Overview: Serial Numbers 101

Let’s talk serial numbers! So let’s say right up front that if all you want to do is date your guitar, your first stop should be Ryan Hankins’ serial number decoder over at justrickenbackers.com. But if you want more than that, if you wanna understand HOW they work and how to do it yourself, then you’ve come to the right place!

Now in general, there are two “eras” to consider: 1954-1960, and 1961-present. The latter is pretty simple once you “get it”, the former is a little more convoluted. So that’s where we’ll start.

But before we do, a caveat: the pre 1961 serial numbering scheme is a little complicated and a little inconsistent. I feel like I say this all the time about all things Rickenbacker but I absolutely have to here: on top of all of that, expect exceptions. Got it?

OK. In general, pre-61 guitars used four serial numbering schemes based on the “type” of guitar: solidbody “Combo” guitars, semi-hollow or hollow “Capri” or “Full Size” guitars, basses, and short-scale guitars (including some short-scale Capris). Let’s start with the Combos!

Here’s what you’ll find on the internet about Combo serial numbers. The first 3 digits of the serial number tell you the story. The first digit will be a “4”, “6”, or “8” to tell you what the model is: a 400, a 600, or an 800. The second digit is a “C” for “Combo”. The third digit tells you the year of production: from “4” for 1954 to “9” for 1959. Any trailing digits were production numbers. Easy, right?

Serial number on a 1956 Combo 400

Well, for the Combos 400, 600, and 800 that’s…more or less right. Prototype/show guitars may have a different scheme or some leading digits, but for production guitars, it’s pretty good. Especially given that production on all three was pretty much done before 1959 (and yes, that’s some foreshadowing).

But wait! There’s other Combos, aren’t there? Like the 425, 450, 650, and 850. What about them? Well that’s a good question. Let’s discuss, because there’s (of course!) a different answer for each one.

We’ll discuss in terms of “most sense” to “least sense”, starting with the 850. To identify this model, they changed the leading “8” to “85” so that the 8C”x”scheme became 85C”x”. Makes sense!

Except…the 850 came equipped with a toaster at the neck and a horseshoe at the bridge. A handful were made for a trade show with a toaster at the bridge. These guitars lost the leading 85 and just began with a “C” for…reasons.

The 425 effectively replaced the 400 in 1958, so it adopted the 400’s 4C”x” scheme. Makes sense.

Is the Combo 650 vaporware? As a production model, that is. That’s a discussion for another day, but the handful that do exist start with just a “C” like the double toaster 850s. Go figure.

So if the Combo 850 added an extra digit to become 85C”x”, the 450 scheme must be 45C”x”, right?

Nope. When the Combo 450 appeared in 1957, they left the 4C”x” scheme of the Combo 400 alone and (usually, but not always) added an “A” to the end, behind the production number. Obviously!

Again, I must stress, these are rules of thumb. Not absolutes. Especially now that we have to talk about how it all fell apart in late 1958.

Ok, “all fell apart” may be a little melodramatic. Really, we just lost our date code. When? Why? I can’t find an answer either of those things. I just know we started the year with “4C8” serial numbers and ended the year with just “4C” or “85C” or whatever serial numbers. And although we would see some early 1959 serials with date info, we wouldn’t reliably get date information back until late 1960…but we’ll talk about that later.

OK. We’ve talked about the solidbody Combos. So let’s move on to the full scale hollow/semi-hollow models that first went into production in 1958–both the Capris and the F-Series guitars.

As with the Combos, there is some amount of “intelligence” in these serial numbers in that the first two positions tell us a little bit about the guitar. The first position was “2” or “3”. That tells us how many pickups the guitar has. The second position was “T” or “V”. That tells us if it came with a trapeze tailpiece (“T”) or a Kauffman Vibrato (“V”). When the Kauffman was replaced by the Accent, the “V” was applied to Accent equipped guitars. The “T” or “V” was followed by a production number with no date information, unlike the Combo guitars.

Serial number on a 1959 365 Capri

A third letter entered the chat in 1960: “R” for stereo-wired “Ric-O-Sound” models. The R would replace the “T” or “V” on thusly equipped guitars.

But because it can’t be that simple, let’s talk briefly about the short scale Capris. When they launched in 1958, they used the existing “short scale” scheme we’ll talk about in a minute. But starting in 1959 they adopted the “pickups/tailpiece” format of their full scale brothers.

