Tacoma guitar serial number lookup
![tacoma guitar serial number lookup tacoma guitar serial number lookup](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2098/2901/products/IMG_8944_110x110@2x.jpg)
Most other instruments made at about that time, even most of the Washburns, were not up to Martin standards. They’re exquisitely made and of equal quality to the instruments made by the Martin Company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Howe-Orme also promoted the mandolin orchestra idea before Gibson. Oddly, the scale lengths on these instruments don’t track at all with the Gibson scale lengths, but I believe Howe-Orme was making the family of mandolins before Gibson did. The next sizes up were their tenor mandola, an octave mandola, and a cello mandola. They made what are now known as mandolinettos, a short-scale, soprano ukulele-sized mandolin with eight metal strings. They made a complete family of mandolin-style instruments with guitar shapes. The Orme-branded ones were distributed in Canada, and the Howe-Ormes were distributed in the U.S. The Orme instruments we’re likely made in Boston, though some may have been made in Ottawa. Some have the Orme brand name, and some are Howe-Ormes. A guy named James Back seems to have designed the instruments for him. They had complete lines of instruments, which were known as the Howe-Ormes. They sold all kinds of parts to make violins, as well as tools and banjo heads. It looks like a cross between a regular wholesale music business and a complete lutherie supply business. I have a copy of the company’s catalog from about 1897. He had signed a non-compete agreement with Ditson, but came back into the publishing business after the Civil War.Īround the 1870s, he founded a publishing house in Boston and also started to distribute musical products. He went on to establish a very successful music publishing business, which he ultimately sold to the Oliver Ditson Company. He then wrote and published the first “Teach Yourself to Play Violin” book and the first accordion method published in the U.S. He had major success selling these books door to door. He took the idea to a printer in Boston who thought it was such a good idea that he fronted the cost of the plates and printing up an edition. In the 1840s he had tired of purchasing sheet music one song at a time and wondered why there couldn’t be a collection of popular fiddle tunes published in a book. The Howe who interests me was a virtuoso fiddler. They were born a year apart before the Civil War. There were two men named Elias Howe: One invented the sewing machine, and the other helped establish the music-publishing business in America.
![tacoma guitar serial number lookup tacoma guitar serial number lookup](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0112/7482/products/IMG_0377copyTacomaTravel_1024x1024@2x.jpg)
They’re one of those weird branches of the guitar tree that just died off in the teens.Įlias Howe started the company that wound up making and distributing the guitars. The middle third of the top is raised and is bent in an arch. Their guitars have a tilting neck and a uniquely arched top that is bent in a cylindrical direction. I first started coming across Howe-Orme instruments when I was an apprentice guitar repairman in Boston in 1963. For models older than 1993, please refer to the chart below.The Howe-Orme Style 6 from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries had a Brazilian rosewood back and an abalone fingerboard. The last two digits denote the guitar’s position in that day’s production sequence.
#Tacoma guitar serial number lookup code
The seventh digit is a series code number – 0 for 300 or 400 Series, 1 for 500 thru Presentation Series, 2 for 200 Series, 3 for Baby and Big Baby Series, 5 for T5, 7 for Nylon Series, 8 for 100 Series, and 9 for SolidBody Series. Reading left to right, the first two digits (or four starting in 2000) represent the year the second pair of digits represent the month and the third pair of digits represents the calendar day that work was begun. As of 2000, the serial number expanded to 11 digits to accommodate the four-digit year designation. Factory designation: 1 = El Cajon 2 = TecateĪccordingly, the serial number for the first guitar built in the Tecate factory on Novemis 2011029001.įrom 1993 until the end of 1999, each Taylor guitar featured a nine-digit serial number that precisely pinpoints when work was begun on that guitar.