Vega

[John Bertotti]

What do they mean? Sr# Date code? Anyone know please let me know. Thanks John

[MANDOLINMYSTER]

On most Vega headstocks there is a ser # stamped. I don't know the dating system, but I'm sure Bob D will chime in with some info for us http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[John Bertotti]

Thanks I don't know if this will help but the # is 274 92. The space is because the first three are on one side and the last two on the other side of the valley in the headstock. Thanks John

[8ch(pl)]

According to my Vega list, 27492 is 1911.

[MANDOLINMYSTER]

Glen,


Were did you get your list of serial #'s for Vega's, is it the same as banjo sn#'s?? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[John Bertotti]

Glen thanks! That is incredible information. Where would I find a history of this company. Are there records that record the techniques used the people involved? I think all the builders now should keep good documentation. I never thought I would care where it came from but now I have it I have a new desire to know. Thanks all John

[8ch(pl)]

It is the banjo list, I have heard that mandoins were different in serial numbers,as well, I have heard they are the same. I have had this list for at least 5 or 6 years. I got it from 4 String Banjo Links, in the history section. it comes from Joe Bethancourt's website. You should be able to find it under "White Tree Productions", under banjo serial numbers (I just did). Banjos at this time were marked A.C. Fairbanks and Vega. I believe the mandolins were marked vega. The fairbanks name was dropped about 1923 and all the instruments were Vega.

[Bob DeVellis]

Here's my take after a fairly extensive bit of research. The Vega Co. took over Fairbanks in 1904, following a fire at Fairbanks. Prior to then, Vega wasn't a banjo company, so it seemed natural for the new Vega-Fairbanks banjo line, under the production of David L. Day who came over from Fairbanks, to use the earlier, Fairbanks, numbering system. The controversy has concerned the mandolins. Vega had been making mandolins from well before the Fairbanks acquisition. This begs the question, did Vega stick with an earlier numbering system for mandolins or switch to a Fairbanks-originated system? We know that David L. Day was in charge not only of banjo production at the post-merger Vega, but also ran the mandolin operation. On the one hand, it seems unlikely that Vega would abandon a serial number sequence it had used for years just because they had gotten a new guy to head up their fretted instrument division. On the other hand, Day might have figured, why not use the same number sequence for all the instruments coming out of the shop, be they banjo or mandolin? I struggled with this for some time until some very knowledgable people (Jim Bollman, Ed Britt, and Mike Holmes) raised an intriguing issue: Did Vega even use serial numbers before the Fairbanks acquisition? I've not been able to find anyone who's seen a pre-1904 mandolin that (a) is unquestionably a Vega and (b) that has a serial number. Also, Vega cylinder backs with a "patent pending" brand have serial numbers that, if from the Vega series, would put them right where they should be, 1913, the year of the cylinder back patent. So, based on all of this -- and in a revision of the view I once held -- I now believe that the banjo serial numbers can be applied to Vega mandolins, as well. Of course, the existing lists are all approximate, but they certainly provide a reasonable guesstimate for date-number correspondence. If a slew of pre-1904 Vega mandolins suddenly turn up with serial numbers and those numbers match up with the post-1904 sequence, then this theory is dead in the water. But it hasn't happened yet, to my knowledge, and seems unlikely but not impossible.