Yamaha Acoustic Guitar Specs Database As a musician and guitar enthusiast, I would often visit Yamaha's archives website for speficiations about certain Yamaha guitars I was interested in. However, recently while trying to do a search, I learned that Yamaha had taken down their much useful informational website where we could search model. The Folk Guitar (FG) series made by Yamaha in the late 60s and 70s were extremely fine guitars modeled after Martin flatops. If you can get your hands on one of these, they are of very good value, especially the 'red labels' made in Nippon Gakki, Japan, prior to moving production to Tiawan. Yamaha Guitar serial numbers – dating your guitar Information gathered from the web: Serial numbers on Yamaha guitars repeat every ten years due to the way they are formed. The first letter indicates the last digit of the year of production.

Information gathered from the web:

Serial numbers on Yamaha guitars repeat every ten years due to the way they are formed.

The first letter indicates the last digit of the year of production. (Their numbering system began with “H” for 1.)

The second letter indicates the month.

The first two numbers indicate the day of the month.

The last three numbers represent order of production on the day the guitar was made.

Example: hm02316 = the 316th unit made on June 2 of 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, or 2001.

First Letter	Years
H	1961, 1971, 1981, 1991, 2001
I	1962, 1972, 1982, 1992, 2002
J	1963, 1973, 1983, 1993, 2003
K	1964, 1974, 1984, 1994, 2004
L	1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005
M	1966, 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006
N	1967, 1977, 1987, 1997, 2007
O	1968, 1978, 1988, 1998
P	1969, 1979, 1989, 1999
Q	1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000

Second Letter	Month
H	January
I	February
J	March
K	April
L	May
M	June
N	July
O	August
P	September
X	October
Y	November
Z	December

A lot of people have written in to say, “Hey! My Yamaha serial number looks nothing like this!” To you folks, we offer the following: Several other serial number configurations used by Yamaha over the years. If you still can’t figure it out, please see Yamaha contact info at the bottom of this page.

Alternate serial number configurations for Yamaha Classical and Acoustic Guitars

Custom Shop, Made in Japan, 1966-1985:
001-1042 in sequence

Custom Shop, Made in Japan, 1986-1990:
Letter-####, like so: J7012.
The letter at the beginning represents the month, so J would be March (see chart above).
The number following the letter is the year, in this case 7 for 1987.
The last three numbers indicate unit number. 012=12th unit.

Custom Shop, Made in Japan, 1991-1996:
Letter-letter-###-letter, like so: HP213J.
Using the charts, we see that H=1991 and P=September. 213=unit number; and that last letter is an internal code.

Custom Shop, Made in Japan, 1997-2003:
Letter-letter-###, like so: NK333.
Using the chart, N=1997 and K=April. The three numbers are again, unit number. Unit number 333 in this case.

Custom Shop, Made in Japan, 2004-:
Letter-letter-letter-###-letter, like so: QLY111C.
Q=0 and L=5, so 2005. Y=November. 111 is the unit number; and the final letter is an internal code.

Yamaha Music Craft, Made in Japan, 1997-1999:
Letter-letter-###-letter, like so: ON521J. (That first letter is an “oh” not a zero.)
The first letter is the year; O=1998. The second letter is the month; N=July. The three numbers are the unit number; this started over each month at 500, so unit number 21. The final letter is an internal code.

Yamaha Music Craft, Made in Japan, 1999:
Letter-letter-###, like so: PM222.
The first letter is the year; P=1999. Second letter is the month; M=June. The last three numbers are the unit number. During 1999, they starting the count each month at 200 rather than 500. (See previous entry for Yamaha Music Craft for more on the numbering.)

Yamaha Music Craft, Made in Japan, 2001-:
Letter-letter-letter-###-letter, like so: QIL123A.
The first two letters are the year; Q=0 and I=2, so 2002. The third letter is the month; L=May. The three numbers are the unit number; 123. The final letter is an internal code.

Tenryu/Wada Factory, Made in Japan, 1946-1968:
#####. 12233. Just five digit numbers in sequence. No year of manufacture can be determined.

Tenryu/Wada Factory, Made in Japan, 1969-1984:
######. Six numbers, like so: 710502.
The first two numbers are the year. In this case 1971. The second two numbers are the month; here, May. The final two numbers are the unit number.

Tenryu/Wada Factory, Made in Japan, 1985-1986:
######. Six numbers like so: 860021.
The first two numbers are the year; 1986. The last four numbers are the unit number; 21.

Kaohsiung Factory, Made in Taiwan, 1971-2001:
########. Eight numbers, like so: 10918111.
The first number is the year; 1971. The second and third numbers are the month; 09=September. The fourth and fifth numbers are the day; 18th. The final three numbers are the unit number; 111.

Yamaha guitar serial number lookup 2327976

Kaohsiung Factory, Made in Taiwan, 2001-:
Letter-letter-letter-######. Three letters, six numbers, like so: QIM183112.
The first two letters are the year; Q=0 and I=2, so 2002. The third letter is the month. M=June. The first two numbers are the day; 18th. The final four numbers are the unit number; 3112.

YMMI (Yamaha Music Manufacturing Indonesia), Made in Indonesia, 1990-1996:
########. Eight numbers, like so: 20918022.
The first number is the year; 1992. The second and third numbers are the month; 09=September. The fourth and fifth numbers are the day; 18th. The last three numbers are the unit number; 22.

YMMI, Made in Indonesia, 1997-1999:
#########. Nine numbers, like so: 803180011.
The first number is the year; 1998. The second and third numbers are the month; March (03). The fourth and fifth numbers are the day; 18th. The last four numbers are the

Yamaha Guitar Serial Number Lookup