Yamaha Serial Number Acoustic Guitar

[Baba Flores]

Thanksa lot for that valuable info CTGull .

My wife has an FG75 that was given to her as a gift when she graduated high school. It has the Yamaha on the peghead under the tuning forks and a tan label with "Republic Of China". The serial number is 0515172. I'm assuming that puts it at 1974.

It is now the house "Nashville - High strung" guitar.

Thanks a lot for that valuable info CTGull .

My wife has an FG75 that was given to her as a gift when she went away to university. It has the Yamaha on the peghead under the tuning forks and a tan label with "Republic Of China". The serial number is 0515172. I'm assuming that puts it at 1974.

It is now the house "Nashville - High strung" guitar.

This guitar has served me well. It has seen many a campfire and years of fun with friends. For several years I said that I was keeping it around in case one of my children or grandchildren ever decides to learn how to play. One of my daughters actually had it for several months but her schedule didn't allow for the time needed to learn.

Now, it is in my office along with several other guitars . I usually grab it when I want to learn a new song. I have replaced the strings with a set of lighter gauge Martins and I have sanded down the bridge saddle slightly. It seems that this guitar plays better than ever and still has very nice tone.

On December 22, 2016, I was contacted by a man on Long Island, New York. He owns several guitars and his brother passed away a few years ago and left his guitars to him. One was an FG-360. He was reaching out to me because he decided to sell some guitars, including the Yamaha. The guitar was special because it had been his brother's and he offered it to me because he wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Between his schedule and mine, it took a while for us to put this together. I received it on Friday, March 17, 2017, St. Patrick's Day.

Whereas my first FG-360 is a Taiwanese model, this one is a 1973 Japanese built. Although both have original cases which are different, the guitars are pretty much identical. I installed light-weight Martin strings. Other than that this guitar is in great shape. There are very few blemishes on it. You wouldn't know it is over 43 years old.

Somewhere around May 1973, there was a second FG-360 that was available in the US. It has a spruce top, Jacaranda rosewood back and sides, mahogany neck and ebony fingerboard and bridge. It has full body and neck binding with the traditional old style Yamaha black and white stripe rosette and plastic tortoise pick guard. The back is two piece and it has chrome, enclosed Yamaha tuners. Production on this continued until July 1974. At this time, manufacturing shifted to Taiwan where it continued until the model was discontinued around August 1975.

This one retailed new for $376.00 (USD). I don't remember what I paid for mine. At that time, I was just going into my third year of teaching. Even with the $200 raise I got that year, I was only earning $7900 a year. How times have changed! Come to think of it, my car and motorcycle were both paid for, I had no loans and I had gas and beer money. Things were pretty good! If I had the forethought to buy a Martin at the time, I wouldn't have the appreciation for this guitar today. Although a 1975 Martin would probably be worth a lot of money today, and I now own two Martins, this Yamaha is a very cherished possession.

Again from Ed Blackmore, "if your guitar has a black fingerboard, it is probably an FG-360N." The "N" may not show on the label, but to Yamaha, it is an FG-360N. Bottom line, those of us who own an FG-360 model, actually have a guitar that Yamaha calls an FG-360N. These were the only ones distributed to the USA. Several of the owners of the Japanese built model have found the letters "NK" on the inside. Could this have something to do with the "N" model?

I am appealing to other FG-360 owners. I have contacted several owners who have written to me in the past and many of them got back to me very quickly. It seems that FG-360 owners are passionate about the guitar. I am compiling a data base of serial numbers to try and make sense of the numbering system. If there are others out there who would like to share this info, please contact me and let me know the number(s) and where you found them. As of August 24, 2020, we now know of 129 Yamaha FG-360 guitars out there. Here is what I have found ...

The serial number is stamped on the cross brace, just inside the top side of the sound hole. It is either a 5 digit or an 8 digit number. The 5 digit numbers are on the earlier models that were made in Japan and the label also indicates "Nippon Gakki". The first digit is the year ... a 3 is for 1973, 4 is for 1974. The next two digits are the month and the last two digits are the day of the month that the guitar was built. This numbering scheme apparently did not take into account any type of build sequence. Mr. Blackmore also said that there may be other numbers inside the body on any of these guitars. They may be in places that can't be seen through the sound hole. The only way this could be confirmed is probably with some kind of snake style gooseneck camera.

