Does a Gibson hide the serial on an SG anywhere Bought 1 SG from a fuzz(police) auction & I found out before I left, the serial was sanded down.

[SGFanWNC82]

In a completely WHAT DA F### situation...

An SG Gothic(ebony fretboard, 12th fret has an inlay but that's it). I bought it because (1) SG (2) I always wanted one when new (3) it has a pair of Iommi humbuckers in it.

The guitar was part of a drug seizure and it was sealed bid. I apparently won the auction by about $8. The 2nd highest bidder was LE and he had called my home wanting to buy it and I thought things were kosher.

I paid, got a chit, and went to property/evidence control and it came out in case. I checked to make sure the neck was not broken, closed it, and left.

Get home, one of the guys I play in a band with asked me what happened to the headstock. So I was pretty shocked expecting that somehow it had maybe gotten broken coming home. Nope. The serial had been taken to a belt sander and then spraybombed black. Made in the USA and the Year are there.

I called and asked if I could get copies of the pictures and I was told by the county mgr that when an auction closed- they deleted the listing. I contacted the Evidence Control guys and it was during shift change. A guy in his early 20's answered and said "Oh cool ! you bought the Iommi SG !" So I explained it was just a Gothic someone had put in chrome Iommi's and a boost/overdrive circuit in place of a tone pot. The officer in his 20's said he had checked the serial number with Gibson to verify it was not a Chibson(a Chibson in 2004 ?) and he distinctly remembered the serial being there and he said he'd check their search engine history. Well, I called back Thursday and I was told that kid had been reassigned. The older evidence control guy I had picked it up from initially basically told me to screw myself. I really like the guitar but I want to play it out and I was warned with no serial that if I was stopped it could be impounded as "owning stolen property".

I know on classic muscle cars(Mopar freak here) they hid serial numbers. Is there a way I could send this to Gibson and get the serial number restored ? There is a good bit of wood gone from where it was ground off.

I am hoping there is some solution. I did call the HIDTA any they said that for it to have been auctioned it must have had the serial. I asked if I could have the serial or if I could pay them to look it up like doing a FOIA and the officer just sighed and said "Enjoy your guitar. Bye".
Thank you all in advance.

 

[An Abiding Dude]

In a completely WHAT DA F### situation...

An SG Gothic(ebony fretboard, 12th fret has an inlay but that's it). I bought it because (1) SG (2) I always wanted one when new (3) it has a pair of Iommi humbuckers in it.

The guitar was part of a drug seizure and it was sealed bid. I apparently won the auction by about $8. The 2nd highest bidder was LE and he had called my home wanting to buy it and I thought things were kosher.

I paid, got a chit, and went to property/evidence control and it came out in case. I checked to make sure the neck was not broken, closed it, and left.

Get home, one of the guys I play in a band with asked me what happened to the headstock. So I was pretty shocked expecting that somehow it had maybe gotten broken coming home. Nope. The serial had been taken to a belt sander and then spraybombed black. Made in the USA and the Year are there.

I called and asked if I could get copies of the pictures and I was told by the county mgr that when an auction closed- they deleted the listing. I contacted the Evidence Control guys and it was during shift change. A guy in his early 20's answered and said "Oh cool ! you bought the Iommi SG !" So I explained it was just a Gothic someone had put in chrome Iommi's and a boost/overdrive circuit in place of a tone pot. The officer in his 20's said he had checked the serial number with Gibson to verify it was not a Chibson(a Chibson in 2004 ?) and he distinctly remembered the serial being there and he said he'd check their search engine history. Well, I called back Thursday and I was told that kid had been reassigned. The older evidence control guy I had picked it up from initially basically told me to screw myself. I really like the guitar but I want to play it out and I was warned with no serial that if I was stopped it could be impounded as "owning stolen property".

I know on classic muscle cars(Mopar freak here) they hid serial numbers. Is there a way I could send this to Gibson and get the serial number restored ? There is a good bit of wood gone from where it was ground off.

I am hoping there is some solution. I did call the HIDTA any they said that for it to have been auctioned it must have had the serial. I asked if I could have the serial or if I could pay them to look it up like doing a FOIA and the officer just sighed and said "Enjoy your guitar. Bye".
Thank you all in advance.

