Dating late 90's gibsons

[swampstomper]

I am looking at possibly buying a nice A5L dated 1997. Is there any way to tell whether it was made in Montana or Nashville? And who it is "signed" by? I can ask the seller to look inside the instrument for me or find the S/N. From previous threads I infer that the move to Nashville was just about this time. Finally, any idea on what the "street" selling price was at the time? And a reasonable price now? I see from
Gbase (http://www.gbase.com/) that Elderly has a 2001 for $2350 and I have seen others in that price range earlier in the Classifieds. The "L" has to do with the appointment level (as explained by Big Joe), so I guess that's worth a few hundred.

Many thanks.

[bradeinhorn]

i believe the move was in 1996 so it is probably a nashville.

[dmamlep]

but when in 96, my F5L march 25th 96 montana

[f5loar]

Didn't they bring the remining inventory to Nashville and finish them up? So could be a hybrid.

[dmamlep]

If they did move then it had to be after march 96

[swampstomper]

Thanks for the responses so far. Any comments on the sound and quality? The one I am looking at is really nicely finished, I like the long neck and clean lines. I will play it again today to A/B again the mando I would trade towards it. But in my experience it's hard to get to "know" a mando until I have played it intensively for a while and really explored. The reason I would trade for this would be to get that "Gibson" sound -- I hope you know what I mean -- which I don't have with my current mandos.