A faked serial number means stolen property, dont think it's a question that the guitar is authentic, its a question of why the back of the headstock and serial number appear tampered with smart one
This guitar has been de-valued bud.......and not by a small amount.
What I think is that I have seen the machine that stamps the serial numbers and it is not designed for those size numbers to stamp across the top of the guitar in the serial number position.
No one is claiming a conspiracy, but the brother asked for opinions, so he got opinions....and most of them have been spot-on.
What we are claiming is that we know a little more about this than you seem to.
Carry on.....
This is from a traditional pro I used to own .
I can guarantee two things.
1) It was not tampered with.
2) It was stamped by hand. (line was added for a visual aid)
If you cant tell , you must need glasses.
View attachment 351083
Devalued ?
Even without a serial number it is still a nice Traditional. You know , for PLAYING MUSIC .
So you know for sure it has been tampered with ?
Don’t see how you or anyone else can de-value a guitar you have never seen or held a UV light up to !! LOL !
You mean these presses at Gibson that you can attach just about anything you want to ?
View attachment 351078
Gibson showed you all of the stamping equipment they own as well ?
Not the year stamp but same size and font ?
Hm ... seems to me that is the most logical explanation for this . The 7012 or w/e is lined right up in a group of FOUR (4) .
But what do I know right since you guys know everything:
Yup. If I see that advertised on Craigslist, show up and see that serial number, I’m walking.^ And hence the 'devalued' bit.
stop while you're ahead......that hole is getting very deep.
my bad, no harm meant.
Somebody else can probably better speak to this on its validation and usefulness in this case but I think there was a point Gibson was putting some kind of scannable RF device possibly in the neck during the build for production purposes? And possibly if that's indeed true and can be read could reveal the true serial number. Now if you'd want to do that for various reasons is another matter. Might be best to know what you know at this point and let it rest
Well that's damn decent of you if you could ever find the real owner if you ever confirm its stolen etc. I can totally appreciate that you can't fully bond with it yourself at this point. Good luck either wayWell if it is stolen I'd rather just give it back to its rightful owner. It's basically worthless right now so it's no further loss to me just to give it back. Then I can buy one that will truly be mine.
BTW I discovered something interesting today: The numbers 197 are written in pencil in the electronics cavity.
View attachment 353605
...enhanced with photoshop
View attachment 353606
...original picture
That would suggest that the -197- in the serial number is probably correct. So now we know that the true serial number is 11970_ _ _ _. I emailed Gibson again pointing this out and asking if anything else can be done to identify it. I'm waiting on their reply.
I think the OP already stated Gibson has no record of the serial number so I'd take that betI would bet the whole serial is correct .
Use a UV light on the guitar and you can instantly tell if there has been any refinishing done .
They sell them as pet urine detector lights at Wally’s.
Also your guitar is not worthless and I would consider $1200 to be a great price .
Edit : the 6th digit can only be a 0 or a 1 (batch number)