Edwards Guitar Serial Numbers
I’ve looked inside and the label says Anne 1982.a 82. Model No (I’d never noticed the model had my name before) Serial number is 20373 followed by 57.4.02 (Which according to your Emperor information confirms that the guitar was made in 1982. Making it 28 yrs old. Selling this early Edwards Les Paul Custom in perfect conditions. I bought this directly in the ESP factory in Tokyo in the end of the 90s. As all early Edwards truss rod cover says 'by Navigator' and no serial number on the head stock (serial number at that time was in the pick up cavity).
I've been playing and collecting ESP's and they are the only guitars I'm really interested in nowadays. That's why I've gathered as much info about them as possible. Here's some:ESP has 6 Custom Shops in Japan;Technical House - serial number THxxxxxxxCraft House - s/n CHxxxxxxxKiso CS - s/n KxxxxxxxTakada, Tokyo CS - s/n TxxxxxxxSado Island CS - s/n SxxxxxxxN(agoya?) CS - s/n NxxxxxxxTechnical House and Craft House are walk-in guitar shops which make also custom order and artist guitars. Both located in Tokyo Central.Kiso is a factory which makes custom order, Original Series guitars, and Custom Shop versions of Signature guitars.Takada makes most of the Japanese market custom orders, but also some of the oversea customer's order guitars.Sado CS is located in Sado Island and makes bolt-on guitars only.The 'N' custom shop is a mystery to me, I've seen only a few of them. Probably similar to Takada shop, but with smaller production numbers.All of these shops above make guitars by hand only, with the highest quality timber and craftmanship.
No CNC machines are being used.Navigator guitars are basically ESP CS guitars with a different logo. They make them in all of the shops above.The Standard Series factory is located in the Kiso Factory. Standard Series guitars aren't made by the same team that makes the Kiso CS guitars though. SS guitars are mostly made by using CNC machines and finished and assembled by hand. The timber used is not the highest quality like on the CS guitars, but still good. I'd say the quality is in between the Edwards models and CS models.
The s/n of the SS series guitars are usually starting with SS, but there's some special order runs made by retail stores which may have different serial. Like Pro Music Tools special orders = PMTxxxxxxx. These always have the 'Standard Series' stamp on the back of the headstock.The only way to figure out for sure where a guitar was made is the s/n. There's also the stamps, but Japanese market guitars don't usually have them. The current serial numbering system was started in 2000, so guitars made before that may not have a s/n at all, or a s/n which doesn't really give any info.The video posted earlier on reply #53 was filmed in Takada CS. The one with the Anthrax guys was probably filmed in the SS facility in Kiso.
Edwards Guitar Serial Numbers
It has probably been said a million times, but it never really hit me until yesterday that ESP in Japan basically means Custom Shop. It just seems odd to me that in Japan the quality hierarchy goes directly from Edwards (built in China) straight to ESP Original Series (hand-carved and made only by the most highly skilled luthiers).
It's like if Fender only offered MIM and the Custom Shop in the US, but everywhere else in the world got the Standard American models. Unless I'm totally misunderstanding something.Oh, and about the N serial number thing. It has probably been said a million times, but it never really hit me until yesterday that ESP in Japan basically means Custom Shop.
It just seems odd to me that in Japan the quality hierarchy goes directly from Edwards (built in China) straight to ESP Original Series (hand-carved and made only by the most highly skilled luthiers). It's like if Fender only offered MIM and the Custom Shop in the US, but everywhere else in the world got the Standard American models. Unless I'm totally misunderstanding something.Oh, and about the N serial number thing. I've been playing and collecting ESP's and they are the only guitars I'm really interested in nowadays. That's why I've gathered as much info about them as possible. Here's some:ESP has 6 Custom Shops in Japan;Technical House - serial number THxxxxxxxCraft House - s/n CHxxxxxxxKiso CS - s/n KxxxxxxxTakada, Tokyo CS - s/n TxxxxxxxSado Island CS - s/n SxxxxxxxN(agoya?) CS - s/n NxxxxxxxTechnical House and Craft House are walk-in guitar shops which make also custom order and artist guitars.
Both located in Tokyo Central.Kiso is a factory which makes custom order, Original Series guitars, and Custom Shop versions of Signature guitars.Takada makes most of the Japanese market custom orders, but also some of the oversea customer's order guitars.Sado CS is located in Sado Island and makes bolt-on guitars only.The 'N' custom shop is a mystery to me, I've seen only a few of them. Probably similar to Takada shop, but with smaller production numbers.All of these shops above make guitars by hand only, with the highest quality timber and craftmanship. No CNC machines are being used.Navigator guitars are basically ESP CS guitars with a different logo.
They make them in all of the shops above.The Standard Series factory is located in the Kiso Factory. Standard Series guitars aren't made by the same team that makes the Kiso CS guitars though. SS guitars are mostly made by using CNC machines and finished and assembled by hand. The timber used is not the highest quality like on the CS guitars, but still good. I'd say the quality is in between the Edwards models and CS models. The s/n of the SS series guitars are usually starting with SS, but there's some special order runs made by retail stores which may have different serial. Like Pro Music Tools special orders = PMTxxxxxxx.
These always have the 'Standard Series' stamp on the back of the headstock.The only way to figure out for sure where a guitar was made is the s/n. There's also the stamps, but Japanese market guitars don't usually have them. The current serial numbering system was started in 2000, so guitars made before that may not have a s/n at all, or a s/n which doesn't really give any info.The video posted earlier on reply #53 was filmed in Takada CS. The one with the Anthrax guys was probably filmed in the SS facility in Kiso.