• Martin Guitar Serial Number List
• Sigma Martin Guitar Serial Numbers By Year

Martin has been producing high quality acoustic instruments since 1833. Old Martin guitars tend to be worth a great deal of money, and as such, it is important to be able to determine the model and serial number of your guitar in order to correctly ascertain its value. The major difficulty in this task lies in the fact that Martin has produced hundreds of different guitar models throughout its history, several of which look quite similar to an untrained eye.

Find Your Sigma. Find Your Sigma. Filter products. 00 / Parlor 000 / OM / Auditorium Classic Guitar Dreadnought Grand Jumbo Grand OM Jumbo Resonator Travel Guitar. The new company that makes Sigma now uses this model number in their current line-up, but don't be confused by that. This is definitely one of the older models and you can tell right off the bat by looking at the headstock. During this time period, they actually had 'Sigma Guitars by Martin & Co.' On the headstock. Not much confusion there.

Look at the neck block located inside the sound hole. For all Martin guitars manufactured after 1928, the model and serial number is written here. Some older models also have the serial number written here.

Check the back of the headstock for a four or five digit serial number. Martin guitars manufactured between 1898 and 1928 often have the serial number stamped on the headstock. Unfortunately, this is an area of higher wear than the inside of the sound hole, so it is possible that the serial number has been worn off if it is not present. Guitars made before 1898 do not have serial numbers.

Check the neck joint at the back of the guitar for a serial number if none can be found elsewhere. As with the headstock, serial numbers placed here often wear away.

Read the paper label on the inside of your guitar if you have yet to find a serial number. The original Martins had a label that read “Martin and Coupa,” instruments made between 1833 and 1867 have the brand listed as 'C.F. Martin New York,' guitars manufactured between 1867 and 1898 have the brand listed as “C.F. Martin & Co. New York” and guitars made from 1898 onwards read “C.F. Martin & Co. Nazareth, Pa.”

Visit Martin's website and date your guitar (if you have found the serial number). They have an easy-to-read chart telling you when your guitar was manufactured.

Familiarize yourself with Martin's size designations. The common size designations are O, OO, OOO, OM and D, from small to large. These tell you the rough size of the instrument. Larger instruments tend to be worth more than smaller ones. Placing one of these designations on an older Martin guitar can be difficult, but as long as you have some idea, you can better ascertain the value of your guitar.

Contact Martin directly via their website if you have a guitar you think may be manufactured before 1898 (see Resources). They will help you place an approximate date on your guitar as well as telling you what model of guitar you have.

Tip

If you are having trouble determining the model and serial number of your Martin guitar, take it to a guitar shop and ask the employees there if they know anything about your guitar.

So you need to figure out the date of your Martin guitar. It's actually a lot easier than you may think. Unlike the nebulous web of varying schemes and numbering systems used by companies like Gibson over the decades, Martin has employed a single string of serial numbers for a vast majority of its guitars going all the way back to 1898. This means that just using the serial number of your Martin will give a very accurate date of when the guitar left the line.

The Martin serial number sequence starts at 8348 which is how many guitars the firm had estimated it had produced from its inception to when they started the serial sequence at the end of the 19th century. Martin has kept meticulous records of the serial number of last guitar produced each year, so finding the year of production by serial number is as simple as finding the range it falls into the chart below.

Finding the Serial Number on Your Martin

In a vast majority of cases, the serial number on a Martin guitar can be found inside the body near the neck joint. This can be seen by looking through the soundhole on the guitar towards the front of the instrument. It can be a little dark in there, so you may need to use a flashlight (or the glow of smartphone) to read each digit. There are other instances where you may find the serial number of any extant paperwork that came with the instrument.

Here's the breakdown of Martin serial numbers covering over a century of guitar production. Just see where your serial fits in, and you'll have the year:

Exceptions to the Above

There are a number of exceptions to the above. Most notably, Martin Mandolins from before 1991 use a different sequence than guitars. Additionally, the solidbody electrics like the E18 model from the '70s do not conform to the above. Numbers 900001 to 902908 were used by a short run of Sigma-made Martin models in the early '80s so don't not appear on Martin models.

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Martin Guitar Serial Number List

Sigma Martin Guitar Serial Numbers By Year

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