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Original Post By:
HLO
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Date: 3/18/2015 10:55:17 AM |
| I just received a gibson "B-Uke" (that's what's printed inside and on the original hang tag that came with it) as a gift. It is in pretty good condition save a crack on the headstock which I'm getting fixed next week, but I can't seem to figure out when it was made. It has the gold diagonal "Gibson" logo, and the serial number on the headstock is 27064. Any help would be greatly appreciated! |
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Posted By:
karl
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Date: 3/23/2015 4:46:18 AM |
| Gibson only made baritones between 1961 and 1967. Five digit serial numbers were only used between 1961 and 1964. Narrowing it down from there is difficult because there was little logic in the numbering system. Some claim the first digit would indicate the year (in this case 196'2'), but I'm not entirely convinced since there are so many impossible serial numbers then.
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Posted By:
sundown signs
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Date: 4/5/2015 11:38:57 AM |
| For what it's worth and my comments may be worth very little, I have a Gibson baritone ukulele with the headstock #127014. "BARITONE" is rubber stamped on the back strip inside as well as BU-1 is written by hand, maybe in pencil or scribe on back strip. It is a nice playable high gloss uke with a pin bridge (which I had replaced because the original was pulling loose). The gold "Gibson" logo is at a slant on the headstock. Uke is all mahogany. Tortise shell binding is on top edge only.
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Posted By:
karl
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Date: 4/22/2015 8:43:28 AM |
Hi Sundown,
Yours is probably made a little later, between 1964 and 1967, given the 6-digit number.
That's about the only tell-tale sign for a more narrow dating, given that Gibsons batch-building process made for a confusing chronology of appointments, and that Gibson baritones were only built for a short stretch of time.
Ink stamps and pencil designations were used quite at random as if stamps were lost and found all the time. Normally 'BU-1' is in ink. The logo for the Gibson baritones was always the stencilled gold early angular logo (dot on the i, slight openings on the tops of the b and o; abandonned in 1967). I think baritones were only available in style-1 appointments.
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