age of guitar

[Paul_100A]

i am thinking of selling my USA Legacy.
i am the original owner but for the life of me i can't remember when i bought the darn thing.
i have all the CoA and case goodies but no dates and the receipt i can't find.
i can't remember what i paid for the darn thing.
i've looked through here and G&L's site to try and pin down an accurate method of dating using the serial number but i couldn't.
it has "guitars by leo" and "MADE IN U.S.A" stamped on the head stock.
it has the serial number of BO53394 on the back neck plate and the CoA says 53394.
i read at G&L's site that they did use BO (base) plates on occasion for guitars and vice versa.
i found an ad for Legacy with a serial number (GO2----) in which the owner claims it is a 1992.
also,
it has a metalic paint job that is kinda blue-ish/green and a white pearly pick guard. can any one suggest the proper color id?
thanks a bunch,
Paul

[DanDoulogos]

i am thinking of selling my USA Legacy.
i am the original owner but for the life of me i can't remember when i bought the darn thing.
i have all the CoA and case goodies but no dates and the receipt i can't find.
i can't remember what i paid for the darn thing.
i've looked through here and G&L's site to try and pin down an accurate method of dating using the serial number but i couldn't.
it has "guitars by leo" and "MADE IN U.S.A" stamped on the head stock.
it has the serial number of BO53394 on the back neck plate and the CoA says 53394.
i read at G&L's site that they did use BO (base) plates on occasion for guitars and vice versa.
i found an ad for Legacy with a serial number (GO2----) in which the owner claims it is a 1992.
also,
it has a metalic paint job that is kinda blue-ish/green and a white pearly pick guard. can any one suggest the proper color id?
thanks a bunch,
Paul

Unfortunately, the dates aren't coded into the G&L serial numbers for older guitars like that.

Note: The 'B' in the serial number makes your guitar a little special - since that means they used a (B)ass plate rather than a (G)uitar plate for the serial number. Not as many of those around.

A couple of places to start your search
You could read through some G&L Knowledgebase for more details, such as Serial number significance and How do I determine an instrument's age?

You might also contact G&L Support and ask them if they can look up the serial number so that you can find the build completion date and also where it was shipped to. The email address is (don't let the word "repair" in the email address fool you): repairs@glguitars.com.

If you're handy you could remove the the neck and look at the dates written on both the body and neck - that's the gold standard if you can't get info from the factory - but you may not feel comfortable with that.

Finally, you can compare the serial number to other guitars in the registry which have serial numbers that are close to yours and make an educated guess as to when your guitar was made. I did that for the serial number you mentioned and found a couple of 97's and a 96 - suggesting that your guitar is in that ballpark also.

I hope that helps.

[Paul_100A]

thanks a lot Dan for your time and help.
I'll do some more digging.
i read about the dates stamped on the neck but
I am not going to take the neck off as I have 0 experience and inclination to play/tinker with setting up the guitar afterwards.

[FZTNT]

Dan is correct. They mistakenly stamped some guitar plates with a B prefix. It was not a case of using bass plates because they are much bigger. This was only the case in 1996 and 97 when then they switched to the waterslide decal. I have an ASAT III with the B prefix and the body date is 1997.

Tom

[DanDoulogos]

Dan is correct. They mistakenly stamped some guitar plates with a B prefix. It was not a case of using bass plates because they are much bigger. This was only the case in 1996 and 97 when then they switched to the waterslide decal. I have an ASAT III with the B prefix and the body date is 1997.

Tom

Thanks Tom, I thought I had it right until I read your reply and remembered the whole story. It wasn't actual bass plates, but guitar plates mistakenly stamped with the bass prefix 'B' instead of 'G'.

That probably narrows it down to the 96-97 era also.

[Paul_100A]

thats good.
i thought i read somewhere that when they changed to four bolt necks in '97 they started using serial numbers starting with with 500.
i guessed my guitar is a four bolt '97.
thnx again guys.

[FZTNT]

thats good.
i thought i read somewhere that when they changed to four bolt necks in '97 they started using serial numbers starting with with 500.
i guessed my guitar is a four bolt '97.
thnx again guys.

Now I am confused. You have a four bolt guitar with the serial number on the neck plate, with a B prefix?

Tom

[Paul_100A]

nope...it seems I got things confused a bit...
copied from G&L's site...
http://www.glguitars.com/chronology/index2.asp
"While the serial number information below refers only to instruments produced through 1992, a significant change in serialization of instruments occurred in 1997, with the advent of 4-bolt neck guitars. The 4-bolt neck guitars and 6-bolt basses changed to serial numbers beginning with "CL". About one year later, the numbers changed to a "CLF" prefix. The prefix "CL" and "CLF" stand for "Clarence Leo" and "Clarence Leo Fender", respectively."
my serial number does not start with a CL or CLF so would seem it's earlier than a 97/four bolt.
there is mention (explanation) somewhere at G&L of how/why some guitar and bases got neck plates with s# using a B (for guitar) and G (for base) though.

[FZTNT]

No bases should have a G prefix. It's just some guitars in '96 and '97 that got neck plates with a mistakenly stamped B prefix and rather than throwing them away, they just used them until they were gone. Dan listed some significant links in an earlier post in this thread. I suggest you have a look at them.

Tom

[Craig]

thats good.
i thought i read somewhere that when they changed to four bolt necks in '97 they started using serial numbers starting with with 500.
i guessed my guitar is a four bolt '97.
thnx again guys.

As Tom said it cannot be a four-bolt neck. The S-500/Legacy/Comanche models were the last to be converted to four-bolt neck, so they likely were converted in 1998. See: When and why did G&L switch to a four-bolt neck?.