I stumbled across this very interesting article from Frank Ford today. He describes a process he uses to recover a serial number from an old Gibson F-4 mandolin that has faded away. This is a fairly common occurrence. The factory order number on my F-2 is visible, but the serial number has long since disappeared.

I’m not sure I’m gung-ho to go through this process, but it is an interesting bit of sleuthing with some cool mando porn.

Courtesy of Frets.com