Проверит гитару по серийному номеру

During this period he gained a lot of experience and started his own company in Tokyo in 1975. The company where he employed 3 employees consisted of a shop and a workshop for repairs and making parts
for guitars. Guitars were also made here on a special order, which were built to the individual wishes of the customer.

The sale of the own-built guitars turned out to be a great success and the demand for them grew quickly. A few years later, the production facilities were therefore moved to larger premises just outside Tokyo.
The company expanded and from 1979 orders for customized guitars
were also produced worldwide.

In 1981 ESP established itself in the USA with an office in New York and in 1983 in Germany for distribution in Europe.
Also in 1983, Hisatake Shibuya started a ‘guitar making vocational school’, some graduates of which landed a job at ESP.

ESP already had several hundred employees, but that number grew after
a new plant was opened in 1986 in Sado Island.

In 1985 George Lynch of the heavy metal band Dokken discovered during
a tour in Japan that ESP also built custom guitars.
As a result, his famous ESP Kamikaze was created and ESP released this George Lynch’s Kamikaze as his first signature model.

In 1990, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett visited the ESP Custom Shop with the idea of building a model based on the mysterious Ouija board game.
The first version was for Kirk only but had two spelling errors.
Instead of «WILLIAM FULD TALKING BOARD», the Ouija body of this first version reads «WILLIAM FUED TALKING BAARD SET».
The first batch of the Ouijas with Kirk signature were neck-thru and were released in 1993, destined for the Japanese market. Later the Ouija was introduced as a Bolt On guitar.
The official introduction for export was in 1995.

ESP gained fame by making guitars for trash metal guitarists including
James Hetfield (Metallica), Scott Ian (Anthrax) and Jeff Hanneman (Slayer).
As a result, ESP has become one of the most popular suppliers of heavy metal guitars.

To keep costs down, the LTD series were now also made in Korea (later
also in Indonesia, China and Vietnam) from 1996 and the export to the
USA of the Japan-made LTD guitars stopped.

However, despite the now increased prices, ESP resumed the export of
the Japanese series to the USA in the early 2000s.

George Lynch with ESP kamikaze

Kirk Hammett with ESP Ouija
The top-quality ESP guitars are made in the ESP managed and
operated factory in Japan, and the more affordable LTD line is
made in various locations in Asia.

The popularity and demand for ESP guitars continues to expand,
with a new factory opened in North Hollywood, CA, USA in 2014
near the new Los Angeles headquarters.
Here the line of ESP USA guitars is produced and was added to
the existing well-known series of ESP as LTD and E-II series.

ESP is constantly innovating both electric and acoustic models.

Also with the neck plate serial numbers do not always give the
exact date. (If they already have a number because neck plates
with only the ESP logo were also used)
The plates with number were made well in advance and used randomly.

For guitars without a serial number on the headstock or neck
plate, you may still be able to find a serial number on the heel of
the neck.
There is also a chance that a number is written in the cavity on the body of the pickups. In that case you can decipher this number in the decoder to a date.

The eight-digit coding system from before 2000 looks like this: DDMMYNNN
DD = day of the month (01 — 31)
MM = month (01 — 12) Y = Last digit of the year
NNN = production number 000 — 999
Example: 25055012 is the 12nd guitar built on May 25th 1995.

After 2000 a serial number system was used which is a lot simpler.
It consists of 1 or 2 letters followed by 7 digits. The letter (s) indicate the location of manufacture. The first 2 digits are the year, the next
2 digits are the week number, the 5th digit is the day of the week
and the last 2 digits is the production number.
Example: SS1209210
SS = Custom Shop ESP 12 = 2012 09 = week number 9
2 = the 2nd day of week 9 10 = production number
So SS1209210 is the 10nd guitar, built on February 28, 2012 in the Custom Shop of ESP in Tokyo.
This system was used until 2015.

From 2016 another system was introduced.
This system consists of 1 letter followed by 7 digits.
The letter is the brand name, E = ESP.
The first 4 digits are the production number, the next 2 digits the year and the last digit the series type. (1 = Custom series, 2 = Signatures series and 3 = E-II series).
Example: E1234162
E = ESP 1234 = production number 16 = 2016 2 = Signatures Series

These serial numbers start with K- followed by 4 or 5 digits. Until the official introduction in 1995 the guitars had a 4 digit number, then a 5 digit number was introduced.

