Old Washburns are USA-made, but not since the 1930's. Or, if a bit earlier, possibly elsewhere in Asia. Although current marketing of the Washburn brand suggests that their instruments have been made since the 1880s there is absolutely no connection between the original guitars made by Lyon & Healy and any Washburn instruments made since 1964. The brand is still owned by Schlacher’s company U.S. The Schlacher/Washburn imports were initially made in Japan, were later made by Samick in Korea, and then subsequently manufactured in China. Schlacher registered “Washburn” as his trademark and used it as the brand-name of his imported guitars. When deciding on a marketing strategy he realized that the old “Washburn” name was not being used nor was it owned by anybody else. In 1964 a Chicago music store owner named Rudy Schlacher began importing guitars. Next quote from the Washburn guitars Wikipedia article: Washburn instruments were made into the Depression, but the brand petered out, and Tonk Brothers went out of business in 1947. If you believe your G&L was made between 19, you may also reference the Chronology & Dating page. From mid-1998 on, the serial numbers for guitars and basses began with CLF. Washburn instruments went on the market in 1883 L & H went through several business restructurings, and sold the "Washburn" name to Tonk Brothers, another major manufacturer/distributor, in 1928. From early 1997 to about mid-1998, serial numbers for guitars and basses began with CL and were applied as a decal to the back of the headstock. Lyon's middle name, and so it was the label put on what was L & H's "high-end" line of instruments. It might have been mixed in with various WI-64, X-40, HB-35, and T-24.Originally, Washburn was a line of instruments sold, and reputedly manufactured, by Lyon and Healy, the big Chicago music firm that distributed a whole range of musical merchandise. well, so what? There's no reason to think my black X-33 was part of a run of black X-33s - that number merely happens to be what was waiting in the hopper when someone decided the guitar was completed. Industrially speaking, production is much easier to track consistently by the week (seven days, period) rather than month (30 or 31 days except when it's 28 or sometimes 29).Īnd common wisdom says that the final four digits represent the instrument's actual place in the period defined by the previous digits. However, I've seen photos where those digits were "00" and "27" respectively, so I'm not sure I'd take it at face value - after all, I work in a place that has a 50-week production year, so two digits would make it easy to map this. I've heard that the next two numerics are supposed to represent the month. For the last four on the above list, the year is likely as you'd expect. The current standard - since at least 2002 in my list - does appear to be one or two letters followed by eight numerics. Nothing is said in the S/N about what model they are or any such deep info. That's barely 25 years ago, yet not at all useful beyond being a serial number. The change to two-digit year-code seems to have been late '90s. The "backup plan" is that the FIRST digit represents year, so 1998, and this appears to be accurate. Notice the (BT) Mavericks these were made 1995-2000, yet "common wisdom" says the first two numeric digits are year. The Washburn numbering system has got somewhat better since the 1980s, but only somewhat. I have a few Washburn examples within reach. Maybe it came from the factory that way, which would have been an interesting story.) But the serial number might be more elusive, possibly on a paper tag, or stamped on a heel plate - if those have been removed or replaced, dating the guitar is down to informed guesswork. (This isn't perfect, of course: a few years ago I saw someone listing a "BT-9" that was obviously a BT-2 with a BT-9 trussrod cover. In recent years - well, maybe 1995 to 2015, anyway - Washburn has had the decency - well, more than half the time, anyway –- to clearly attach a guitar's model number somewhere. For example, if your guitar’s serial number is 94000000, your guitar was made in 1994. In most cases, the first two numbers of the serial number are the year of manufacture. We don't even have a complete list of the factories indicated by the prefixes. The serial number can be found in the sound hole of the acoustic or on the back of the headstock on electrics. Despite their marketing mythos, Washburn really doesn't care much about serial numbers, much less about some sort of Grand Scheme unified system.
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