on Neck Block?

I am new to the world of Guild guitars. My new-to-me JF30-12 has "Mar 10 1990" stamped on the neck block. The stamp appear to be made by a old fashion rubber date stamper. The previous owner thought the guitar is a 1993 ( probably the year he bought it). The serial number is JF300637. The serial number does not appear to match anything on the "date your Guild" site. Can any of you tell when this guitar was actually completed based on the information I have?

The date stamp was applied at some point in the production of the guitar, but does not tell us the "completion date" for the instrument. The body could have been assembled in 1990 but perhaps the entire guitar was not finished until later in the year or even year(s) later. Hans Moust would know what year the guitar was completed based on the serial number.

^^^ What he said. If you want more details, ask Hans. He'll probably be here over the weekend but you can find his website address on his profile.

Budha said:

I am new to the world of Guild guitars. My new-to-me JF30-12 has "Mar 10 1990" stamped on the neck block. The stamp appear to be made by a old fashion rubber date stamper. The previous owner thought the guitar is a 1993 ( probably the year he bought it). The serial number is JF300637. The serial number does not appear to match anything on the "date your Guild" site. Can any of you tell when this guitar was actually completed based on the information I have?

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The Guild PDF site shows that serial number as 1989 for the "superstructure" of the guitar. so, March 10, 1990 is likely the final completion/out the door date of production.

Someone at the factory gave your guitar a JF-30 serial number...instead of a JF-30-12 serial number

Thanks everyone. I have been very curious about the early history of this fine old guitar. I have recently read about the impact of hurricane Bob on the Westerly factory. My guitar appears to have been born a relatively short time before to the hurricane Bob event.

IIRC, Hans has told us that the date stamped on the neck block is the date the guitar "rim" (assembly of the sides, neck block, and end block) was completed. In the '70s, Guild also stamped the date the top assembly was completed on one of the sound hole braces, and my '81 D-46 also has the completion date of the back assembly stamped on one of the back braces.

All of these dates are distinct from, and can be days to months different than the final completion date (year) indicated by the SN. For example, the SN of my D-35 dates to the first quarter of 1972, but the top brace is stamped July 1971.

In the case of your JF30-12, the SN date seems to predate completion of the top. However, Hans has mentioned several periods when Guild inadvertently duplicated SNs from previous years. I would suggest e-mailing Hans (his contact info can be found in his profile) for clarification.

GardMan said:

All of these dates are distinct from, and can be days to months different than the final completion date (year) indicated by the SN.

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Edit: While my claim that the serial number and completion date do not correlate is correct some other details of my previous post were unclear or incorrect. So I will leave you with Hans

Guild guitars were made in batches of 6, 12 or 24 etc. From a manufacturing standpoint it was easier to make them in batches because of the change of tooling necessary to produce the different models. When the superstructures were completed they were serial numbered, which took place in the 'finishing' dept. After that the finish was applied and the guitars were hung to dry. After sufficient drying they would be buffed and placed in racks, where they would stay till an order came in. Obviously, if they started production they already had orders, but not always for the complete batch. Only the guitars they had orders for (plus the guitars that could be put in inventory because they were ordered on a regular basis) would be taken to 'final assembly', where the superstructure would get all the necessary parts to become a musical instrument and where it would be set up. Now the order in which they were taken from the racks was random, so it was possible for a higher serial number to come through 'final assembly' before a lower number. A lower serial number could stay on the racks for a very long time while a later serial number would already be hanging on a dealer's wall. I have several instruments in my collection that have serial numbers of which I know they were applied in a specific year; I also know that some of the hardware on these instruments was introduced years later, which shows that these instruments stayed on the racks for a very long time before they came through 'final assembly'. This usually happened with instruments that were not very popular during a specific period or with instruments that were already discontinued.

So the serial number on a guitar doesn't automatically tell you when a guitar was completed and in some cases this explains some of the quirky stuff you might come across.

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Budha said:

...The serial number does not appear to match anything on the "date your Guild" site....

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Haha, welcome to Guild, Budha! Serial numbers and model names are often a deep mystery as to what they represent. Fortunately, we do have a guru who has tracked down these mysteries so we can get the final word on most any serial number question. I shudder to think what shape we'd be in without Hans!

I sent a note to Hans for him to weigh in on this. Thanks all of you.

I heard back from Hans. He said my guitar was completed during the 2nd quarter of 1990.

And if that's what the man says, then that's what he means and your question is answered. Hans must be some kind of archiving genius because I have no idea how he coordinates all this data, but I sure am glad that he does.