Taking delivery of used Legacy tomorrow - trying to date it

Hi everyone, new member here, and first time I'll play a G&L.

The guitar I'm taking delivery of is a black USA Legacy with what I think is a brown tortoise pickguard. I'll try to get a photo here.

The S/N is CLF27331.

From spending time looking at the registry using a range of S/Ns from 26000 to 28000, I can see that the few guitars which are dated are all over the place relative to their numbers. I've also read other threads here which point out this non-sequential system! But in looking at Legacy guitars, most of them in that range that included dates were questionably given 2002 as the build date. There were a few 2003, and even a 2006, but I didn't see anything older.

Am I right therefore in thinking that the actual build date is most probably around 2002?

Thanks for any thoughts you might have...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11zlzDDfAlFD0vi3i5ZKudrFiymFeHgLY/view

Howdy,

I think either 2002 or 2003 is a reasonable guess. I cross-checked it with S/N on my guitars and landed on 2003 as the likely period. You can take off the neck of course if you really want to get an even better guess.

- Jos

The water slide serial numbers tend to be in chronological order for the most part. I've got an S-500 that is almost 600 higher than yours and the date under the neck was November of 2002. Yours may be October 2002.

Thanks very much, guys. So we'll assume second half of 2002 for now -- that's certainly good enough for right now. If I get adventurous, I'll take the neck off some day for more precision.

The guitar certainly lives up to the G&L reputation. Very comfortable, slightly heavy, beautiful tone, and very playable -- well, almost. 've been without my tele for the last six months and so I've been playing on my Gibsons: I was quite surprised that my fingers had reacustomed themselves to the different scale length! I'm sure it won't take me long to get used to the Legacy though:) Then I'll certainly put the Gibsons away again for a long while...

Oh, and what's a "water slide" serial number?

Oh, and what's a "water slide" serial number?

Its basically a sticker on the back of the headstock, that's all. G&L has used several methods of putting serial numbers on guitars over the years. They were first stamped on the bridge plates, then on the neck plates, then I believe they went to a waterslide decal on the back of the headstock, then an engraved plate on the back of the headstock and now they have begun LASER etching the number on the back of the headstock. That may not be the exact order, or even all the methods but if you poke around on this forum you can find the exact info if you want it. Craig usually pops up with a link cause he knows where everything is. He's the web boss.

Also, the numbers were not used in any particular order for years so dating an older guitar can be difficult. now they use a chronological system and you can date the guitars easier.

Tom

Oh, and what's a "water slide" serial number?

Here's an history of all the different ways G&L has applied serial numbers to an instrument, oddities and all.

- Jos

Hi everyone, new member here, and first time I'll play a G&L.

The guitar I'm taking delivery of is a black USA Legacy with what I think is a brown tortoise pickguard. I'll try to get a photo here.

The S/N is CLF27331.

From spending time looking at the registry using a range of S/Ns from 26000 to 28000, I can see that the few guitars which are dated are all over the place relative to their numbers. I've also read other threads here which point out this non-sequential system! But in looking at Legacy guitars, most of them in that range that included dates were questionably given 2002 as the build date. There were a few 2003, and even a 2006, but I didn't see anything older.

Am I right therefore in thinking that the actual build date is most probably around 2002?

Thanks for any thoughts you might have...

You can also write G&L (repairs@glguitars.com) and ask them for details regarding the production date, build and configuration. David

Here's the link Tom mentioned which is in our G&L Knowledgebase forum: Serial number significance.

Hope this helps.