Kirk Hammett Signature (K- serial number)

ASIA The guitars built in Korea, India, Indonesia, China and Vietnam use different serial number systems.
This makes proper dating difficult. What they do have in common is
that the first 2 digits after the letter prefix contain the year.

Productie locations
Letter + 7 digits. E and U = Korea. I = Vietnam. L = China.

2 letters + 7 digits. IS and IR = Indonesia.
Letter + 8 digits.
W = World Musical Instrument Co., Incheon, Korea.

2 letters + 8 digits.
IW, IX and IS = Indonesia.
WR and GW = World Musical Instrument Co., Incheon, Korea.
SX, SK, RS and SP = China.

2 letters + 9 digits. IS = Indonesia.

Factory World Musical Instrument Co., Incheon, Korea

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Проверит гитару по серийному номеру

YEAR AND MONTH CODING SYSTEM:

As you can see in the table, the letter of the year is repeated every decade.

Production Tenryu/Wada Factory, Japan

From 1946 to 1968 a 5-digit sequential system is used. However, there
is no indication of the year of production in this system.

A nice and simple 6-digit system is used in the period from 1969 to1984.
The first two numbers represent the year.
The next two digits represent the month and the last two digits represent the number of the unit (serial number).
For example: 800629
The 29th guitar that was built in June 1980.

In the short period of 1985-1986 a 6-digit serial number has been used but the month is not displayed.
The first 2 numbers are the year.
The last 4 digits are the number of the unit (serial number).
For example: 860123
This stands for the 123th guitar built in 1986.

Production Custom Shop, Japan
In the 1966-1985 period, successive serial numbers from 001 to 1042 were used.
To find the production year, you have to make a rough estimate
The closer to 001 it is closer to 1966 and the closer to 1042, the closer
to 1985.

From 1986-1990 the serial numbers have 1 letter followed by 4 digits.
The letter represents the month and follows the same system for months as the most common system.
(see year and month coding system)
The first number stands for the year.
The last 3 digits represent the number of the unit (serial number).
For example: K8123
This would be a guitar built in April 1988 and the 12th guitar of that day made in the custom shop.
The K is April according to the coding system and the year must be
1987, since this system was only used between 1986 and 1990.

In the period of 1991-1996 one used a 2 letter, 3 digit, then 1 letter system.
The first letter is the year and follows the same coding system.
The second letter is the month and also follows the same coding
system. The 3 numbers represent the unit number, but in this case the unit numbers started with 701 for unclear reasons. So the first unit of the day was not 001, but 701.
The last letter is an unknown internal factory code.

Example KN712J belongs to the 12th guitar produced in July 1994.
K N 712 J is the 12 th guitar built in July , 1994 .

In the period of 1997-2003 the same method was applied as for 1991
to 1996 with 2 differences.
There is no more internal factory code at the end, and the unit numbers start at 001 instead of at 701.
For example: HL032
The sample serial number here represents the 32nd guitar built in May 2001.

From 2004 to 2021 a 3 letter, 3 number, 1 letter system is used.
The first 2 letters represent the year in this case. So you get the decade here.
The third letter represents the month according to the coding system.
The 3 digits represent the number of the unit. (serial number)
The last letter is an internal factory code.
For example: QNK026C
This guitar in the sample serial number was the 26th guitar built in April 2007.
The Q stands for a 0 and the N is a 7, which means 07 for 2007.
QN K 026 C is the 26 th guitar built in April , 20 07 .

From 1999-2000.
The first letter is the year. The second letter the month.
The 3 digits are the number of the unit.(serial number)
The unit number starts at 200.
For example: PX267
This was the 67th guitar made in October 1999.

From 2001 to 2021 they uses a system with 3 letters, 3 digits, 1 letter.
The first 2 letters represent the year. The third letter represents
the month and the 3 digits are the number of the unit (serial number).
The last letter is an internal factory code
For example: QJH055B
This would be the 55th guitar that was built in January 2003.

Production Kaohsiung, Taiwan
An eight-number system is applied here from 1971-2001 The first digit represents the year. The second and third digits represent
the month. The fourth and fifth numbers represent the day of the month.
The last three digits are the number of the unit (serial number).
Because there is only one digit for the year, there are duplicates with this system because it repeats itself every decade.
For example: 60708077
This example serial number was the 77th guitar built on July 8 in 1976, 1986 or 1996.

At the end of 2001, Kaohsiung changed the 8-digit system into a 3-letter 6-number system.
The first 2 letters represent the year. The third letter represents
the month. The first 2 digits are the day of the month and the last
4 digits are the number of the unit.(serial number)

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