Sorry in advance if this has already been cleared up in an earlier post. But I have recently purchased an ESP and was hoping to get some info on the Serial number. Pioneer avic hd1bt update on hurricane. Its a real ESP (not LTD) The serial number is 'SS' (which I'm assuming stands for standard series?) and then is followed by 7 random numbers. Does anyone know what the numbers stand for?
Mar 17, 2018 - If you don't see a serial number, it's because that guitar hasn't been added yet. You are welcome to e-mail customerservice@espguitars.
In my past experiences usually those numbers indicate the date or the actual number your guitar was in a queue of guitars being built. I tried the ESP board but had no luck. Any help is appreciated.
Unfortunally ESP didn't keep good records of old serial numbers. Many records have been lost during years and most of all were destroyed in a fire accident on late '90s in ESP Japan factory. For old guitars we can only know the exact data reading the ESP warranty card (when there is), or unscrewing the neck (if the neck is bolt on) and read under it becuse probably theres the data write on pencil). I keep record of this data in order to try to deduce other correspondences. ESP Guitar Company says: 'Unfortunately the factories at ESP Japan have not kept a consistent and sensible serial number tracking system in place over the years. This has resulted in alot of confusion,.
You may still come across the occasional serial number that may conflict with, or doesn't fall under any of the listed categories. For this we apologize, and we are working to maintain a more consistent system going forward. The PRE-2015 system doesn't apply to early ESP's, some of which had no serial number tracking system at all and used random numbers. Thanks for your understanding.'
NOTES ON SERIAL NUMBERS. Some of the ESPs have black hardware in North America and Black Nickel hardware elsewhere. It all began a few years ago with the EU and a thing called the RoHS (Regulation of Hazardous Materials) and Gotoh in Japan basically changed their production to ensure they didn’t lose the European market, and that being manufacturers who shipped to Europe, which is most everyone. They changed pretty much everything for the “export” market, and export to most makers means anything but US. Kind of a long story. They have a way of producing black again now so expect it to all go back to the way most of us prefer over time.
NOTES: - year '7' can be 1987 or 1997, '8' can be 1988 or 1998, '9' can be 1989 or 1999! You have to look at the models in production that year.
- sometimes in old guitars (80s early 90s) first digit is missing when is '0' and the serial is 7 digits total (ex. 3038467, means number 467) - lot of old esp's does not have any serial on the back of the headstock. If you are lucky you can find a serial written on pencil where the body is bolted to the neck (or in the neck also) or in the pickup cavity. SERIAL UNDER PICKUPS. NN = production number For example my MX-220 have serial ' #80129' that means was made the 08-1991 number 29) 5 DIGITS punched in the bolt plate (for the bolt on versions). NOTE: Follow this reference may not be accurate because probably they printed a certain number of plates and then put on guitars in a random manner, without noticing consecutive numeration. This is the reason why we can easilu find guitars with the bolt plate referring to a year or two before or after respect the serial printed on the back of the headstock.
To have an exact dating of this guitars you have to unscrew the neck and look at the date could be written below. 1988 - 1989 - 592XX 1990 - 1991 - 1992 - 601XX --> 618XX 1993 - 619XX --> 912XX 1994 - 166XX --> 183XX 1995 - 191XX --> 244XX 1996 - 257XX --> 261XX 1997 - 273XX --> 294XX 1998 - 301XX --> 357XX 1999 - 339XX --> 369XX 2000 - 379XX --> 387XX 2001 - 388XX --> 416XX 2002 - 402XX 2003 - 4170X. PP YY WW D NN (stamped on the back of the headstock). PP = place of manufacture: K = ESP Kiso Factory (Japan) / set-neck and neck-thru only; S = ESP Sado Factory (Japan) / bolt-on only; T = ESP Takada Factory (Japan) / ESP Custom Shop SS = ESP Standard Factory / Signature Series or Standard Series CH = Craft House CS = Craft House (used rarely) TH = Technical House N = Nagano Factory YY = last two digits of the year WW = week of the year (max.52) D = day of that week: 1 = monday, 2 = tuesday. (max.7) NN = number off the line that day (max.99) EXAMPLE: the code of my MX-250 K0604202 means the manufacturing date is and it was the 2nd guitar built that day.
