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• Decoding Heritage Guitar, Inc. Serial Numbers
• Understanding Factory Seconds, Factory Bargains and Special Runs
• Serial Number Prefix to Year of Manufacture Table

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Decoding Heritage Guitar, Inc. Serial Numbers

One of the areas that causes the most confusion for new members of the Heritage Owners Club is how to decipher and understand the serial numbering system employed by the factory. Essentially, each Heritage guitar is (ink) stamped with a six character serial number on the back of the headstock. The characters are comprised of a leading letter, denoting the year (see table below), followed by five digits.

The five digits of the serial number encode the day and order of manufacture for the guitar. The first group of three digits represent the days remaining in the year on the day the guitar was completed. The last two digits indicate the build order on that day.

For example, a guitar with a serial number of B35012 can be decoded as follows:

• B: Year built is 1985 (a rare find, indeed!)
  
• 350: Built on the fifteenth day of the year (365-350=15)
  
• 12: The twelfth guitar completed on this day
  

From this, we learn that the guitar in our example was the twelfth guitar finished on 15 JAN 1985. One of the interesting side effects of this numbering and encoding system is that guitars built later in a given year will actually have a seemingly "lower" serial number. For instance, the first guitar completed on 1 FEB 1985 would have a serial number of B33401.

This reverse dating scheme initially seems confusing and counterintuitive, but it is actually very effective. If you are pursuing older Heritage guitars, you would seek guitars with a low initial character, followed by a relatively high set of "date" digits, followed by low trailing "build order" digits.

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Understanding Factory Seconds, Factory Bargains and Special Runs

Now that you have a grasp of serial number fundamentals, you will probably notice that some Heritage instruments have some extra identifying marks on the back of the headstock. Below are the three known markings which you might find, in addition to the standard serial number, on the back of the headstock:

• 2: As you might guess, this large number '2' pressed into the wood (not ink stamped) indicates a factory "second" instrument. These instruments typically exhibit some sort of visual, cosmetic or aesthetic defect which keeps them from being sold as first quality instrument. Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that in most cases the supposed defect is not identifiable.
• BGN: When you find these three letters pressed into the wood (again, not ink stamped) on an instrument, it indicates a factory "bargain" instrument. It has been rumored that these are instruments that have mechanical or structural defects that prevent them from being classified as a factory second, but still remain playable for the most part. Some stories have surfaced that employees are given the opportunity to purchase instruments directly, and that those instruments are also stamped with the "BGN" marking.
• xxx: (where xxx represents a series of three digits) Instruments that are made in limited or special runs, either for specific dealers or as signature models for artists, are generally stamped with a three digit number indicating their sequence in the production of the special run.

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Heritage Guitars Serial Number to Year of Manufacture Conversion
Serial Number Prefix	Year of Manufacture
B	1985
C	1986
D	1987
E	1988
F	1989
G	1990
H	1991
I	1992
J	1993
K	1994
L	1995
M	1996
N	1997
O	1998
P	1999
Q	2000
R	2001
S	2002
T	2003
U	2004
V	2005
W	2006
X	2007
Y	2008

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