An interesting, yet I imagine, a frustrating story. Out of curiosity, what is your country of origin? I take it you're in a touring band so that traveling between countries is an issue? Otherwise, if you're just gigging and playing locally, it wouldn't be an issue, right? You could just play the guitar and enjoy it with that one nagging issue of the serial number clawing at the back of your mind for eternity. An itch that possibly can't be scratched, but you got a cool guitar at, I'd imagine, a fairly good price? If you got Gibson to fork over a list of serial numbers for that guitar in the year it was manufactured, you then track down and verify every other owner, by the process of elimination, you could figure it out, but I don't see that really happening. For the record, I'm not mocking your plight, just kind of pointing out your uphill battle. Unless there is some chemical thing that could raise the numbers? But if the sanding was deep enough, then that's out the window...you've got a tough nut here, SG brother. The only other thing I can think of is to keep a copy of the documentation from the auction and present it to airport authorities before you fly and explain the story to them so the custodial history of the guitar would be a non-issue.

 

[papagayo]

This is a bad surprise but not very important, no problem if the neck is untouched.
Have fun with your new Gibson SG.

 

[Decadent Dan]

Gibson only added the year separately for a few years when they had changed the format for serial numbers. So at least you have the year. You could stamp or ink something like your birth date on there and keep a copy of the receipt in the case.

 

[OldDog]

You have the receipt from the police auction. How could you face charges for stolen property if it was the police who sold it to you? I'd keep the receipt in the guitar case.

As to capturing the photos: Look at your Internet history and see if the URL is still in your file. If so, open the link and see if it populates from your cache. You might have to do this offline by using your "open with" from a right click. You might also find the page by using the Internet Wayback Machine, https://web.archive.org/, to see if the page was archived.

 

[SGFanWNC82]

I know about archive.org and I know about google cache. However the auction, didn't make archive.org's list of important things.

Yes I play sometimes in Canada and Customs Border Patrol can be very aggressive. They dismantled an Orange amp head of mine and they took down a Marshall Cab and ruined the nicest Celestion's- Old 80's Greenbacks.

 

[PermissionToLand]

Jesus Christ, what an upstanding organization they're running there. Selling you something and then turning around and calling you a criminal and threatening to seize it...

There are no hidden serial numbers, sadly. I suppose the pot codes would be fairly unique. What is it that you're concerned about needing a serial for? It could present a problem with reselling and border crossings, indeed. Otherwise, it's not a big deal if you know it's genuine.

 

[Huntroll]

I would try to remove the finish in the serial number area with acetone.

Let it dry a couple days.

Then make some really fine pencil lead dust.

Then, little by little, rub some of the lead dust across that area while shining a bright light on there to see if any of the wood grain still holds the any of the impression.

 

[laza616]

Its genuine guitar isnt it? So whats the matter with the serial number if you have won the guitar in the action with good faith? You sre legitimate and rightful owner

What would happen on the situation when you simply decided to sand down the serial number just because? You can do whatever you want with it

 

[Col Mustard]

well and so... I agree with my colleagues here.
You own a stolen guitar. But... IF your story is true and
you bought legally it from a police auction (and you can prove that)
then you cannot be charged with any criminal activity.

I would just play it. But I would NOT attempt to take it on an airplane
or attempt to cross any border in possession of it. And I would keep the receipt in the case with it at all times. If you're touring it will just
be a liability... and potentially attract more trouble to you than you need.

It would also likely be very hard to sell it unless the receipt is very clear about what it is for. So the instrument's value is only in the music that can be made with it.

My opinion of guitar thieves is so dire that I normally would only say
"Git a rope..."

But maybe the person who was the victim of the theft is a member of
this forum. Wouldn't that be interesting.
Who ever modded that instrument would definitely remember it,
and so would their friends or band mates.

 

[Knucklehead71]

Look at it this way, without a serial number no one has any proof that it was stolen in the first place. You can not be arrested and have your guitar confiscated just because it has no serial number. That doesn't even make sense. What if you built your own guitar and didn't bother to put a serial number on it? What if (as someone mentioned) you decided to remove the serial numbers off all your guitars? They are your property and you can do with them as you like.

The bottom line is that having no serial number is not an issue at all other than it might bother you.