MY THEORY IS THAT FONs c1926 - 1929 COUPLED WITH SPECIFIC DESIGN FEATURES IS ENOUGH TO DETERMINE YEAR OF MFG for any Gibson Flat-Top. It does provide more consistent reference information after 1908. Most of these sources have similar information, with the exception of the early years pre-1903 - 1908, where there is a lot of debate about serial #s vs. I have included reference data from several sources, including Gruhn's, Guitar Attic, and The Blue Book. This is especially true of this time period. As I'm sure many of you know, Gibson rarely used any serial #'s on their flat-tops (Nick Lucas Specials are an exception), and FONs are not always easy to find inside the body, and sometimes are just nowhere to be found. So many changes in designs, and yet so many very innovative and jaw-dropping guitars, but little to no information available out there. Honestly, I do not have enough information on what I call Gibson's 'history mystery' era c1930 - 1934. My theory is they made very, very few of these guitars, because their price, so 'hand picked' materials may have sat around the factory for longer periods of time, until an order came in. 130 - "Most Nick Lucas Models 1928 - 1933 hserial #", but this doesn't really hold up. They don't seem to fit any real sequence. highly flamed maple would go on an F-5) NOT an A Mandolin. There are some other theories floating around, but most likely, the materials for these instruments would have come from several different batches (FONs), because they were hand selected for their beauty, and used for top-end instruments (i.e. Nick Lucas Specials and many 'Master Model' L-5s, F-5s, etc.
GIBSON MANDOLIN SERIAL NUMBERS CODE
Mid-1929-1930, the FONs started to change to a mix of alpha numeric FONs that are more random, and seemily in no real order, or system until 1935, when they started using a letter code to indicate the year of mfg. Of course there are exceptions (Gibson wouldn't have it any other way, but starting with FON 8229 on 2 c1924 Mandolins thru 9965, there is a clear sequestial pattern. There is a definite numerical sequence to Gibson FONs dating from 1906 starting with #200, 4-digit FONs starting c1911 through the theoretical end of all 4-digit FONs at 9999 around 1929. I think the results are very interesting. I included all Gibson mandolins, mandolas, mando-cellos, harp-guitars, archtop & flat-top guitars in an attempt to see if there really any correlation between Gibson serial #s and FONs (factory order numbers). 2000 other Gibson instruments starting at the beginning pre-1903 Orville instruments, through mid-30's. I put all of this data into a spreadsheet, that lists approx.
Last year, I asked forum members to provide me with any & all FONs for early GIBSON FLAT-TOPS c1926 - 1930s, and the response was awesome.
Bluegrass, Newgrass, Country, Gospel Variants.Technique, Theory, Playing Tips and Tricks.Jams, Workshops, Camps, Places To Meet Others.Looking for Information About Mandolins.We were trying to give potential customers the "warm fuzzies" by implying that we had already made 500 of these things, so they must be good. That practice gave the impression that we had been in business for longer than we actually were at startup.
GIBSON MANDOLIN SERIAL NUMBERS SERIAL NUMBERS
Perhaps someone guessed that they had produced about 2500 instruments to the point when serial numbers went into common practice at Gibson.Īs an aside - A friend and I once owned a small manufacturing company and we decided that our first production run would carry serial numbers starting with #500 (along with some numbers for dates of mfg). As the company grew and encountered needs for manufacturing controls and honoring warranties, a system for tracking production and sales would mandate the use of serial numbers. There may not have been a need to use serial numbers early on at Gibson. That's a very interesting point Dan which may have a simple explanation. Also note that there are no documented instruments with serials below 2500 (think of starting your check book at 500.), which yet appear in most old charts.
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