Guitar Dater

Always fun...

http://www.guitardaterproject.org/default.aspx

On the right hand side, select your brand of guitar, enter the serial number where prompted and it'll send you back the info. The info on my Strat was here when Fender site's did not have that recent a listing (at least where I was looking).

I have a custom-frankenstein guitar, a PRS, Jackson, a Martin, and a shoddy classical I got for $50.

They dont support any of my guitars : (

Yeah, it's limited in brands. Would be nice to have all the obscure brands, too. And no PRS What's up with that?

Oh well, what can one expect for nothing? :) Maybe somebody has a better site they can link us to.

A lot of people use the guitar dater site to verify that they bought the real thing. There are one heck of a lot of "counterfiet" guitars coming out of the Far East thanks to places like TradeTang. Everybody needs to bear in mind that when these guitars are counterfieted they are all given a legitimate serial number (the trick here is that a thousand or more guitars will all have the same serial number) so that when you enter that serial number it comes up as valid with a date and place of manufacture (more often than not even though the guitar just purchased is 'NEW" the dater will probably identify it as an older guitar). Take for an example-if a person purchased a Gibson Custom Les Paul from TradeTang (for about $300 U.S.-how could it possibly be so inexpensive) the guitar would come to them with a legitimate Gibson serial number (but probably from a real Gibson that is ten or so years old). You can even call Gibson and they will verify that serial number, even though they may receive a thousand calls from a thousand different people, all with the same serial number, they will verify that number each and every time. They do not register serial numbers to owners (except for a customshop or special release-certificate of authenticity) and they also have no way of knowing who sells their old Gibson or when or where if it was sold. So what I am saying here is that even though you may have a "counterfeit" guitar it most likely has a legitimate serial number (along with a thousand other counterfiets). So don't rely on these sites to verify whether or not you have purchased the "real" thing or a faux pas. And even though places like E-bay and Craigslist make every effort to stop this kind of thing these counterfiet guitars are showing up everywhere.

Good point. I would recommend no one use a simple website check to verify authenticity.

Originally Posted by: JarsewI have a custom-frankenstein guitar, a PRS, Jackson, a Martin, and a shoddy classical I got for $50.

They dont support any of my guitars : (

I have a Martin and I called the company, they were really nice and answered my questions. I bought it used and wanted to make sure it was real and I didn't overpay. I gave them the serial number and they gave me all the info about my guitar. The year it was made, the types of wood, where it was originally shipped. He also said the one I had sold used between $800-$1200. It was nice to know. I purchased mine for $500.