How to Date a Used Epiphone by the Serial Number

Here's the honest version up front: an Epiphone serial number will usually tell you when and where the guitar was built. It will not tell you the exact model, and it absolutely will not prove the guitar is real. I've had hundreds of these on the bench, and the serial is the first thing I read — but it's a starting point, not a verdict. Once you know how the number is laid out, you can date most Epiphones from the last thirty years in about ten seconds. Let me walk you through it the way I actually do it.

First, find the serial number

On an electric Epiphone, flip the guitar over and look at the back of the headstock, just above the tuners. It's usually stamped or ink-printed in gold or silver. On a hollowbody or acoustic, it's on a paper label inside the body — shine a light through the soundhole and you'll see it. Some older imports have it stamped in the neck pocket, but for anything you're likely to buy used, the back of the headstock is where to look.

The format you'll see most: all numbers

From roughly 2008 onward, the majority of Epiphones use an eleven-digit, all-numeric serial. It reads left to right in four chunks:

• Digits 1–2: the last two digits of the year
• Digits 3–4: the month
• Digits 5–6: the factory code
• Digits 7–11: the unit number — where it fell in that month's run

So the guitar in the photo above, 11 02 15 06289, is a February 2011 build from the Qingdao factory in China, unit 6289. Here's the same breakdown laid out, plus the older lettered format we'll get to next:

The factory code in the 5th and 6th digits is the part people get wrong, because the tables floating around online are community-compiled, not official. The ones I trust because I see them constantly:

• 15 — Qingdao, China (electrics)
• 16 — Qingdao, China (acoustics)
• 21 — Unsung, Korea
• 23 — Samick, Indonesia
• 12 or 20 — DaeWon or Unsung, China

If your two-digit code isn't on that list, don't panic and don't trust a random decoder's confident guess — cross-check it against the "Made in" label, which I'll come back to.

The older format: two letters up front

Through the 1990s and 2000s, most Epiphones used a factory letter prefix followed by numbers, in the pattern FF YY MM RRRR: two letters for the plant, two digits for the year, two for the month, and a four-digit batch number. A serial of SI 02 06 0234 is a Samick Indonesia (Bogor) build from June 2002.

The letter codes worth knowing:

• SI or IS — Samick, Indonesia
• S — Samick (Korea in the '90s, China in the 2000s — see the catch below)
• U — Unsung, Korea
• DW — DaeWon, China
• EA / EE — Qingdao, China
• P or R — Peerless, Korea
• C — Cort, Korea (CI = Cort, Indonesia)
• J or F — Japan (you'll mostly see this on Elitist models)

You'll also see a plain F-prefixed Qingdao format on some newer guitars — F, then the year and month, then the run. Same idea, different label.

What the online decoders quietly get wrong

This is where a shop tech and a serial-lookup website part ways. A few things I've learned to watch for:

The S-prefix is a trap

That single "S" was used for Korean Samick production into the early 2000s and then for Chinese Samick after the line moved. If you've got an S-prefix guitar built around 2001–2002, the serial alone can't tell you Korea from China. The "Made in Korea" or "Made in China" sticker on the back of the headstock is the tiebreaker. When the sticker's gone, you fall back on features — which is a good habit anyway.

Pre-1993 and the old Japanese guitars are a mess

Epiphone's serial schemes before about 1993, and the Japanese-made guitars from the '70s and '80s, aren't reliably documented. The popular decoder sites openly don't support them. If someone's dating a vintage-era Epiphone off a modern serial chart, be skeptical — that's exactly where fakes and wishful thinking live.

The serial doesn't tell you the model

Factory codes identify a plant and a date, full stop. They don't encode whether you're holding a Les Paul Standard or a Studio. Model ID comes from the hardware, the pickups, the control layout, and the headstock — not the number.

And it does not prove the guitar is real

This is the big one. Counterfeiters copy plausible serial numbers onto fake headstocks all day long. A serial that "decodes correctly" tells you the number is formatted like a real one — nothing more. Proving authenticity means checking the actual parts: real Grover or Wilkinson tuners, binding that isn't too thick, a properly cut nut, correct pickup routing, a "Made in" label that matches the era. The number is where you start, not where you stop.

How I actually date one on the bench

My real workflow is three quick passes. First, read the serial and get a year, month, and factory. Second, check the "Made in" label and confirm it agrees with the factory code — if the serial says China and the sticker says Korea, something's off. Third, glance at the pot codes inside the control cavity; the pots carry their own date stamps, and if they line up with the serial year (allowing a few months either way), you've got a consistent, honest guitar. When all three tell the same story, I trust it. When they fight each other, that's the guitar to ask more questions about.

None of this requires special tools or a subscription to a lookup site. It just requires knowing that the serial is one piece of evidence among several — which, once you've dated a few hundred of these, is exactly how you learn to see them. When we take in a used Epiphone here, this is the first look it gets before it ever hits the guitars we've got in stock.

FAQ

My Epiphone serial number doesn't decode. Is it fake?

Not necessarily. A serial that won't decode cleanly usually means an older or transitional format, a less common factory, or a worn/misread number. Fakes are a possibility, but a non-decoding serial by itself is weak evidence either way — check the parts and the "Made in" label before you conclude anything.

What does "EE" mean on an Epiphone serial?

EE is associated with Chinese production at Qingdao, most commonly seen in the 2000s. The digits after it give you the year and month.

Can the serial number tell me exactly which model I have?

No. It only encodes location and date. To pin down the model you have to read the guitar itself — pickups, hardware, inlays, and headstock shape.

Are Epiphone Elitist serials different?

Yes. Elitist (and the earlier Elite) models were largely Japanese-built and often use their own serial scheme, frequently with a "J" association. Don't run an Elitist serial through a standard Epiphone chart and expect it to line up.

Bottom line: use the serial to get your year, month, and factory, then let the "Made in" label and the guitar's own parts confirm the story. If you're weighing a used Epiphone and want a second set of eyes, that's literally what we do all day.