by Spud1950 » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:00 pm
Yours would have had an oval paper label inside the guitar with the model and serial number, but obviously it's no longer there. There is another way to tell, but only up to 1961. There may be a letter stamped on the inside of guitar on the neck block. Have a look inside yours and see if it has a stamped letter.
"Factory Order Numbers with a Letter, 1952 to 1961.
This letter preceeds the batch number within the Factory Order Number (FON), and denotes the year of manufacturer. Remember, the batch number is the first 4 digits of the FON, followed by a 1 or 2 digit sequence number (within the batch). This letter should be before the FON batch number. This was used on archtop models (ink stamped inside treble F-hole) and on flat top models (ink stamped on the neck block), from 1952 to 1961:
Year Letter
---- ------
1952 Z
1953 Y
1954 X
1955 W
1956 V
1957 U
1958 T
1959 S
1960 R
1961 Q"
Neck block location.