Serial numbers for Korean made guitars

[TheKurtLocker]

Hello all,

I recently purchased a MIK Sunburst Archtop guitar off of craigslist. There is a small sticker on the back of the head under "Made in Korea" with a serial number (9802407) printed below, but the serial number does not seem to follow the numbering system I have seen posted here and other places. I am assuming that they utilized a different numbering system for the Korean guitars than the American but I have not been able to find out anything confirming that. Does anybody here know more about this? I was mainly just curious to find out how old the guitar is.

Thanks,

Kurt

 

 

---------------------------------UPDATE 6/7------------------------------

Thanks for the responses! sounds like there is not much to learn from this serial number, whether it is a meaningless number from Hamer or some stocking/inventory number from elsewhere. Sorry to the curious, myself included, but I think I will leave the sticker on. Guitar plays great and is really in fantastic condition, I think it had just been sitting around in storage for a while because there was basically no fret wear and the guy who sold it to me was a musician who came across it but said he didn't play guitar.

Some thoughts for anyone else who comes across this and is curious:

I have seen a couple other Hamer imports on CL(Bay Area) with this same type of sticker, which supports that it may have came on the guitar originally. That doesn't mean Hamer put it on as it could have come from the original distributor or shop that sold the Hamer new.

My guitar had unbranded tuners, bridge. Duncan Design PUPs

If I ever change my mind and take off the sticker I will update this post!!

[scottcald]

My understanding is that there is little rhyme or reason to the non USA serial numbers.   

[hamerhead]

^^^This. If the serial numbers mattered they probably would have used a better sticker.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

They mean nothing...

[mrjamiam]

You might be better off trying to date it approximately by its components, rather than its serial number.  Or, just know that most of the Korean Hamers were 90's guitars, and are pretty good deals for nice-playing guitars, and enjoy it!

[cmatthes]

The gold colored hardware, and what I'm assuming is an Amber trans finish would place that one in the very early 2000s.   GC had a huge stock of those back in 2001-04...

[scottcald]

2 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

Kinda looks like they just glued a Fortune Cookie slip, lucky numbers side up, onto the back of the headstock

I wonder if the flip side says,"Your search for meaning in the number will be fruitless"

[JohnnyB]

17 minutes ago, scottcald said:

I wonder if the flip side says,"Your search for meaning in the number will be fruitless"

Good one!

At last, a fortune grounded in reality.

[gorch]

What's underneath the sticker? Ought to be the real serial number.

[kizanski]

17 hours ago, hamerhead said:

^^^This. If the serial numbers mattered they probably would have used a better sticker.

A point worth repeating.

[DaveL]

 

  what's under the damn sticker?    is it the original serial number that's been dremeled/changed

out or what? 

[hamerhead]

5 minutes ago, DaveL said:

what's under the damn sticker?

Wood. There is no ink stamp or impression on the imports, just a sticker.

[scottcald]

Here's my serial number on my Korean flat top.  It's at the top of the headstock:

 

[cmatthes]

Many of them in the late 90s-early 2000s were stamped "USED" and sold at a discount or through liquidators.  I've seen some of those with stickers obscuring the "USED" markings, but I don't seem to recall that any of those stickers indicated a serial number, since the stamp usually obliterated the original serial.

[Biz Prof]

21 hours ago, Vic Croll (Concrete Sox) said:

They mean nothing...

 

 

[killerteddybear]

I think that 'serial number' is some shop's stock ID code.

Maybe if you peel that off you'll find a real serial number underneath. And maybe not.

[Victor (Fret Friend)]

Again, the serial numbers on the Korean imports mean nothing to the buyer! They are in-house numbers meant for what I do not know but I do know they mean nothing to the buyer. There is no hidden serial underneath the sticker either. I've owned imports since the early 90's...

[BTMN]

Dean says the same thing about it's korean made guitars. The numbers are meaningless in dating them to us. They were for the company making them. If you had access to the original makers idea for the numbering it might be possible. I have never heard what company made these. My serial number on my korean made Hamers were all imprinted. Knowing when they switched would help. Also the Hamer Slammer Series were imported before the plain Hamer labelled headstocks. What does the front of that headstock look like?

[TheKurtLocker]

On 4/20/2017 at 3:04 AM, BTMN said:

Dean says the same thing about it's korean made guitars. The numbers are meaningless in dating them to us. They were for the company making them. If you had access to the original makers idea for the numbering it might be possible. I have never heard what company made these. My serial number on my korean made Hamers were all imprinted. Knowing when they switched would help. Also the Hamer Slammer Series were imported before the plain Hamer labelled headstocks. What does the front of that headstock look like?

Mine is of the plain Hamer label variety. It  doesn't feel like there is a serial number imprinted on the wood under the sticker, and there is no other serial number to be found.

I can take better pictures of the guitar and post if there's some interest.

[BTMN]

Sounds like an early 2000's time frame. By imprinted I mean inked on like above and not a sticker. I am not 100% on when they switched to labels on the Korean imports. Could be that the imports were made by more than one guitar maker also, based on the model perhaps, and that may be a difference between an ink number or label number.

[crunchee]

On 4/19/2017 at 0:55 PM, cmatthes said:

Many of them in the late 90s-early 2000s were stamped "USED" and sold at a discount or through liquidators.  I've seen some of those with stickers obscuring the "USED" markings, but I don't seem to recall that any of those stickers indicated a serial number, since the stamp usually obliterated the original serial.

+1!  Epiphone used to do that a lot, too...even on their Japan-made 'Elite'/Elitist' models, back about 10 years ago, give or take a couple of years.  That's when I saw that, anyway.

AFAIK, the 'true' S/Ns on imported Hamers (Korean ones anyway) were normally on a decal or transfer, and placed UNDER the clearcoat finish, if it wasn't a matte finish to begin with...just like the 'Made In Korea' part in the OP's photo, and just like in scottcald's photo.  I'm wary of ANY imported guitar that has a S/N put on it with a paper sticker OVER the finish, just because.  There might not be anything wrong with the guitar, but still...    The only exception to that rule (i.e., using the paper S/N sticker) that I can think of were on old Korean-made Danelectros from the 2000s, because that's how they were originally sold as new.

[gorch]

There had always been a serial number stamped like and above the Made in Korea decal. The sticker definitely is after factory. I'm not believing until the sticker being removed and the truth been shown.

[mc2]

The import serial numbers may simply be done to meet a import/export trade regulation, to simply account for the number of pieces in a shipment....so they know how many pieces to charge duties on and to collect taxes.