Dating epiphone guitars
While somewhat confusing, you can determine where your Orville or Orville by Gibson guitar was made, the year it was made, and even the month it was made,by looking at the back of the headstock.There were 5 different methods used to date Orville and Orville by Gibson guitars and two factories involved withbuilding them, so I've developed the simple chart below to assist you...*F = Factory: G, J & K beginning the serial numbers denote that is was made by the Terada factory: the "G" ink stamp means the guitar should have Gibson USA pickups, and "J" for Japanese pickups.The domestic models had the Gibson open-book headstockdesign while the exported models were given the usual Epiphone design.
The first two digits designate the year of manufacture, followed by two digits denoting the month.
K stands for Kuramae, Yamano's wholesales division.
No letter beginning the serial number = Fuji Gen Factory-built.*Y = Production Year*M = Production Month*P = Production Number In 1998, Gibson and Yamano Gakki decided to end the production of the Orville models to focus on the expanded production of the Epiphone line, which wasdesigned both for the Japan domestic market as well as exported models destined for far-off lands.
The remaining four digits denote the instrument’s sequential number of manufacture among all the instruments made during the month indicated.
For example, serial number 07100091 indicates a guitar built in 2007 (07), in October of that year (10), and that it was the 91st guitar made that month (0091).
