Taylor Guitar Serial Numbers – What Can They Tell You About Your Guitar?

What can your Taylor Guitar serial number tell you about your guitar?

Well, it can tell you a few things depending on when the guitar was built.? The system has changed a bit over the years so it gets a little bit complicated ? but stick with me.

There are 4 different serial number systems used for 4 different time periods.

• 2009 to present
• 2000 to 2009
• 1993 to 1999
• 1975 to 1992

2009 to Present

The serial number system that is currently being used, and has been used since November of 2009, will tell you:

• Where your guitar was built;
• The date it was built; and
• What order in the day it was built

This is a 10 digit system. So if your guitar’s serial number has 10 digits, then this is the serial number system that your guitar fits under.

let’s take an example serial number to illustrate how the system works ? 1108093001

The 1^st Digit

The first digit signifies where the guitar was built. It might have been built in one of two places

• 1 = El Cajon, California, USA
• 2 = Tecate, Baja California, Mexico

Now I don?t know why you?d want to know where it was built ? but you can find out if you do want to know. This is probably meant for Taylor for internal purposes?

>>1108093001 ? in our serial number we can see that the guitar was built in El Cajon.

The 2^nd & 7^th Digits

The second and seventh digits indicate what year the guitar was built.

In our example those numbers are 13, which tells us that the guitar was built in 2013.

>>1108093001

I’m not sure of the reason why these two numbers are separated but they are.

The 3^rd & 4^th Digits

The third and fourth digits represent the month that the guitar was built in.

In our example the guitar was built in August (08)

>>1108093001

The 5^th & 6^th Digits

The fifth and sixth digits represent the day of the month that the guitar was built.

In our example the guitar was built on the 9^th day of the month (09).

>>1108093001

The last 3 digits

The last three digits represent the order in which that guitar was built on that day.

So, in our example the guitar was the first guitar built that day (001).

>>1108093001

So, what we can tell from this particular serial number is that the guitar was the 1^st guitar built by Taylor on August 09, 2013 in the El Cajon factory.

2000 to 2009

Starting in January 2000 and ending in October 2009 Taylor used an 11 digit serial number.

If your Taylor guitar has a serial number with 11 digits then it will tell you:

• The Date the guitar was built;
• The Series the guitar belongs to; and
• What order in the day it was built

Again, let’s use an example serial number to illustrate how this system works ? 20051126029

The 1^st 4 Digits

The first 4 digits represent the year the guitar was built.

This is straight forward ? in our example the guitar was built in 2005.

>>20051126029

The 5^th & 6^th digits

The fifth and sixth digits represent the month the guitar was built.

In our example the guitar was built in November (11).

>>20051126029

The 7^th& 8^th Digits

The seventh and eighth digits indicate the day of the month that the guitar was built.

In our example the guitar was built on the 26^th day of the month.

>>20051126029

The 9^th Digit

The ninth digit represent the series that the guitar belongs to.

But it’s not quite as straight forward as you?d think. You?d think 3 for 300 series, right? Wrong!

For some reason, it goes like this:

• 0 = 300 series or 400 series
• 1 = 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 & presentation series
• 2 = 200 series
• 3 = Baby series
• 4 = Big Baby series
• 5 = T5
• 7 = Nylon series
• 8 = 100 series
• 9 = Solidbody series

In our example our guitar is from either the 300 series or 400 series as represented by a 0.

>>20051126029

• More on Taylor?s Series of Guitars

The 10^th & 11^th Digits

Finally, we come to the 10^th & 11^th digits, which represent the order in the day that the guitar was built.

In our example the guitar was the 29^th guitar built that day.

So, what we can learn from this particular serial number is that the guitar was the 29^th guitar built on November 26, 2005 and it belongs to either the 300 or 400 series.

1993 to 1999

From 1993 to 1999 a very similar system was used as per between 2000 and 2009.

The only difference is that the year was represented by just 2 numbers instead of four.

So, there was a total of 9 digits in the serial numbers during this period. If you have a serial number that has 9 digits, then your guitar was built during this time.

An example of a serial number from this period:

>>960406204

This number tells us that the guitar was the 4^th guitar built on April 6, 1996 and is a 200 series guitar.

Another Example

The image at the top of this page has a 9 digit serial number – 990830040.

So the guitar that belongs to the serial number in the image was the 40th guitar built on August 30, 1999 and is part of either the 300 or 400 series. We can see by the model number that it is in fact a 412ce.

1975 to 1992

The following are the serial numbers used for the time period between 1975 and 1992. There is no secret code! Basically all these numbers can tell you is what year your guitar was built in.

https://www.taylorguitars.com/support/general/decoding-taylor-guitars-serial

*Serial numbers switched from 5 digit to 3 digits mid 1977

The exception to the above table was the 410 guitar which was introduced in 1991. If your serial number starts with a 4 and then a ???, then you have a 410 from either 1991 or 1992.

In 1991 those serial numbers were 4-0001 to 4-1121.

In 1992 those serial numbers were 4-1122 to 4-3152.

Thanks for reading

Hopefully this has helped you to understand your serial number(s) on your Taylor Guitar(s).

If you have a Fender amp and want to learn about its serial numbers, I’ve got a blog for that, too.

Photo Credit

By pensierarte (Own work) [CC BY 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

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