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Sorry in advance if this has already been cleared up in an earlier post. But I have recently purchased an ESP and was hoping to get some info on the Serial number. Pioneer avic hd1bt update on hurricane. Its a real ESP (not LTD) The serial number is 'SS' (which I'm assuming stands for standard series?) and then is followed by 7 random numbers. Does anyone know what the numbers stand for?
Mar 17, 2018 - If you don't see a serial number, it's because that guitar hasn't been added yet. You are welcome to e-mail customerservice@espguitars.
In my past experiences usually those numbers indicate the date or the actual number your guitar was in a queue of guitars being built. I tried the ESP board but had no luck. Any help is appreciated.
Unfortunally ESP didn't keep good records of old serial numbers. Many records have been lost during years and most of all were destroyed in a fire accident on late '90s in ESP Japan factory. For old guitars we can only know the exact data reading the ESP warranty card (when there is), or unscrewing the neck (if the neck is bolt on) and read under it becuse probably theres the data write on pencil). I keep record of this data in order to try to deduce other correspondences. ESP Guitar Company says: 'Unfortunately the factories at ESP Japan have not kept a consistent and sensible serial number tracking system in place over the years. This has resulted in alot of confusion,.
You may still come across the occasional serial number that may conflict with, or doesn't fall under any of the listed categories. For this we apologize, and we are working to maintain a more consistent system going forward. The PRE-2015 system doesn't apply to early ESP's, some of which had no serial number tracking system at all and used random numbers. Thanks for your understanding.'
NOTES ON SERIAL NUMBERS. Some of the ESPs have black hardware in North America and Black Nickel hardware elsewhere. It all began a few years ago with the EU and a thing called the RoHS (Regulation of Hazardous Materials) and Gotoh in Japan basically changed their production to ensure they didn’t lose the European market, and that being manufacturers who shipped to Europe, which is most everyone. They changed pretty much everything for the “export” market, and export to most makers means anything but US. Kind of a long story. They have a way of producing black again now so expect it to all go back to the way most of us prefer over time.
NOTES: - year '7' can be 1987 or 1997, '8' can be 1988 or 1998, '9' can be 1989 or 1999! You have to look at the models in production that year.
- sometimes in old guitars (80s early 90s) first digit is missing when is '0' and the serial is 7 digits total (ex. 3038467, means number 467) - lot of old esp's does not have any serial on the back of the headstock. If you are lucky you can find a serial written on pencil where the body is bolted to the neck (or in the neck also) or in the pickup cavity. SERIAL UNDER PICKUPS. NN = production number For example my MX-220 have serial ' #80129' that means was made the 08-1991 number 29) 5 DIGITS punched in the bolt plate (for the bolt on versions). NOTE: Follow this reference may not be accurate because probably they printed a certain number of plates and then put on guitars in a random manner, without noticing consecutive numeration. This is the reason why we can easilu find guitars with the bolt plate referring to a year or two before or after respect the serial printed on the back of the headstock.
To have an exact dating of this guitars you have to unscrew the neck and look at the date could be written below. 1988 - 1989 - 592XX 1990 - 1991 - 1992 - 601XX --> 618XX 1993 - 619XX --> 912XX 1994 - 166XX --> 183XX 1995 - 191XX --> 244XX 1996 - 257XX --> 261XX 1997 - 273XX --> 294XX 1998 - 301XX --> 357XX 1999 - 339XX --> 369XX 2000 - 379XX --> 387XX 2001 - 388XX --> 416XX 2002 - 402XX 2003 - 4170X. PP YY WW D NN (stamped on the back of the headstock). PP = place of manufacture: K = ESP Kiso Factory (Japan) / set-neck and neck-thru only; S = ESP Sado Factory (Japan) / bolt-on only; T = ESP Takada Factory (Japan) / ESP Custom Shop SS = ESP Standard Factory / Signature Series or Standard Series CH = Craft House CS = Craft House (used rarely) TH = Technical House N = Nagano Factory YY = last two digits of the year WW = week of the year (max.52) D = day of that week: 1 = monday, 2 = tuesday. (max.7) NN = number off the line that day (max.99) EXAMPLE: the code of my MX-250 K0604202 means the manufacturing date is and it was the 2nd guitar built that day.