THE CUSTOM SHOP GUITAR SERIAL NUMBERS.

[kink56]

Refering to your sticky. Is it not true that since at LEAST 2003 (maybe before, maybe always) that EACH Historic RI Les Paul series has its OWN sequence, that is R2,R4,R6,R7,R8,R9,R0 could each have the same serial number. ie: 2 3010, 4 3010, 6 3010, 7 3010, 8 3010, 9 3010, and 0 3010?

 

 

Your sticky inplies that ALL Rs are intermixed and any SN encountered would be the running total (to that point) for ALL Rs in any given year.

[Custom Admin]

there are other things mixed in with those sequences, so yes it is a running total...for example, the "4" sequence includes black beautys and as well as goldtops; the "7" sequence includes black beautys and juniors; the "8" sequence includes juniors and explorers etc etc...but yes, it is conceiveable that within each sequence there would be a Historic LP with the same number...

[kink56]

Great, I understand R4 includes GTs and Customs, and R7 includes GTs, Customs and Juniors! But the sticky implies that 50s (and 1960) solid bodies are sequenced together. Was this ONCE the way Les Paul Historics were, prior to 2003? This would answer a LOT of questions, like how there could be a R4 GT with a SN of 4 5780? Certainly Gibson did NOT make 780+ R4 GTs and Customs in 1995!!??

[Custom Admin]

i see what you're saying now...the sticky is really just a general guideline for decoding different formats of CS numbers and not a hard and fast "this is the way it is" rule. to answer your question, in the early days of the CS, the serial number formats were not always the "historically accurate" way we do them now, but the change dates were different for different models. i'll have to ask some people on monday to see if i can get any clarification...