Guitar Serial Number Lookups: What 24,743 Searches Show
Data from 24,743 guitar serial number lookups, July to October 2026: which brands people check, where their guitars were made, which decades turn up, and how often a serial can't be read.
By Nick TheodoulouUpdated
On this page
- Guitar Serial Number Lookups 2026: What 24,743 Searches Show
- Which guitar brands people look up most
- Where Squier guitars are made
- Fender: USA, Japan or Mexico?
- Other brands worth noting
- How often a serial can't be read
- Who is checking, and how
- What this means if you're buying a used guitar
- How we collected this data
- Use this data
- FAQ
Guitar Serial Number Lookups 2026: What 24,743 Searches Show
Between July and 24 October 2026, people ran 24,743 guitar serial number lookups on Owning A Fender's free decoders, covering 23,042 different serial numbers across 23 brands. This report is what those lookups show about the guitars people are buying, selling and inheriting right now.
Every number here comes from our own lookup tools, with bots filtered out. It shows which guitars people check, which is not the same as which guitars were built. A Squier is far more likely to change hands on a marketplace than a guitar that never leaves its owner, and people check guitars they are about to pay for. That is what makes this data useful: it is a snapshot of the used market as buyers see it.
Key findings
- Squier is checked more than any other brand: 29% of all lookups, 2.6 times as many as Fender.
- Half of all decoded Squiers were made in Indonesia, most of them at Cort's factory. China is next at a third.
- Japanese Fenders are checked more often than Mexican ones: 27% of decoded Fenders against 25%.
- The 1980s are almost as common as the 2000s for Fender, driven by Japanese-made guitars from that decade.
- 31% of serials don't match a documented format. For Ibanez, Gretsch, Harley Benton and Chapman, most lookups can't be dated from the serial alone.
- 42% of lookups come from a phone, often while someone is looking at a listing.
Which guitar brands people look up most
| Brand | Lookups | Share of all lookups | Serial matched a known format |
|---|---|---|---|
| Squier | 7,296 | 29.5% | 74% |
| Fender | 2,821 | 11.4% | 67% |
| Martin | 1,843 | 7.4% | 88% |
| PRS | 1,632 | 6.6% | 81% |
| Ibanez | 1,402 | 5.7% | 38% |
| Gibson | 1,313 | 5.3% | 84% |
| Yamaha | 1,169 | 4.7% | 54% |
| ESP | 1,087 | 4.4% | 59% |
| Epiphone | 755 | 3.1% | 61% |
| Taylor | 746 | 3.0% | 87% |
| Schecter | 717 | 2.9% | 77% |
| Cort | 706 | 2.9% | 55% |
| All other | 3,256 | 13.2% | 60% |
The other brands, in order, are Gretsch, Takamine, Jackson, Charvel, Seagull, Guild, LTD, Eastman, Rickenbacker, Harley Benton and Chapman. The downloadable data has every brand.
Squier's lead is the clearest result in the data. Squier guitars are cheap enough to buy on a whim, they sell in huge numbers, and they are the guitars most often resold, gifted or found in a loft. Many owners also want to know which factory and which era they have, because a Japanese or early Korean Squier is worth more than a recent one. The Squier serial number lookup gets more searches than the Fender one for the same reason.
Acoustic brands are a bigger part of the picture than you might expect. Martin, Taylor, Takamine, Seagull, Guild and Eastman together account for 15% of lookups, and Martin alone is the third most checked brand.
Where Squier guitars are made
Of the 5,391 Squier lookups that decoded to a factory and year:
| Country of manufacture | Lookups | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | 2,746 | 51% |
| China | 1,778 | 33% |
| Korea | 602 | 11% |
| Japan (Fujigen) | 176 | 3% |
| Mexico and Vietnam | 87 | 2% |
Cort's Indonesian factory alone made 2,298 of them, 43% of every decoded Squier. Samick's Indonesian plant adds another 425. In China, the Yako factory made 779.
By decade, the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s split evenly, at roughly a quarter each. The 1980s, when Squier began in Japan and moved to Korea, make up 11%. The 1990s are smaller, at 7%.
A small number of Squier lookups (167) returned a date before 1982, when the Squier brand started. These are probably Fender serials checked in the Squier tool, so we leave them out of the era figures above.
Japanese Squiers are rare in this data, at 3%. If a seller describes a Squier as "Japanese" or "JV", it is worth checking the serial before you pay a premium for it.
Fender: USA, Japan or Mexico?
Of the 1,898 Fender lookups that decoded to a country:
| Country of manufacture | Lookups | Share |
|---|---|---|
| USA | 880 | 46% |
| Japan | 510 | 27% |
| Mexico | 470 | 25% |
| China | 22 | 1% |
Japanese Fenders outnumber Mexican ones, even though Fender's Ensenada factory has been building guitars in large numbers since 1987. Our reading is that Japanese Fenders change hands as collectable guitars, and buyers check them because so much of their value depends on the exact era and factory (Fujigen or Dyna Gakki).
The decades show the same pattern:
| Decade | Share of decoded Fenders |
|---|---|
| 2000s | 20% |
| 1980s | 19% |
| 1990s | 15% |
| 2010s | 14% |
| 1970s | 13% |
| 2020s | 8% |
| 1950s, 1960s | 10% |
The 1980s are nearly as common as the 2000s. That decade covers the end of the CBS era, the 1985 sale of Fender and the years when Japan made most Fender-branded guitars. It is also the decade with the most confusing serial numbers, which is why people look them up. One in ten decoded Fenders dates from the 1950s or 1960s.
