Post by Tony Ravenscroft on Aug 13, 2018 10:52:43 GMT -6
Despite their marketing mythos, Washburn really doesn't care much about serial numbers, much less about some sort of Grand Scheme unified system. We don't even have a complete list of the factories indicated by the prefixes. 
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. (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. 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.
I have a few Washburn examples within reach.
The Washburn numbering system has got somewhat better since the 1980s, but only somewhat. Notice the (BT) Mavericks; these were made 1995-2000, yet "common wisdom" says the first two numeric digits are year... which would make 'em 1980 and 1981 manufacture. The "backup plan" is that the FIRST digit represents year, so 1998, and this appears to be accurate. The change to two-digit year-code seems to have been late '90s.
That's barely 25 years ago, yet not at all useful beyond being a serial number. Nothing is said in the S/N about what model they are or any such deep info.
The current standard -- since at least 2002 in my list -- does appear to be one or two letters followed by eight numerics. For the last four on the above list, the year is likely as you'd expect.
I've heard that the next two numerics are supposed to represent the month. 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. 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).
And common wisdom says that the final four digits represent the instrument's actual place in the period defined by the previous digits. That's probably correct but... 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. It might have been mixed in with various WI-64, X-40, HB-35, and T-24.
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. (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. 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.
I have a few Washburn examples within reach.
- WE-3 -- no serial number
- BT-6 -- I8091079
- BT-3 -- I8113047
- X-10 -- OC04049724
- WI-66V -- N02040258
- X-33 -- N05112239
- WCSD30SCE -- SC15071184
The Washburn numbering system has got somewhat better since the 1980s, but only somewhat. Notice the (BT) Mavericks; these were made 1995-2000, yet "common wisdom" says the first two numeric digits are year... which would make 'em 1980 and 1981 manufacture. The "backup plan" is that the FIRST digit represents year, so 1998, and this appears to be accurate. The change to two-digit year-code seems to have been late '90s.
That's barely 25 years ago, yet not at all useful beyond being a serial number. Nothing is said in the S/N about what model they are or any such deep info.
The current standard -- since at least 2002 in my list -- does appear to be one or two letters followed by eight numerics. For the last four on the above list, the year is likely as you'd expect.
I've heard that the next two numerics are supposed to represent the month. 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. 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).
And common wisdom says that the final four digits represent the instrument's actual place in the period defined by the previous digits. That's probably correct but... 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. It might have been mixed in with various WI-64, X-40, HB-35, and T-24.