guitarserials

PRS

Paul Reed Smith's serial numbering splits by production origin. Core and S2 are made in Stevensville, Maryland; CE is the older Stevensville economy line; SE is imported (historically Korea, now Indonesia). Most modern PRS formats encode the year somewhere in the digits.

Sources 1 Manufacturer 1 Reference view all

Decode a PRS serial

Quick pick

Supported formats

Main line

Core set-neck pre-2008 single-digit year (1985–2007)

1985–2007
Example 523000 Try it →

Single-digit year prefix + 4–6 sequential digits. The leading digit is the last digit of the production year — so 6 could be 1986, 1996, or 2006. We disambiguate via PRS's official set-neck range table, which lists cumulative sequentials for every year 1985–2024. Each decade's candidate year is cross-checked: the decoded year's last digit must match the prefix or the match is rejected.

Gotchas & format-specific sources
  • If the sequential doesn't fall in a documented set-neck range, the matcher returns year null; listing-year context drives the confidence tier via the three-tier rule.
  • The same single-digit prefixes can mean different model lines ("7" = CE 1988–1997; "8" = Swamp Ash; "5" = EG; "4"/"9" = bass). The decoder tries set-neck Core first and falls back to the model-specific range tables only when a model hint indicates a CE / Swamp Ash / EG / bass instrument.

Core / CE 2008+ two-digit year

2008+
Example 08123456 Try it →

The first two digits are the last two digits of the year (08, 09, 10–29). The remaining four-to-six are sequential. PRS switched to the two-digit convention in 2008 to eliminate decade ambiguity.

S2 Series (2013–2024)

2013–2024
Example S2050000 Try it →

S2 followed by 6–7 digits. The sequence is cumulative across years; PRS's official support article publishes per-year range boundaries for every year 2013–2024. The decoder ships the full table and returns the year whose range contains the sequential.

Gotchas & format-specific sources
  • Two published quirks: the 2019/2020 boundary both read 2043719 in PRS's source (first-match-wins returns 2019); there's a gap from S2067489 to S2071819 between 2023 and 2024 where the decoder honestly returns year null rather than extrapolate.
1 less common variant

CE — range-decoded (1988–2008)

1988–2008
Example CE20000 Try it →

CE + 1–6 digit sequential. Literal "CE" prefix (which PRS used from 1998 onward) decodes unambiguously via the official CE range table (1988–2008). Pre-1998 CE serials carry a single-digit "7" prefix instead; those require a "CE" model hint to disambiguate from Core set-neck.

Gotchas & format-specific sources
  • A 1988–1997 CE with a "7" prefix (e.g. "71234") could be read as Core's year-digit "7" = 1987 or 1997. The decoder runs the Core Y-cross-check first and falls through to CE only when (a) Core doesn't yield a valid year and (b) the model hint mentions CE.

Vintage model lines

2 less common variants

Swamp Ash Special (1997–2009)

1997–2009
Example SA500 Try it →

SA + 1–6 digit sequential (1998+), or single-digit "8" prefix (1997–1998, model-hint gated). Year decoded via the official Swamp Ash range table.

EG models (1990–1995)

1990–1995
Example 52000 Try it →

Single-digit "5" prefix + sequential. Decodes via the official EG range table (6 years, sequentials 1–3300). Requires a model hint to disambiguate from Core set-neck (where "5" also appears as the year digit for 1985/1995/2005).

Bass

3 less common variants

Bolt-On Bass (1989–1991)

1989–1991
Example 40100 Try it →

Single-digit "4" prefix + sequential (seq 1–200). Requires a model hint containing "bass" to disambiguate from other "4" single-digit-year Core serials.

Set-Neck Bass (1986–1991)

1986–1991
Example 90500 Try it →

Single-digit "9" prefix + sequential (seq 1–800). Requires a model hint containing "bass". The official PRS table lists 1986 and 1987 as a combined row — the decoder reports it as 1987 (the later end).

Electric Bass (2000–2004)

2000–2004
Example EB00100 Try it →

EB + 1–5 digit sequential. Literal "EB" prefix means no collision with other formats — no model hint required.

SE / imports

SE Korea single-letter year (2000–2022)

2000–2022
Example H12345 Try it →

Single letter A–W + 3–6 sequential digits. Letter encodes year: A = 2000, B = 2001, …, I = 2008, …, U = 2020, V = 2021, W = 2022. Most SE Korea instruments were produced by World Musical Instruments.

Gotchas & format-specific sources
  • PRS SE launched publicly in 2001; the letter A=2000 is documented in community charts and likely reflects a late-2000 pre-production run.
  • Acoustic A-prefix format (A + YY + sequential) is checked first and wins when YY is in 09–29; otherwise A-letter falls through to SE Korea 2000.
  • Letters X, Y, Z (2023+) are not part of the documented SE Korea chart and fall through — serials starting with those letters are rejected rather than extrapolated.
2 less common variants

CTI — Indonesia (2018+)

2018+
Example CTIA123456 Try it →

CTI + single letter + 4–6 digits. The letter encodes the year: A = 2018, B = 2019, C = 2020, etc.

IA–IE — SE Indonesia (2014–2018)

2014–2018
Example IA123456 Try it →

I + letter A–E + 4–6 digits. A = 2014, B = 2015, C = 2016, D = 2017, E = 2018. Bridge period between the SE Korea single-letter era and the CTI prefix era.

Acoustic

1 less common variant

Acoustic A + YY (2009+)

2009+
Example A091234 Try it →

A + 2-digit year + 4–6 sequential. Example A091234 = 2009, #1234. PRS acoustics launched at Winter NAMM 2009 (Angelus Cutaway, Tonare Grand).

Gotchas & format-specific sources
  • YY is gated to 09–29 to avoid shadowing the SE Korea A-prefix (2000) era.

Where to find your serial

PRS serials appear on the back of the headstock on all modern production. Older and custom-built models may also have a neck-plate or truss-rod-area serial.

Sources

Every format rule on this page traces back to at least one of the sources above. If you spot an error or have an additional authoritative source, see the methodology.