Serial number dating / Synths & pedals
Synth and pedal dating
Date a Roland synth or drum machine, a Boss, Electro-Harmonix, Strymon or Line 6 pedal, or an early Korg from its serial number. Pick the maker, enter the serial, and we read it against the maker’s own scheme.
Can't read a digit? Type ? in its place. Looked-up serials are kept, never tied to you. How it works
Type the serial or code from the instrument. We read it as you type.
Date by maker
About synth and pedal dating
How the dating works
Roland put the date in the serial from about 1980: the first two digits are the number of months since November 1980, so they give the month and year of the run. The same scheme dates Boss pedals and Roland drum machines, since Boss is Roland’s pedal brand. From March 1989 to 2010 the serial is two letters and five digits, and the second letter with the first digit counts the months from March 1989. Electro-Harmonix starts a current serial with the full date, Strymon with the year after an S, and Line 6 with the year and month after a W. Korg’s earliest instruments, from about 1966 to 1978, start the serial with the two-digit year.
Not every electronic instrument can be dated from its serial. Later Korg analogs, and Moog, Sequential and ARP synths, were never numbered to a formula. In those cases the surest date is the component date codes inside the unit: the potentiometers and other parts carry an EIA code that the pot and speaker code reader decodes.
How sure is it
Every result carries its confidence. The Roland month code and the Korg year prefix date an instrument well within their eras. Treat the year as a strong guide, and where the serial cannot date the unit, we say so rather than guess.