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How to Date Slingerland Drums



How to Date Slingerland Drums | Our Pastimes
With most other drum companies, serial numbers are considered very helpful tools, but not with Gretsch. The lack of understanding of Gretsch's use of serial numbers leaves the vintage drum owner relatively few tools for estimating the age of their vintage Gretsch drum. Some of these theories are contradictory and few are definitive. Despite this, John Sheridan proposed a "rule of thumb" for round badge drums in which linked the number of digits in serial numbers to date ranges. Although frustrated by the lack of reliable information, RIck saw a solvable problem.


Dating of Vintage Gretsch Drums Based Upon Serial Numbers: Challenging the Legend, Lore and Lies
As such, there are a lot of vintage specimens hidden under beds, lurking in closets or parading in plain sight on shop walls and Reverb listings. Half the battle of finding a great deal or pre-empting conflict is accurately dating the guitar in question. The guide below is intended to help you identify the production year of any Gretsch guitar, given the serial number and its location on the guitar. This information has been compiled from multiple sources cited at bottom. Their collective investigative legwork deserves the respect and gratitude of us all.



Gretsch used several different serial number schemes through the years. Each of them can be used to accurately pinpoint the age of a guitar, if you have the correct information. Most online guides and quite a few print guides are based on Jay Scott's groundbreaking book " Gretsch: the guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company ," which is a fine book, but is nearly two decades old.