If you have ever bought a used guitar, sold one, insured one, or just stared at a stamped number inside the soundhole wondering how old the thing is, you have wanted a serial number lookup. Every major manufacturer numbers its instruments, but the systems are all different, they have all changed several times, and some of them are close to useless for exact dating. This is a directory of the best place to look for each brand, plus what that brand’s serial number can actually tell you.
One rule before the list: a serial number is a clue, not a birth certificate. For most brands it gives you a year or a range. Confirm it against the neck-heel date, the pot codes (on electrics), and the label or interior stamps. And no serial lookup verifies authenticity. A number that decodes cleanly can still be on a counterfeit.
Where to find the number: acoustics usually carry it on the neck block inside the body (look through the soundhole toward the neck) or on the paper label. Electrics carry it on the back of the headstock, the neck plate, or stamped in the neck pocket.
Acoustic brands
Martin: Martin’s official serial number lookup. The gold standard: one unbroken sequential series since 1898, accurate to the year. The number is stamped on the neck block. Martin customer service will also date a guitar from the serial and label codes.
Taylor: Decoding a Taylor Guitar’s Serial # (official). Taylors from 1993 on are excellent: the serial encodes the build date, often exact to the day. Post-1999 the number is on the back label; earlier guitars have it on the heel block.
Guild: History of My Guild (official dating charts). A single sequential run from 1953 to 1979, model-prefix serials in the 1980s, then a Julian date code from 2005. Manufacturing moved cities repeatedly (Hoboken, Westerly, Tacoma, New Hartford), and each era has quirks. Adirondack Guitar’s Guild dating page is a good cross-check.
Yamaha: YamahaMusicians.com serial number checker. Yamaha’s own YEC lookup is thin for older guitars; the enthusiast checker covers every system from 1946 to now across the Japan, Taiwan, and Indonesia factories.
Takamine: Dating Your Takamine (official). Clean system: eight digits on the neck block, first two are the year, next two the month. Chinese-built G-Series models use a “CC” prefix with the same coding.
Seagull & Godin: no official tool. Seagull has shared Godin’s system since 1993: a 7- or 8-digit number where the leading digits give the year. Godin switched to a 12-digit format at the end of 2007 that does not encode the year. guitarinsite.nl’s Godin page has the breakdown.
Larrivée: Larrivée’s automated Manufacture Date Lookup (official). Worth using, because Larrivée’s format changed at least six times and is hard to decode by hand.
Electric and full-line brands
Gibson: Gibson’s official serial number search. Works for 1975 and up. Pre-1977 Gibson numbers were reused across years with no consistent system, so for those you need a reference like Gruhn’s Guide and other dating features. Custom Shop has its own scheme.
Fender: Gear Genealogy: How to Date Your Guitar (official). Fender serials overlap by at least a year, so treat the result as approximate and combine it with the neck-date stamp and pot codes. The Guitar Dater Project’s Fender decoder covers all the MIA, MIJ, MIM, MIK, and MII prefixes in one place (but not Custom Shop, Relic, or reissues).
Epiphone: no official tool. Use the Guitar Dater Project’s Epiphone decoder or the Epiphone Wiki, which documents the factory-prefix, post-2008 numeric, Elitist, and Japanese formats.
Gretsch: Gretsch Product Dating (official). Reliability depends heavily on the era; since 1989 Gretsch has used a factory letter plus year and month, which is straightforward. Reverb’s Gretsch guide covers the older date-coded numbers.
PRS: no official lookup, but you often do not need one: on US-made PRS guitars from 1997 on, the first two digits of the headstock serial are the year. SE and acoustic models use a letter or “A” + year prefix. OwningAFender’s PRS decoder handles the edge cases.
Ibanez: the Ibanez Wiki serial number page, based on Rich Harris’s long-running “Dating Your Ibanez” work. There is no single Ibanez format: production is spread across many factories and regions, each with its own scheme. The Guitar Dater Project’s Ibanez decoder is the quickest first pass.
Rickenbacker: the Rickenbacker Registry serial number listings. From 1961 to 1986 the first two characters encode year and month. Pre-1954 instruments generally cannot be dated by serial at all.
Multi-brand tools
- The Guitar Dater Project: the old standby. One interface for Fender, Gibson, Epiphone, Ibanez, Yamaha, and more. Dated design, no authentication, results are approximate, but it is fast and it is free.
- guitarinsite.nl: especially strong on the European and Japanese brands (Gretsch, Ibanez, Rickenbacker, Godin), with the raw charts laid out so you can decode by hand.
Before you trust the answer
- Cross-check the year. A neck-heel date stamp, the pot and pickup date codes on an electric, and the paper label should all agree with the serial. If one is off by years, dig deeper.
- Serial does not mean genuine. Counterfeits copy real serial formats. If you are buying, match the full spec of the guitar to what the brand actually built that year.
- When in doubt, ask the maker. Martin, Taylor, Gibson, and Larrivée will all date a guitar from the serial if you contact customer service, and that is the authoritative answer.
