Since April 2000, I have received several generous and unsolicited contributions of information on prewar Gibson banjos. These contributions include serial number listings from Joe Spann of Auberndale, Florida, Stan Werbin of Elderly Instruments, Bill Sullivan of First Quality Music Supply, Greg Earnest, who maintains the Prewar Gibson Banjos Website, and Steve Huber of Huber Banjos and Accessories. With these contributions the current version of this list includes over 1,200 entries.
In addition to generous contributions from Dave Schenkman, Stan Werbin, Bill Sullivan and Greg Earnest, there are banjos on this list that I own and instruments that belong to friends. A great deal of information on this list was taken from published sources including the well know June 1975 issue of Pickin' magazine and from Tsumura's One Thousand and One Banjos. Other sources include the internet sites of vintage dealers, banjo enthusiasts, and one well know internet auction site. Finally contributions were provided by people who have contacted me through this site and from the internet community that participate in banjo related discussion groups and mailing lists.
Lastly, a special thanks to Sonny Osborne for his input. Sonny provided some of the first information that was compiled on this list.
For those of you who have provided information for listing (knowingly, or perhaps unknowingly) -- thank you very much. If you have information on prewar Gibson banjo serial numbers, or other information that you would be willing to add, please contact me at tbiggs@cfl.rr.com.
-- Tom Biggs (June 2000)
The linked pages that follow summarize prewar Gibson banjo serial numbers and some descriptive information about these instruments. It is impossible to precisely date older Gibson banjos based on these serial numbers since the factory records are no longer available. Even if factory information were available, it is likely that some banjos were made out of sequence or not reported. There are simply no fixed rules about these older instruments and there is much contradictory evidence, at least some of which you will find in these lists.I should mention the "dilemma" I am often faced with in compiling this information. Of the 1,000, or so, instruments listed here, I have only seen and held about 100 of these banjos. Occasionally information on a given entry is contradicted, or seems a little out of place. This could indicate a mistake in the data, a factory variation, use of old stock parts, or perhaps even modified instrument -- factory, or otherwise. If you see something a little strange or an entry that needs correction, let me know and I'll try and look into it. This list should not be use as the sole basis to authenticate an instrument.
Pre-War Gibson Banjos Serial Number Lists
List A: Predominately Trap-Door Instruments 1920-1924 List B: Serial Nos. 7000 through 8541 1925-1926 List C: Serial Nos. 8542 through 8999 (see note 1) 1927-1928 List D: Serial Nos. 9000 through 9499 1929-1932 List E: Serial Nos. 9450 through 9990 1933-1935 List F: Serial Nos. 3 through 5950 (see note 2) 1935-1941
Last update -- 25 May 2003
Notes:
1. Banjos with nos. 0100 through 0400 were produced "out-of-sequence" in the late 20's and are included with the 8530-9449 serial nos.
2. Gibson re-sequenced serial numbers beginning in late 1935.
Additional Information on PreWar Gibson Banjos
