[Serial Number and Date for ES-125]

On 8/20/2019 at 4:24 AM, JimR56 said:

Hi Emo,

Without a letter prefix, your 8868 FON (factory order number) would fit into the 1951 range (6000's to upper 9000's).  More info here:  http://www.guitarhq.com/gibson.html#serial

That's an absolutely beautiful example of an ES-125!

 

Wow, thank you very much!!! Yes, that's it, 1951. I'm so glad to know it now! Thank you for you help!! 

Yes, it's a beauty and sounds amazing... It hardly gets out of tune and gives me joy every time I play it. Gonna make first recordings with it soon!

[Serial Number and Date for ES-125]

On 3/12/2013 at 8:48 PM, JimR56 said:

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

 

I bought a ES 125 and the owner told me its a 1952, but there is no Z letter in the beginning... no letter at all.