Manufacturing Date 1957 Goldtops

Hi to all,

I need some support concerning a 57 GT.

According to Duchossoir "Gibson Electrics", 598 LP where built in 1957. Of those some were P90, until the Humbucker production started. As far as I know, the first of HB LP should have been manufactured about February 1957.

Now the first batch had black parts, until cream parts did show up a little later. Burstseril.com.

As there is more blackparts LP around by today, than ever build, for obvious reasons, I would like to know if there is a way to narrow the production date.

1. First of all, can you tell roughly, around what month a LP has been built, given a 57 Serial Number.

2. What about pots date and production date? Would it be possible, that an early 1957 Serial Number has pots dated September 1957?

3. After Gibson switched from black parts to cream, is ist possible, that later in the year they fitted some black parts again?

Thanks for help!!

I don't think it can be reliably narrowed down beyond a best guess. Pots and plastic parts could have been used at different times throughout the year. With many of the ledgers missing from that time period, again, it would a best guess. With Gibson, most anything is possible.

CptZar said:

1. First of all, can you tell roughly, around what month a LP has been built, given a 57 Serial Number.

Click to expand...

Not really. Serial numbers were not necessarily in numerical order.
There are left handed PAF 57 Goldtops with cream parts that have lower serial numbers than right hand black parts versions. [Burst Serial]

.

CptZar said:

2. What about pots date and production date? Would it be possible, that an early 1957 Serial Number has pots dated September 1957?

Click to expand...

I had a low s/n '57 and the pot codes were from the first week of 1957, which makes some sort of sense if you assume quasi-sequential numbering. But as the experts say, I suppose anything is possible.
What can be confirmed is that the guitar you're mentioning wouldn't have been built before September (and likely October/Nov or later).