As for the 8-digit models, these appear to fall into two categories. Some reflect guitars made after the production was switched to the Kaohsiong factory in Taiwan. My particular guitar does show "Republic of China Made in Taiwan" on the label. Based on the data I have received, this must have happened sometime between late July and early-August of 1974. The latest 5 digit s/n we have recorded is dated July 18 and the earliest 8 digit, Taiwanese model was built on August 22 of that year. Again, according to Blackmore, even Yamaha isn't absolutely certain when this happened. Good records were not kept and basically Yamaha is doing the same thing we are, trying to collect data to solve mysteries.

With these 8 digit s/n, the first 5 digits conform to the 5 digit numbering system. The last 3 numbers apparently reflect the number of the guitar in the build sequence. We have been trying to analyze this but after speaking with Mr. Blackmore, I now realize our efforts may be futile. Even Yamaha isn't certain exactly what these three digits mean. It is some kind of build sequence. We know it isn't annual because one February '75 guitar is number 194 and my July edition is 080. The earlier build wouldn't have a larger number if it was an annual count. Even Yamaha doesn't know if it is monthly, weekly or daily. Blackmore suggested it may even be during a shift, a production run or some kind of batch number. They don't even know if it represents just this model. Multiple models may have been made in the factory at one time and they may all have been lumped together. The numbering scheme may represent all guitars built in the plant that that time and not just the FG-360. Yamaha just doesn't know.

The second category of the 8-digit models leads to a theory ... actually, a couple of theories. We have now received info from several people who own Japanese-made models with 8-digit s/n. They are all 1973 guitars and most are owned by people not in the US. As previously mentioned in this article, Yamaha suggests that our FG-360 guitars are actually FG-360N models, although the label doesn't indicate that. The FG-360 was Japanese made and never imported into the US. Our theory is that these 8-digit Japanese-made guitars are actually FG-360 models that fall into this group.

I am hoping other owners will discover this page andshare their serial and other numbers with me. The Taiwanese made units also have a number way down inside, at the base of the neck. Some of these guitars have 7 digits and one we know of has 6. Yamaha, like us, does not know what those numbers mean. Since all of these we know of were built in early 1973, the last being March 26, I am going to theorize that they quit making these around the time they started making the model that was shipped to the USA.

There are also many references on the Internet about the color of the label on the Yamaha guitars. It seems that a "Red Label" Yamaha is a hot commodity. I have not done enough research on this topic to offer anything of value. What I have read indicates that these red labels pre-date our FG-360 models and only apply to models made in Japan that were exported to the US. I do know that the labels on the guitars I have compiled data on all have a light tan label. I have seen this referred to as a "green label". This includes both the Japanese and Taiwanese FG-360 (which as previously mentioned, Yamaha considers the FG-360N) and the FG-360 that was not not exported to the US.

One owner mentioned that he was told that only FG-360S models had the solid spruce tops. I had never heard this before and had never heard of an FG-360S. Within 24 hours of getting this info, I stumbled upon a website with the same claim, stated not as a suggestion but as a fact. The claim was that the FG-360 models have a laminated top, sides and back. TheYamaha Guitarchive website indirectly supports this claim because FG-360 and FG-360N show a spruce top whereas some models, such as the F335 show a solid spruce top. On the other side of the coin, entering FG360S returns "Model Number Not Found...". This not only takes away from this theory but opens the question whether there ever was such a model.

Many owners who have contacted me feel that the top is not laminated. They base this on the appearance of the edges of the top around the sound-hole, even though the Yamaha site doesn't claim that it is solid.

Bottom line, I am going to continue this research on the serial numbers. As previously stated, I am hoping other owners will send information to me. I am also hoping that owners of other models that were built during this era will send me serial number information. That may help with the mystery of whether our numbers refer just to the FG-360 models or to all models made in that factory.

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