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Most guitar manufacturers put a serial number on each instrument they produce. This number can be used to date a guitar and in some cases tell where it was made. Serial numbers tend to be stamped or written somewhere on the headstock or neck joint of the guitar. On some acoustic guitars, the serial number is on the inside of the sound hole. Serial numbers are often at least four digits long, and they sometimes include letters. Search the area around the serial number for a date stamp.

Not all guitar brands use date stamps, but if you find one, you have your answer. Look for the brand name decal on the guitar's headstock. Each guitar brand uses a different set of serial numbers, so you need to identify your guitar before you attempt to use the serial number to learn when it was made. Determine the type of guitar (such as Gibson Les Paul or SG, Fender Stratocaster or Telecaster) if possible. This can help when you are researching serial numbers. This information is often written on the headstock or truss rod cover. An online search of the brand name can help you do this.

Visit the manufacturer's website and look for serial number information. Many guitar makers have brand-specific serial number information on their web pages, usually in the 'Support,' 'FAQ,' or 'Info' sections.

Sometimes third-party websites also have solid information on guitar serial numbers. Email the serial number to the manufacturer and ask for help. Attach a few high-quality pictures of the guitar to the email to assist the manufacturer.

O.k. this post should probably be called Godin guitar serial numbers rather than Seagull guitar serial numbers – because it applies to all guitars under the Godin umbrella (Seagull, Art & Lutherie, Simon & Patrick, Norman and La Patrie) but it certainly applies to Seagull guitars.

Get your concentrating hat on because they haven’t made this simple!

What you can Find out from your serial number?

Your Godin serial number will tell you different things depending on the time period. There are 3 distinct time periods for Godin serial numbers.

• Pre-1993
• 1993 to 2007
• 2008 to present

Note: Seagull starts their year on August 1. So if the year is 2005, then it starts August 1 2004 and ends July 31 2005.

Pre-1993

You can’t really tell anything from this serial number. You’ll need to contact Godin and tell them your serial number and they can tell you when the guitar was made.

1993 to 2007

1. The year the guitar was made;
2. The week of the year it was made;
3. The day of the week it was made; and
4. The unit number of the guitar

I’ll go into more detail about how you can decipher this in a bit.

2008 to present

1. The model number
2. Whether your guitar is a factory second or not
3. What number of that particular model yours is

I’ll go into more detail about how you can decipher this in a bit.

How to Decode Your Serial Number

Again how you decode your serial number depends on the time period.

Pre-1993

This is simply a matter of contacting Godin, telling them your serial number and asking them about it. There is no secret code in these numbers!

1993 to 2007

O.K. now we get into some secret code ?

Between 1993 and 2007 Godin used an 8 digit serial number. This serial number is broken up into 4 different parts.

Let’s use an example serial number to illustrate this. We’ll use – 05034148

Digits 1 & 2

The first 2 digits represent the year that the guitar was built. But this is not the calendar year. Godin’s year runs from August 1^st to July 31^st. So the first 2 digits, technically represent the “year ended”.

In our example we have 05 as the first 2 digits.

• 05034148

What this determines is that the guitar was built sometime in the year from August 1^st, 2004 and July 31^st 2005.

The next 2 digits will narrow this down further.

Digits 3 & 4

Digits 3 & 4 represent the week of the year that the guitar was built – remember that the Godin year is August 1^st to July 31^st. So week 1 is the first week of August.

In our example the week is 03.

• 05034148

This means it was built in the 3^rd week of the year ended July 31^st, 2005. So it was the 3^rd week of August 2004.

So the guitar with this serial number was actually built in 2004 even though the first 2 digits are 05. With me so far?

Digit 5

The 5^th digit represents the day of the week that the guitar was built, starting from Monday.

1 = Monday

2 = Tuesday

3 = Wednesday

4 = Thursday

5 = Friday

6 = Saturday

7 = Sunday

So in our example we have a 4 so the guitar with this serial number was built on a Thursday.

• 05034148

The last 3 digits

The last 3 digits represents the order in which this guitar was produced in that week.

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So, in our example, it was the 148^th guitar built that week.

• 05034148

So, overall we can tell that this guitar was the 148^th guitar built in the 3^rd week of August in 2004 and it was built on a Thursday. So we can work out that it was built on Thursday the 19^th of August, 2004.

This a bit complicated but usually people only want to know the year that their guitar was built – so you can work that out a bit easier.

Extra Info

If there’s an “AA” or “AAA” in the serial number this represents the grade of wood. Not all serial numbers have this – I think it’s just for maple top guitars.

If there is an “F” in the serial number, this signifies that the guitar is “B-Stock”.

2008 to present

In late 2007 Godin switched to a 12 digit serial number.

The present system doesn’t actually tell you anything about when the guitar was built, which is a bit of a pain, as working out the year of your guitar is often the only thing people want to know from their serial number.

Anyway, this is what the serial number tells you.

I mean I guess serial numbers are really meant for internal purposes for Seagull and for anti-theft measures but sometimes you want to be able to find out the year of production. I imagine if you were to contact Godin they would have this information.

Let’s use another example serial number – 029396000123

First 6 digits

This represents the model of your guitar. You probably already know this but if you’re not sure for whatever reason you can find out.

In our example the first 6 digits are 029396 – this is the model number of the Seagull S6 Original.

• 029396000123

If you follow this link – Seagull S6 Original – it will take you to the S6 Original on the Seagull website. Underneath the title you will see “SKU: 029396”. If you want to find the model number for your guitar go through the models until you find the number that matches your guitar. You should be able to narrow this down reasonably quickly as you should know at least which series your guitar is from.

7^th Digit

This digit represents whether this guitar is a “Factory Second” or not.

A “0” represents that it’s not a factory second and a “9” represents a factory second. Note that a “Factory Second” does not mean that the guitar has a functional defect – rather that it just has a cosmetic flaw. These guitars are usually priced a little bit lower and if you can find one you should be able to get a good deal on an otherwise perfectly fine guitar.

In our example the guitar is not a factory second.

• 029396000123

The last 5 digits

The last 5 digits represent the number of that particular model built since switching to 12 digit serial numbers.

In our example the serial number represents the 123^rd S6 Original built since Godin changed to 12 digit serial numbers.

• 029396000123

So, overall from our example serial number we can tell that the serial number belongs to an S6 Original that is not a factory second and that it was the 123^rd S6 Original to be shipped since Godin began their 12 digit serial number system.

Final Thoughts

This is definitely the most complicated serial number system I have come across so far (I have previous to this written serial number posts explaining Martin’s and Taylor’s serial number systems).

But as I said earlier, it is perhaps the fact that serial numbers are mainly for internal company purposes and for identifying stolen property. But, it would be nice to be able to quickly tell what year your guitar was built from the serial number as well.

This information was compiled from the following – Godin don’t post information about their serial numbers:

Photo Credits

By Jason (Flickr: Mina & Guitar III) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons