Ibanez Mandolin Serial Numbers

There are a lot of different Ibanez Mandolin Models, so how can you determine the age of your mandolin?

Dating Ibanez Mandolins

How can you figure out when your Ibanez mandolin was made? Start by identifying the serial number. You can find it on the back of the headstock, where it is impressed into the wood, and also on the label inside the mandolin, which should be visible through the bass side f-hole.

The Ibanez serial number format for the years that the vintage mandoins were made is as follows: XYY1234.

X = letter that signifies the month
YY = numbers that signify the year
1234 = numbers that signify the instrument’s production sequence

For example, A768034 would be:

A = first month of the year, January
76 = 1976
8034 = production sequence

A note on the production sequence. All the mandolins built in the 1970′s listed so far have a production sequence starting with 80XX. The significance of this has not been established. Perhaps Ibanez started at 8000 and numbered up from there?

If your mandolin does not have a serial number, don’t worry. It most likely means that your mandolin was made before Ibanez started to affix serial numbers to their mandolin, in the 1974 and 1975 time frame. With our serial number database, we hope to establish when the earliest serial numbers began.

And lastly, to make it easier for you, here is a table of letters and the corresponding months.

A = January
B = February
C = March
D = April
E = May
F = June
G = July
H = August
I = September
J = October
K = November
L = December