The serial number thing ... again

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Author Message   Stony2004 Username: Stony2004 Registered: 7-2004 Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 - 8:19 am:    Hi Folks! I asked the German Ibanez Distributor Meinl about my guitar (GB10) with the serialnr.: H702260. I got the answer: "Your GB was produced 1997 in Terada, Nagoya/Japan." Is this possible? I thought those H7 numbers mean 1987(!). Please shed some light on this!   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 - 9:47 am:    The serial numbering system: [Factory letter, last digit of year, splitter (0), rank number in overall year production] was used from 1987-1996. After that they had to switch to another system in order to avoid doubles. The different factories used different systems from 1997 on. Cort first had no date stamps and got the order from Jim Donahue to write the numbers by hand, starting with the last digit of the production year and NO LETTER. As far as I know, Terada kept its letter, but followed by the last two digits of the year. So, IMO you did NOT get correct info. H70xxxx leaves only two options open: - August 1970 (Fuji Gen); - Terada 1987. Forget the rest. Oh, another thing. What's the serial number of your Artstar AM200? (First 3 or 4 characters is enough). Terada 1997 and Terada 1999 should follow the same system, but I doubt that these two will. Ginger   Stony2004 Username: Stony2004 Registered: 7-2004 Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 - 11:38 am:    Thanks Ginger for enlightment. It is highly unlikely that the box is from 1970 (no corrosion at all, overall shape), so 1987 is the year of birth. My AM200 is F9955xxx, so it´s FujiGen Gakki.   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Monday, December 10, 2007 - 10:18 pm:    There was no possibility that a GB would be from 1970 of course. I was just juggling with the numbers. They fit into two systems. The GB models still had to be developed in 1970 (which was the the copy era). You won't find a GB earlier than 1978 (maybe a prototype from 1977, but that's it, and then you'll have to check whether it's a fake or not). Btw, your AM200 is indeed from Fuji Gen, but they were manufactured by Terada from 1987 until what...? 1996 perhaps. Acetan will know, or Funkle perhaps... Wait, I'll check his AM site (nice, but not covering everything yet): http://www.speakeasy.org/~sven/site/index.html You see? It says production was discontinued just after 1996. But you know better now... Newer AM-50 from Yoojin are also missing on the site. I've seen one or two on eBay. But in order to put these extra info in the table, Sven must first have a good picture of those axes, including the headstocks and then he should get info about the start of production and the discontinuation in that plant, one guitar is not enough to add a complete new row to the table. So, it's all not so simple. Ginger   Stony2004 Username: Stony2004 Registered: 7-2004 Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 5:28 am:    Ginger, it´s interesting, that the follow-up production of the AM200 starting around 1996 takes up elements from the AM205. These "new" AM200 looks like an AM205, except the tulip head. I´m not shure about the tuners, though. My AM200 has smooth tuners while the older AM205 seems to have Velve Tune II. And we have to assume a stop in production around 2000/2001. There are no new AM200 anymore.   Gemberbier Username: Gemberbier Registered: 5-2006 Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 11:22 am:    Your guitar is NOT in the USA 1999 catalogue and pricelist either. http://www.ibanez.ru/info/catalog/1999/16.jpg http://www.ibanezrules.com/catalogs/price/1999/1_J an/p03.jpg But... it was in Germany, on page 24: http://www.t3-kundenserver.de/htmlpages/redasys/_c ore/databases/t_meinl-uploads/1999_gesamt.pdf. Btw, did you read the sad message on the Meinl website? I'll post an In Memoriam in Miscellaneous. Ginger   Stony2004 Username: Stony2004 Registered: 7-2004 Posted on Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 11:56 am:    Cool that I´m in Germany then ;-) I got my AM200 directly from Meinl! At that time they only had two of them left. Yes, I saw the sad news. RIP.

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