The Fender serial number lookup covers all of these formats. If the year it gives doesn't match the neck date, the guide to Fender neck dates vs serial numbers explains which one to trust.
Other brands worth noting
PRS: 43% of decoded PRS guitars are SE models from Korea, Indonesia or China, against 57% made in the USA.
Taylor: 38% of decoded Taylors were made in Tecate, Mexico. The rest came from El Cajon, California.
Martin: 96 decoded Martins date from before 1950, 6% of the total, which says a lot about how long Martin acoustics stay in use. The 2020s are the single biggest decade, at 26%.
Gibson: 18% of decoded Gibsons date from the 1960s, the third-largest decade after the 2000s (28%) and the 2010s (22%). Gibson reused serial numbers across several years in the 1960s, which is why these guitars are worth checking with the Gibson serial number lookup and their other features.
Ibanez: 71% of decoded Ibanez guitars were made in Japan, and 31% date from the 1970s. That decade includes the "lawsuit era" copies, which are among the most researched guitars in this data.
Jackson: 48% of decoded Jacksons are from the 1990s, more than any other decade.
Epiphone: just over half (52%) of decoded Epiphones were made in China, with Japan and Korea next.
How often a serial can't be read
About 31% of lookups did not match any documented serial format. That doesn't mean the guitars are fake. The common reasons are:
- A typo or a misread character, such as 0 and O, or 1 and I, on a worn decal.
- A brand that doesn't publish its system. Harley Benton and Chapman serials matched a known format only 13% of the time. Both have used more than one contract factory, and neither publishes a full decoding scheme.
- Formats with many variations. Ibanez (38% matched), Gretsch (41%) and Yamaha (54%) have used many numbering systems across factories and decades.
- A part that isn't original, such as a replacement neck or neck plate carrying a serial from another guitar.
- Occasionally, a counterfeit. A serial in a format the brand never used is one of the warning signs covered in our guide on how to tell if a Fender is fake.
When a serial doesn't decode, Owning A Fender's tools say so instead of guessing a year. Guessing is how buyers end up paying vintage prices for a guitar from the wrong decade.
Who is checking, and how
- 47% of lookups came from the US, 10% from the UK, 5% from Canada, then Germany, Australia, France and the Netherlands. People in more than 60 countries ran lookups.
- 42% were on a phone and 51% on a desktop. Phone lookups are typically buyers checking a guitar at a listing, in a shop or at a seller's house.
- Repeat checks are rare. The 24,743 lookups covered 23,042 different serials, so most people check one guitar, get an answer and move on.
- August was the busiest full month, with 8,724 lookups, followed by September with 7,251.
What this means if you're buying a used guitar
- Check the serial before you pay, especially on a Squier or Fender sold as Japanese, early Korean or vintage. Those labels carry a premium, and they are the claims the data shows people checking most.
- Treat a serial that doesn't decode as a question, not a verdict. Recheck the characters, check the neck date and photos, and ask the seller where the guitar came from.
- Use more than the serial. Serials can be reused, misprinted or moved between necks and bodies. The decoder gives you the year and factory, and the guitar itself has to agree.
You can check the brands in this report with the free guitar serial number lookup. It needs no sign-up.
How we collected this data
- Source: every serial number lookup on owningafender.com from July 2026, the start of our lookup records, to 24 October 2026.
- Bots excluded: requests identified as bots by their user agent are removed. Lookups repeated in the same browser session count once.
- Known result: the serial matched a documented format for that brand, and the decoder returned a year and a factory or country. The decade and country tables only count these lookups.
- Visitor country comes from the network location of the request, not from the guitar.
- Privacy: the report uses aggregate counts only. No serial numbers, names or other personal details are published, and any group under 10 lookups is merged into "other".
- Limits: this is a picture of what our visitors look up, not a census of guitar production. Brands with fewer lookups have wider margins of error, and the share of lookups a brand gets also depends on how prominent its lookup page is in search results.
Use this data
You are welcome to quote or chart these numbers in an article, video or forum post. Please credit Owning A Fender and link to this page: https://owningafender.com/guitar-serial-number-report.
The full aggregate dataset, with every brand, decade, factory and country bucket, is available as a JSON download. For questions about the data, or a breakdown that isn't here, use the contact page.
FAQ
What is the most looked-up guitar brand?
Squier, with 29.5% of the 24,743 lookups in this report. That is 2.6 times as many as Fender, the second most looked-up brand.
Where are most Squier guitars made?
Of the Squiers in this data that decoded to a factory, 51% were made in Indonesia (mostly at Cort's factory), 33% in China, 11% in Korea and 3% in Japan.
Are Japanese Fenders common?
Yes. 27% of decoded Fender lookups were Japanese-made guitars, slightly more than Mexican-made ones (25%). US-made Fenders were 46%.
What does it mean if my guitar's serial number doesn't decode?
Usually a typo, a brand that doesn't publish its serial system, or a format with many variations. It is rarely proof of a fake on its own. Check the characters again, then compare the neck date, hardware and logo.
How accurate is a serial number for dating a guitar?
For most modern brands it gives the year and factory reliably. Older Gibson, Ibanez and Yamaha serials can point to more than one year, and parts can be swapped, so confirm the serial with the neck date and the guitar's features.
Can I use this data in my own article?
Yes. Quote or chart it with credit to Owning A Fender and a link to this page. The JSON download has every number.
How often will this report be updated?
The plan is to update it once a year, so trends like the Squier factory mix can be compared over time.
Does this data include serial numbers people searched for?
No. It contains aggregate counts only. Individual serial numbers are never published.