So did it all go to hell in 1959 for the semi-hollowbodies as well? No. They never had dating info to begin with, so they didn’t lose it. But, to continue the theme, everything would change in late 1960.

Basses are easy. “B/year of production,” followed by a production number. With the same caveat that at some point in 1959 we lose the year and that it all changes in late 1960.

OK. Last category. The first short scale guitar appeared in 1957–the solidbody 1000. Did they use the existing solidbody “model/C/year”scheme? Nope. Did they use the hollowbody “pickups/tailpiece/year”scheme? Nope—didn’t exist yet. So what did they do?

V/year number. That’s it. Why V? No idea. The 1000 didn’t have a vibrato. But there it is. And just like the Combos and the basses, they lost the year number in late 1958.

When the short scale Capris appeared in 1958, they used that same V/year number scheme. But in 1959 they switched over to the hollowbody pickups/tailpiece/year scheme. So they went from the V meaning nothing to meaning vibrato, from no date info in 1958 to date info in early 1959 and then back to no date info in late 1959. And then of course there’s late 1960.

So we keep mentioning it, so what happened in late 1960? November, to be precise. Well, we got a brand new across-the-board serial number scheme that drops all model specific information BUT gives us detailed dating information for ALL guitars and basses. Everything you’ve read to this point? Throw it away. And it lasted…for all of two months.

So what did they do? JK and production number. Why? Well, if you take a moment and think it through it makes sense. K is the 11th letter of the alphabet, November is the 11th month of the year…that makes sense. And if you apply that same logic to the leading “J”…J is the 10th letter of the alphabet and the year was 1960…I see where they were going with this!

Especially because in December the serial number changed to JL. Yup. Makes sense.

But why now? November seems like a kind of random time, no? I dunno. Clearly they’d reached the point where it made sense to standardize and this is the point where they chose to do it. Even though it would only last two months.

Ok, take a deep breath. We’ve made it to 1961. After all of…that you’re gonna love how simple and consistent the 1961-present method is. And the November-December 1960 scheme telegraphed exactly what they were gonna do.

To be fair, it’s not exactly ONE scheme. But there is a similar logic throughout, and that is tons better than what came before. Ready? Here we go.

From 1961 to 1986 the serial number begins with a two letter code that tells you in order the year and month of production, followed by a production number. Just like the late 1960 method. It works as follows:

First letter: year of production where “A” = 1961 and “Z” = 1986.

Second letter: month of production where “A” = January and “L” = December.

Serial number on a January 1965 420

That’s it. That’s all there is to it. You can now accurately date a 1961–1986 guitar. But that scheme wouldn’t work after 1986, would it? I mean, they ran out of “year” letters! So what to do?

Here’s what they did: they reversed the YEAR/MONTH format to MONTH/YEAR, and replaced the year LETTER with a year NUMBER so that each serial number began with a two alphanumeric digit code where:

First digit: month of production where “A” = January and “L” = December.

Second digit: year of production, where “0” = 1987 and “9” = 1996

Serial number on a January 1989 610

This was followed by a production code. Congratulations, you can now accurately date a modern guitar built between 1961-1996! But you can see the new problem, right? That scheme only worked for ten years. What to do next?

Well, there’s 26 letters in the alphabet and only 12 months in the year. So you just change letters so that:

First digit: month of production where “M” = January and “Y” = December. And before you say “hang on, that’s not quite right” yes, they skipped “O” to avoid any possible future “0”/“O” confusion. And yes, that’s more foreshadowing!

Second digit: year of production, where “0” = 1997 and “9” = 2006.

Followed again by a production code. Congratulations, you can now accurately date a guitar built between 1961 and 2006!

Or can you? Because, as it turns out, they scrapped the whole scheme in 1999 and went with something new.

For the first time since 1961, you now have to look at more than the first two digits of the serial number to date your guitar. But don’t worry, it’s not THAT complicated.

First two digits: year of production. So “99” = 1999, “21” = 2021, etcetera.

And now we shift down to the other numbers we’ve ignored since 1961 because…

Second two digits: week of production. So 01 = first week of January and 52 = last week of December.

And that’s the system currently in place—and it should work through 2098! After that…well, that’s not something most of us need to worry about it, is it?

And that’s it! Now you can read a Rickenbacker serial number and (probably!) make sense of it. And if I got anything wrong or you can shed more light on the late 1958-1960 window, please let me know!