HELP! Did I get scammed?

[mivaldes]

I traded a mint Eastman a couple of days ago for a Gibson L-00 Studio Sunburst. Owner stated he bought it new at Guitar Center about a year ago. Here are the pics:

https://imgur.com/a/RfCx3Do

I looked it up and down in the sunlight, it sounded good, and looked good. This is my first Gibson and the one thing I didn't check was the serial number. Can some of you Gibson experts take a gander and tell me if this looks right? I was thinking it was the Walnut version. The guy seemed like a nice guy with his wife and a new baby. I just messaged him and he responded right back. I usually get my "spidey" sense with people and this guy seemed fine. Does this serial number look right? I've got to say, if it IS a fake, it looks and plays pretty darn nice.
Thanks!
Marcus

[Prahanien]

Looks like a legit Gibson sticker and type set. Picture of the headstock front and back and other details of
The guitar would help.

Edit. I’m dumb….just had to scroll down on Imgur. Looks like a legit Gibson to me. The truss rod cover is usually a dead giveaway on fakes. That looks how it should

[mivaldes]

Originally Posted by Prahanien

Looks like a legit Gibson sticker and type set. Picture of the headstock front and back and other details of
The guitar would help.

Edit. I’m dumb….just had to scroll down on Imgur. Looks like a legit Gibson to me. The truss rod cover is usually a dead giveaway on fakes. That looks how it should

I added a few more pictures. I guess my only concern is the number of digits in the serial number (8). Should there be 9? Then again would a counterfeiter be so stupid as to not use the correct number? I'm also wondering if it tells the date of manafacture (year)?

[TyB]

Not a Gibson serial number expert, but that looks ok to me.

This link to Gibson tells you how to interpret a serial number:

The pattern is as follows:
YDDDYRRR
YY is the production year
DDD is the day of the year
RRR is the factory ranking/plant designation number.

If I have this right, your guitar was built on August 7th, 2019, and was 2nd off the line in Bozeman that day. Unless 2019 was a leap year, I guess.

[mivaldes]

I'm a moron. I read that same thing, saw the first "Y" in the first line but then saw the "YY" in the second line and didn't realize they were separated by other numbers.

I am now much more at ease. I guess now I can change the thread to "NGD" instead of "HELP!" haha

Thanks!!

[mivaldes]

This "note" on the same page also confused me and had me looking for a 9 digit serial number:

NOTE - Gibson USA goes to a 9 digit serial number in early July 2005..
The sixth number is now a batch number- batch 0 starts at the beginning of the day, and once we stamp 699, the batch number will change to 1. The first 5 numbers remain the same, the last 3 numbers will remain the same. The only difference is the addition of this batch indicator.

Is "Gibson USA" different than the acoustics made in Bozeman?

[Rosewood99]

The big question is how does it sound? If it sounds great who cares what it is?

[TyB]

Happy to help! And yeah, that serial number system seems almost intentionally difficult. Why YDDDY, Gibs? Why not YYDDD?

I noticed that thing about Gibson USA as well. I have no idea what that distinction is, but if you look up L-00 Studios on, say, Sweetwater, you can see that they have 8 digit serials, as here. The big difference I can see is that yours doesn't explicitly say "walnut" on the label but... I think it's safe to say that you've got walnut there. And nice, interesting walnut, too! I love wood with grain like that. Maybe they added the "walnut" stamp in more recent years?

Wait a minute. I think maybe the L-00 Studio came out in 2019? Maybe they started smacking "walnut" on the label later? More research may be in order. (Edited out unwarranted enthusiasm)

My wife works in consumer protection, so I hear about scams all the time. It's good to be cautious, and again I'm no expert, but I think you're clear.

Do that NGD thread and tell us how it sounds. I'm about to put up an NGD of my own, I just need to catch up on work a little first...

[Mark Stone]

Well, since you changed the thread to an NGD, Congratulations! It is a beautiful Gibson - enjoy!!

[mivaldes]

Originally Posted by TyB

Happy to help! And yeah, that serial number system seems almost intentionally difficult. Why YDDDY, Gibs? Why not YYDDD?

I noticed that thing about Gibson USA as well. I have no idea what that distinction is, but if you look up L-00 Studios on, say, Sweetwater, you can see that they have 8 digit serials, as here. The big difference I can see is that yours doesn't explicitly say "walnut" on the label but... I think it's safe to say that you've got walnut there. And nice, interesting walnut, too! I love wood with grain like that. Maybe they added the "walnut" stamp in more recent years?

Wait a minute. I think maybe the L-00 Studio came out in 2019? Then you may have the 2nd L-00 Studio EVER, and maybe they started smacking "walnut" on the label later? I hope so, but don't quote me on this! More research may be in order.

I noticed the "WALNUT" missing on the label as well. I wonder if I call Gibson if they keep track somehow in a database of went on the label?

Scam or not (and I'm thinking pretty easily NOT now after the help here), it is a PRETTY guitar and it does sound really great for the size. I had a Short Mountain Walnut 000 a couple of years ago (another EXCELLENT guitar) and I have to say I am sold on that as a tonewood--at least to my ear. I also tried one of those G45's in Walnut which ALSO sounded REALLY good.

[jspe]

Nice Gibby....play it and then play it some more! Then play it every day from now on. Enjoy!!!

[jspe]

Ohhh...and don't forget to will it to your grandkids!

[SalFromChatham]

Congrats on a Great guitar! Real Gibby…

[Stonehauler]

Looks like a real gibson sticker to me, and the serial number looks correct and decodes correctly. Unless someone has gone through the trouble of counterfeiting the sticker and the numbers on the headstock, this looks legit.

Now, I've looked at some of the "headstock logo" pictures on the web, and they show great variation in placement of the dot on the I, sweep of the curves, etc., but when I look on Gibson's site and look at a headstock of some of their own pictured product, it looks very similar to yours, so I suspect the variation I am seeing are older exemplars and that they are natural variations from when the style went into use in 1947.

That said, I am NOT an expert on guitars and should not be relied on to be able to spot what is or is not a counterfeit. But I don't see anything obvious to me.

Congrats on your new guitar/new gear day! May you have years of enjoyment out of it.

[mivaldes]

Thanks all. I think I was being overly paranoid because I didn't read the Gibson page correctly at first and was thinking the serial number should have contained 9 digits.

It's a sweet guitar and I think I made a worthy trade!

Marcus