Specific Serial Number Dates

[BYokes]

Hey guys, so I was toying with the idea of buying a PRS from my birth year (1992), just for the fun of it. But then I was wondering if it's possible to track or estimate exact dates to a serial number?

I contacted PRS with no luck. Does anyone know the production rate of the old factory in 1992? (Other than the estimated serial number ranges provided on their website)

Has anyone else tried to track down exact dates for their guitar? I know the Artist Series from '92 came with a certificate which includes the exact production date. Does anyone have an exact date and serial number from a guitar that I could base some research off of?

As always, your insight is much appreciated

 

[toothace]

Divide the number produced that year by 12(months), or 52(weeks), or 365(days)...

That will at least get you close

Using The Google, and the PRS website, Approximate serial numbers for 1992 were 12601-15000.

 

[BYokes]

Divide the number produced that year by 12(months), or 52(weeks), or 365(days)...

That will at least get you close

Using The Google, and the PRS website, Approximate serial numbers for 1992 were 12601-15000.

I had the same thought and crunched those numbers yesterday. I took into consideration weekends and holidays, but don't have enough info to confirm how many guitars were made per day and how many production days there actually were. The "estimated serial numbers" on the PRS website also seems like a soft estimate, as I've seen a number of '92s with serial numbers higher than the end number of 2 15000 as listed.

With that, I was still able to make an estimated range based on work days and the yearly serial range, but there's an Artist Series on Reverb, serial 2 14879 produced on 9 Oct 1992. Taking that real world info in to account would shift the serial range by about 400. It would be great if others may have real world numbers and dates to share.

 

[veinbuster]

You aren’t going to be able to get to the production date for any guitar that wasn’t special enough to have the finish date recorded - which is most of them.

 

[DISTORT6]

The hang tags seem to be the only way to really find out.

 

[jak3af3r]

I may one day do that too. I'm '93 but I doubt I'll find the exact date with it being so close to Christmas. I've had decent luck though searching by year on reverb but never bought anything.

 

[Wakester]

All this math is making my head hurt

 

[BYokes]

I may one day do that too. I'm '93 but I doubt I'll find the exact date with it being so close to Christmas. I've had decent luck though searching by year on reverb but never bought anything.

If you want, I can crunch through some of the numbers for you man. I'm working remote just listening to conference calls all day and need something to do hahaha

 

[BYokes]

By digging through online photos and old Reverb listings, I've found about 20 listings from '92 with hang tags that show exact dates and serial numbers; seems the early 90's almost all came with detailed info (ie date, serial #, worker who assembled and did final check, etc). That has narrowed me down to a range of about 30 guitars (2 14680 - 2 14710)... and what are the odds, #214686 is for sale about 20min north of me. I contacted the shop to see if it happens to have a tag, or if there's a production date in the pickup cavity. Fingers crossed!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Did Paul make any guitars in the early 70’s?!

 

[veinbuster]

Did Paul make any guitars in the early 70’s?!

I think he made one for a high school project in the mid 70s.

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I think he made one for a high school project in the mid 70s.

Time travel it is then:

“Hi Paul, I’m Alnus.”

Laughter

“Yes I know it’s a strange name!”

“Now look you’re going to be a very successful luthier, own your own company and make a lot of people all over the world fantastic instruments.”

“Be a gent and start making that project guitar in the early 70’s.”

“Hey where are you going?! Look I’m being serious, just sneak backstage at gigs and show your guitars to Frampton and Santana. It will all be plain sailing from there on in!”

“Put birds on the fretboard and make it a carve top, double cut guitar. Use some sweet figured timber and keep those strings nice and straight through the nut.”

“Yes, Alnus is a funny name.”

“What do you mean: Oh really?!!”

“One last thing. There’s a dude called Sergio, he’s going to come to an event at your guitar factory called Experience. It’s gonna seem like he’s stealing your car, he’s really not, but lock it just in case!”

 

[Slowhands]

I don't think you can trace it to a specific date by serial. My 1990 has serial 010124 the leading zero means 1990 or 2000 but besides from the obvious use of defunct parts that didn't exist anymore in 2000 (sweet switch, for example) you can tell it's 1990 because PRS says that for 1990 the serials are roughly 07601 - 010100. So mine is clearly 1990 but it's production numbers is a little beyond that rough range PRS gives for the year. What date was it made then? December 40th?

Seriously though, PRS in the '80s and early '90s apparently failed to anticipate that people would want to know details about their guitars decades later. They admitted to me that they really don't have records of individual guitars from that time. Which is why apparently they can only provide a rough range of numbers that will be in the year in question. So asking them is probably not going to work out.

I think the best way is to pin a date on one is to get a look inside the pickup cavity. My neck pickup cavity has a handwritten number in it - 111290 which I believe is a date and translates to November 12, 1990. That fits with it being a very late 1990 as the serial number suggests. Basically if you can find a 1992 and get a look inside the pickup cavities you might get super lucky. It's certainly not likely to be easy though. Good luck!

 

[BYokes]

I don't think you can trace it to a specific date by serial. My 1990 has serial 010124 the leading zero means 1990 or 2000 but besides from the obvious use of defunct parts that didn't exist anymore in 2000 (sweet switch, for example) you can tell it's 1990 because PRS says that for 1990 the serials are roughly 07601 - 010100. So mine is clearly 1990 but it's production numbers is a little beyond that rough range PRS gives for the year. What date was it made then? December 40th?

Seriously though, PRS in the '80s and early '90s apparently failed to anticipate that people would want to know details about their guitars decades later. They admitted to me that they really don't have records of individual guitars from that time. Which is why apparently they can only provide a rough range of numbers that will be in the year in question. So asking them is probably not going to work out.

I think the best way is to pin a date on one is to get a look inside the pickup cavity. My neck pickup cavity has a handwritten number in it - 111290 which I believe is a date and translates to November 12, 1990. That fits with it being a very late 1990 as the serial number suggests. Basically if you can find a 1992 and get a look inside the pickup cavities you might get super lucky. It's certainly not likely to be easy though. Good luck!

Thanks Slowhands. Ya, I'm finding the only way to get down to a specific production period is by finding old hang tags and using the dates in the pickup cavities. I've found enough data points online to have an estimated range of about 100 serial numbers that could be from the day I'm looking for. If I happen to bump into one of those, I'd inquire for info about the cavity date or if it has original tags with it. The search continues (and probably will for quite some time)!!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Happy hunting!