SG jr. - Serial number

[JS_Allen]

Anyone have experience or ideas on ways to draw out the serial number on an old headstock?

Will using "black light" or some non-intrusive way show the stamped serial number better?

 

1964 SG jr., white. Never refinished. I can't see the number, but apparently, in the right light, at the correct angle, it is visible to younger eyes. I would like to be able to demonstrate the serial number, document it etc., but its quite difficult.

 

Any ideas?

[STEVIL]

Have you tried an LED torch, they are really bright, failing that a bright flourescent light, possibly a torch if you can get one - failing that ask a local kid if they can see it.

[JS_Allen]

Have you tried an LED torch, they are really bright, failing that a bright flourescent light, possibly a torch if you can get one - failing that ask a local kid if they can see it.

Thanks!

I'll try the LED, already had a twenty-something in a music store read it to me, so I can assume it is readable, but I would like to be able to see it myself.

[sg50]

I'd see an optometrist. I think it's time for new glasses.

[L5Larry]

Take a small flashlight (penlight, mini-maglight, etc), and shine it sideways across the headstock at a very shallow angle (almost flat in relation to the plane of the headstock). What you're trying to do is create SHADOW. The contrast between the light hitting the headstock proper and the shadowed areas of the impressed numbers will make it easily readable. Move the flashlight around as needed.

 

Another way is to make a rubbing like we did in grade school. Take a piece of thin paper, hold it tightly against the headstock in the SN area, and then take the side of a pencil lead and rub it gently back and forth on the paper.

[Jon S.]

 

 

Another way is to make a rubbing like we did in grade school. Take a piece of thin paper, hold it tightly against the headstock in the SN area, and then take the side of a pencil lead and rub it gently back and forth on the paper.

 

I've done this before on an older guitar, and it works like a champ!!

[JS_Allen]

I've done this before on an older guitar, and it works like a champ!!

THX L5Larry and Jon S. I had thought about the rubbing before, but since I couldn't even feel any bumps or anything on the surface, never tried it. Tried it last night and nothing came up. Have done my best to angle lights but no success; I will have to get a bigger LED I think.