Build date from serial number

[Dick Seacup]

I know the first character of the serial denotes the year of manufacture, but I recall reading somewhere that the remaining digits are the date of manufacture.  Unfortunately, I can't recall exactly how the five digits were decoded for the manufacture.  Were the next three the number of the day in the year followed by the build order on that day?  Or was it the number of days left in the year followed by the build order?  Something completely different?  Jay?  Wingnut?  Bueller? Anyone?

[Thundersteel]

I've never heard anything about the number itself; I've always just gone by the letter. It makes me wonder...

[golferwave]

  My understanding is that the letter is the year, the next three digits are the day of manufacture with January 1st being 365 and counting down to 1 for December 31st, and the last two digits are the number of the guitar produced that day. So if you had a serial number of R 36104 it would denote that your guitar was the fourth one produced on January 5th, 2001

[Thundersteel]

Hmmm...I would think 365 would be December 31st, and not January 1st. Maybe I need to think outside the box!

[Dick Seacup]

Think of it as "days remaining in the year"+1.   I thought that was what I had read elsewhere, but couldn't remember exactly, and now I can't even find where I stumbled across that.  If I'm calculating properly, then the H137 (L23806) was the sixth guitar built on 7 MAY 95.