Inked Serial No Database: Tell Us About Your Inked Serial LR

[Skybone]

There's loads of confusion out there about inked serial Love Rock's, their date of manufacture and "period" features that were found on other guitars in the range.

We have established that most of the inked serial guitars out there are in fact LS-60's, and I thought that it was about time we all got our heads together and tried to find out a bit more about the strange phenomena that is the inked serial Love Rock... Best way to do it, IMO, is to compare specs and serial no.'s (first 4 digit's should suffice if you don't want to show your serial no.).

I have an LS-60 with an inked serial no. starting 0100***, it has the "double ring" tulip button Kluson style tuners, the pointy style truss rod cover, an ABR-1 style bridge, and the PCB mounted pots in the control cavity, colour is sort of tobacco sunburst.

On the basis of the "double ring" tuners, which were found on the Reborn/Old range, and the fact that this guitar is a Love Rock, it points me to believe that it was made in 1980, according to the Registry info, the Love Rock line started in 1980, and the Reborn/Old line finished.

What does your inked serial guitar tell us?

 

[hans-j?rgen]

We have established that most of the inked serial guitars out there are in fact LS-60's, and I thought that it was about time we all got our heads together and tried to find out a bit more about the strange phenomena that is the inked serial Love Rock... Best way to do it, IMO, is to compare specs and serial no.'s (first 4 digit's should suffice if you don't want to show your serial no.).

Good idea, but including pictures of the back and front of the headstock will also help with identifying. And maybe you could list the most relevant threads about this topic here, too?

 

[Skybone]

Listing the "relevant threads" would probably take up too much space...!

 

[QuattroSte]

OK. I have what I believe to be a 1981 LS50 that has an inked seriel number. You can find pictures of it here.

http://homepage.mac.com/ste_mooney/PhotoAlbum3.html

Single ring kluson style tuners!!
Seriel number 1101996
Not sure if the truss rod cover is pointy or not? You can see it in the pictures.

Where does this leave us?

 

[hans-j?rgen]

Where does this leave us?

No contradiction if you mean the single ring tuners, because Love Rocks usually don't have the double ones. And the truss rod cover looks OK, too, for a 1981 model.

 

[Skybone]

The general confusion lies with the year the guitars were made, as a lot of "discussion" has been traded about the dating of inked serial no. guitars.

My LS-60 is something of an anomaly, having the double ring tuners, which is why I think it's a 1980 guitar, the tuners alone point to the "transition" between Les Paul Reborn/Old and Love Rock, as the double ring tuners appear to be a feature of theirs, NOT Love Rock's. The first Love Rocks appeared in 1980 according to the Registry data.

Nice looking guitar QuattroSte!

 

[Loudmouse]

Here's an LS-50 with the double rings. Has the PC board and ABR-1 and had the pointy truss rod cover and "GOTO patent applied for" double hex pickups. Serial # 0100259
http://home.earthlink.net/~glopresti

 

[Skybone]

Another anomaly or another 1980 "transition" guitar? I'm voting for the latter option (as it supports my theory).

Whichever, it's a good looking Love Rock.

Any more "inkies" out there?

 

[Skybone]

More detailed pics of my LS60.

I've changed the pickups to a set of chrome covered Bare Knuckle Emeralds, the originals (GOTO PAF's) are safely tucked away...

Come on guys, there's got to be more "inkies" out there...

 

[togps]

Come on guys, there's got to be more "inkies" out there...

Yup, sure. Skybone, how many do you want? I've pics of 15 guitars at least. :wink:

 

[Skybone]

Well, that's a start... :lol:

 

[Jim Jones]

I'm borrowing an "inkie" from a friend as we speak. He had it strung with 11's and I'm a wuss so I asked him if he'd mind if I put on some 10's. Doing this allowed to take a peak at some things.

The serial number is inked on and starts with "800". It is a LS-60 in cherry sunburst, solid top, LS-60CS inked in the neck pickup cavity. No markings on the pickups at all. It has double ring kluson copies (nickel) with "Tokai" on the backs. The tailpiece is definitely aluminum (extremely light), although it and the ABR (sans wire) appear to be chrome plated. The pickups seem to be chrome as well. It's a "Les Paul Reborn" by the way...

I assumed it was a '78 because of the serial number, but I didn't realize that series of numbers only referred to stamped rather than inked numbers.

I don't know if this helps any or just adds to the confusion.

Jim

 

[Skybone]

Well that's a turn up for the books, I wasn't aware of any Reborns being inkies, thought they were all stamped.

These features seem pretty common on Reborns (except the inked serial no. AFAIK), not so common on Love Rock's. Thanks for the info though, and enjoy the guitar!

 

[sixstringtrouble]

Hi skybone, check out Hans-Juergens thread about the "Tokai mad" in another forum.

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=5372

This japanese guy is showing some catalogs. Check out the 1978

http://reborn78.hp.infoseek.co.jp/catalog.files/catalog_001.htm

and go to page 9 bottom left. Theres a picture of a guitar with an inked serial number.

By the way why do you and others block off the complete serial number on the pictures of their guitars? What's their and your reason?

cheers, h