Production Process and Codes On ST Bolt On Models

[Sigmania]

Oh well. I give up.... It may turn up when we are looking at something else entirely.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

The sentence from Felixcatus' email I quoted explains that the code refers to a lot, it further explains that the first number is the month - that implies that the second number is the lot number.

This morning I - for a change - considered that by "lot" they actually meant "lot" and googled "lot production" and learned that this is a basic principle in factory production planning. I further learned that finding/adapting lot size depends on demand and whether you produce for stock or to order, and that the size of a lot can be anything from "a single item" to "a lot of items" to be produced. That's why I wrote this lengthy drivel on the last page.

The high lot numbers in 1978 may indicate that they produced smaller lots, maybe for individual customers (=wholesalers, stores) indeed, then demand increased so much that this was no longer a practical lot size.

 

[ATO]

So far I haven't found a TE or ST with the same code, which would support batches/lots of the same guitar type for stock or order. If some go to stock, some order and the plate gets issued when a guitar goes into an order then that would make sense of some of the serial oddities.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Quoted from the 1981 serial thread, where I posted the last guitar in this list and ATO put it together with what he got so far:

These are the ones I've seen for Dec 81

12=4N 12=5B ST50 MR 1023106
12=5B 11=5N ST55 LB 1023859
12=5B 1=3N ST55 N 1024158 (Jan 82 neck?)
12=5B 11=5N ST55 LB 1024464

That's one of the areas in ATO's stamp-sorted list that seem to illustrate what I was saying: Sales collected a sufficient number of orders for 2-piece body models (together with other models or not), so production management commissioned them as "lot" #5 (or part of it).

The "1=3" outlier neck could be another case of a faded '1' but it doesn't have to be: Bodies and necks were almost certainly produced simultaneously and to some degree independently. Both body and neck production got a slip for producing nn pieces for lot #5.

Now I imagine/speculate/dream that they didn't always make 100 bodies and 100 necks for a 100 guitar lot, they occasionally made 110, because things can go wrong and I'm pretty sure they maintained a small amount of stock parts and finished guitars for urgent orders, repairs etc.. Every now and then something goes wrong, the supply chain has a hickup, a neck or a body is ruined, a customer changes the order amount last minute and so they pull parts out of their "cache" (or put some in). That's how the numbers don't match sometimes..."we have 10 surplus necks (or bodies) from the last lot, use those first".

Supply chain hickups is also how you could explain that you occasionally find a nice solid maple top on a guitar that should have a veneer top, a one-piece body on an ST50 or TE-A pickups in my TE70.

 

[felixcatus]

Precisely. And also why I invoked felixcatus to see if there was any more to it than what he had posted. Whatever it is may have simply been overlooked. Worth probing.

I'm sorry to say, that was all I got....

 

[ATO]

So far I haven't found a TE or ST with the same code, which would support batches/lots of the same guitar type for stock or order. If some go to stock, some order and the plate gets issued when a guitar goes into an order then that would make sense of some of the serial oddities.

Though I've just spotted and SS85 and an ST100 with the same code.

5=8 ST100 BL 0000188
5=8 SS85 N 0009492

And a further oddity

1=9 TE 1023373 (odd one with MB colour code, should be MR)
1=9 TE50 BB 11486

Two TE's from seemingly the same 'lot' Jan 1982, one with a late 81 serial and one with the new fender type. One to order, the other to stock?

 

[Sigmania]

Note the unusual use of the equals sign on the neck block.

Also note that this is more than a year before Springys got production codes stamped in them. Just serial number and model number before that.

1976 CE400

SN 052476

Cats Eyes CE-400 Acoustic Guitar with Hard Case 70s Spruce Single Plate Cats Eye TOKAI/170 Size