Numbering System # 11976 to 1981#0001 to #0680A Total of 680 guitarsAll Custom Shop guitars or custom made for someone special etc etc. All of these instruments have a stamped into the wood 4 digit serial number
This system would have at least a 5 digit number with a space between the first and second digit example 2 2047 This would be a 1982 guitar the 2,047th guitar ever built not including the 680 custom guitars that used the original serial number system
Hamer Guitar Serial Number Search
From 1974 through 1981 Hamer USA employed two separate serial numbering systems, one for custom instruments and one for production models: Custom Instruments: These instruments are easily recognized by the use of a four digit number stamped into the wood on the back of the peghead. The numbers ran from #0000 through #0680. All of the early Hamer USA Standards and 12-String basses as well as a number of prototype instruments were included in this serial numbering system.
Production Models: Production models are stamped (initially with ink, later into the wood, on the back of the peghead) with either a five or six digit serial number. The first digit indicates the year that the instrument was built. The next four or five digits are sequentially stamped in order of production. For example, serial number 7 0001 was built in 1977 and was the first production model guitar built. Similarly, 0 1964 was built in 1980 and was the 1,964th production guitar built. The serial numbering sequence by decade is indicated below:
Actually thank you also for that info,...................I own a Black B&C'd 1979 Hamer Sunburst which HAS serial # 9 1450 so............... I wonder were any other Sunbursts made in 1979 after this guitar?.................and is this the last black one in made in 1979?
I recently purchased a MIK Sunburst Archtop guitar off of craigslist. There is a small sticker on the back of the head under "Made in Korea" with a serial number (9802407) printed below, but the serial number does not seem to follow the numbering system I have seen posted here and other places. I am assuming that they utilized a different numbering system for the Korean guitars than the American but I have not been able to find out anything confirming that. Does anybody here know more about this? I was mainly just curious to find out how old the guitar is.
Thanks for the responses! sounds like there is not much to learn from this serial number, whether it is a meaningless number from Hamer or some stocking/inventory number from elsewhere. Sorry to the curious, myself included, but I think I will leave the sticker on. Guitar plays great and is really in fantastic condition, I think it had just been sitting around in storage for a while because there was basically no fret wear and the guy who sold it to me was a musician who came across it but said he didn't play guitar.
You might be better off trying to date it approximately by its components, rather than its serial number. Or, just know that most of the Korean Hamers were 90's guitars, and are pretty good deals for nice-playing guitars, and enjoy it!
Many of them in the late 90s-early 2000s were stamped "USED" and sold at a discount or through liquidators. I've seen some of those with stickers obscuring the "USED" markings, but I don't seem to recall that any of those stickers indicated a serial number, since the stamp usually obliterated the original serial.
Again, the serial numbers on the Korean imports mean nothing to the buyer! They are in-house numbers meant for what I do not know but I do know they mean nothing to the buyer. There is no hidden serial underneath the sticker either. I've owned imports since the early 90's...
Dean says the same thing about it's korean made guitars. The numbers are meaningless in dating them to us. They were for the company making them. If you had access to the original makers idea for the numbering it might be possible. I have never heard what company made these. My serial number on my korean made Hamers were all imprinted. Knowing when they switched would help. Also the Hamer Slammer Series were imported before the plain Hamer labelled headstocks. What does the front of that headstock look like?
Sounds like an early 2000's time frame. By imprinted I mean inked on like above and not a sticker. I am not 100% on when they switched to labels on the Korean imports. Could be that the imports were made by more than one guitar maker also, based on the model perhaps, and that may be a difference between an ink number or label number.
There had always been a serial number stamped like and above the Made in Korea decal. The sticker definitely is after factory. I'm not believing until the sticker being removed and the truth been shown.
The import serial numbers may simply be done to meet a import/export trade regulation, to simply account for the number of pieces in a shipment....so they know how many pieces to charge duties on and to collect taxes.
Serial Numbering System From 1974 through 1981 Hamer USA employed two separate serial numbering systems, one for custom instruments and one for production models: Custom Instruments: These instruments are easily recognized by the use of a four digit number stamped into the wood on the back of the peghead. The numbers ran from #0000 through #0680. All of the early Hamer USA Standards and 12-String basses as well as a number of prototype instruments were included in this serial numbering system.
In 1974 Hamer used a four digit number stamped into the wood startingwith guitar #0000 and, until the launch of the Sunburst, this system wasused on all guitars. Some instruments (notably Standard guitarsand basses, Eight-string basses and some custom order instruments) were numbered using the four digit numberingsystem up until 1985(e.g Standard #0722 was completed in May 1984); in total about 750 instrumentswere numbered using these four digit numbers.The Sunbursts were numbered using a different system: the first digit represents the year of production and the following four(or later five digit number) is the total number of guitars made by Hamerand numbered using this system. So for example guitar #8 0196 was madein 1978 and was the 196th guitar to be numbered using this system. Similarly# 8 21416 was made in 1988 and was the 21416th guitar to be numbered. Thesenumbers are printed using ink or paint (black on most but yellow on blackand dark coloured instruments). By 1980 most models with the exceptions noted above were numberedusing this latter system. From late 1987 the serial numberswere stamped into the wood rather than printed. Recently, USA has been stamped under the serial number in the same font.Just to complicate matters,many one-of-a-kind and prototype instruments have numbers that do not relateto either of the above systems.
Danelectro/Silvertone (Back to top of page)You can find serial numbers on vintage Danelectro/Silvertone instruments all over the instrument, including back of headstock, neck heel, neck pocket, control cavity and other places. In doing research on this brand I found the definitive website for Danelectro/Silvertone info at www.danelectro.guru. The site is run by Doug Tulloch and he even sells a Danelectro Guitar Guide for you hardcore fans.
Briefly, for a pre-1967 3-digit serial number the first two digits are the week, while the last digit tells the year, such that serial number 210 indicates a 1960 model made in the 21st week of the year. After 1967, it's reversed, so the the first digit represents the year. On 4-digit serials, you ignore the 3rd digit, while the fourth digit tells the year. So 1204 represents a 1964 guitar made in the 12th week of the year. 5-digit serials are the same, you just disregard the fifth digit.
Dean (Back to top of page)Every Dean guitar made in United States comes with a seven digit serial number that is printed on the back of the headstock (some 90s models may be stamped on the fretboard). First two numbers in the sequence are the last two digits of the production year. If you see a seven digit serial number on the back of a Dean guitar, you can be sure that it was produced in United States.Dean's more affordable line made outside the US may require looking at features and hardware and some knowledge of the line. Though I can't verify the accuracy, it was posted in the Dean online forums that imports after 2008 follow a pattern with the initial letter or letters identifying the factory, such that: US = Un Sung Korea, Y = Yoojin China, E = World Korea.The following two digits indicate year, then two-digit month, then production number. An example given was the serial US12040364 (don't let the "US" make you think it's a USA model). Here the serial is decoded as: 2ff7e9595c
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