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Gibson Headstock Logo History: How to Date a Gibson by Its Logo
Gibson's headstock logo changed in a few clear steps: the slanted "The Gibson" script of the 1920s, the plain "Gibson" script of the 1930s and 1940s, the wartime banner, then the 1947 to 1948 block logo, which lost its dotted i in the late 1960s. Edgewater Guitars in Valley City, Ohio buys vintage Gibsons nationwide: call or text (440) 219-3607.
Gibson headstock logo chronology at a glance
The logo won't give you a year, but it puts a Gibson in a decade or narrower before you touch a serial number, and it catches mismatches like a 1950s-style logo over a 1970s serial. Dates are approximate. Gibson phased changes in model by model and used up old parts, so the references disagree by a year or two at the edges. Where they disagree, this guide says so instead of picking a winner.
Era | Logo traits | Other headstock tells | What it usually means for dating |
|---|---|---|---|
1900s to late 1920s | Slanted "The Gibson" script, pearl on the better models | Narrow "snakehead" peghead tapering toward the tuners from 1923; flowerpot inlay on the L-5 | 1920s or earlier |
Late 1920s to mid-1930s | "The Gibson" set straight, then plain "Gibson" in thin script; "The" dropped model by model, about 1928 to 1934 | White silkscreened logos on budget models from about 1928; wider peghead on most models by 1927 | About 1928 to 1936 |
Mid-1930s to 1942 | Thick "Gibson" script; pearl on higher models, white silkscreen on budget ones | Pearl script on the Super 400, SJ-100 and ES-300 | About 1936 to 1942 |
1942 to 1945, some say early 1946 | Gold script over a gold banner reading "Only a Gibson Is Good Enough" | Flat-tops only: J-45, Southern Jumbo and the LG models | World War II; the factory order number gives the year |
1946 to 1947 | Slanted, heavy gold "Gibson" script, no banner | Pearl version on higher models | The short postwar script window |
1947 or 1948 to 1951 | First block logo: tailed G, dot over the i touching the G, open b and o, n joined to the o at the bottom | Gold silkscreen or decal logos on budget models | A dot touching the G means about 1948 to 1951 |
1951 to about 1968 | Block logo with the dot floating free of the G; open b and o | Crown inlay drops about 3/4 inch on the ES-335 and ES-345 in late 1966; peghead angle 17 to 14 degrees between 1965 and 1968 by model | 1950s through the late 1960s |
About 1968 to 1972 | No dot over the i on most models; b and o closed; pantograph logos (painted over a pearloid slab) from late 1968 | Slightly wider peghead from 1968 or 1969; volute from late 1969 or 1970; "MADE IN USA" stamped under the serial from 1970 | The dotless years, the strongest single logo tell |
1972 to 1981 | Dot back on most models from 1972, some not until 1981; b and o still closed | Volute through 1981; "MADE IN USA"; eight-digit serials from 1977 | Norlin era; the serial system gives the year |
1981 to present | Current logo: dotted i, open b and o, n joined to the o at the top (guitarhq dates the open letters from 1984) | Volute gone by 1982; 17-degree angle back by 1983 | Modern Gibson; the serial number gives day and year |
"The Gibson" script logo: 1900s to the mid-1930s
The oldest Gibson logo reads "The Gibson" in flowing script, inlaid in pearl on a slant. References date its first use anywhere from 1902 to 1908; for dating, the end matters more. The slant went first: by the late 1920s Gibson set "The Gibson" straight across the peghead, and the pre-war L-5 archive at prewargibsonl-5.com has found no slanted example shipped after 1928.
Then "The" went. guitarhq puts the switch to a plain "Gibson" between 1928 and 1934 depending on the model; Wikipedia's L-5 entry runs it 1929 to 1935; one dealer guide's chart keeps the small script through 1931 and starts the large script in 1933 or 1934; the L-5 archive's earliest plain-script L-5 shipped in 1930 and its last "The Gibson" L-5 in 1936. A slanted "The Gibson" is 1920s or earlier, a straight one about 1928 to the mid-1930s, a thin "Gibson" script early 1930s.
Two more pre-war tells share the peghead. The narrow "snakehead" shape tapers toward the tuners: guitarhq dates it 1923 to 1934, while the L-5 archive shows it from the first Lloyd Loar batch of March 1924, says most other Gibsons had the wider peghead by 1927, and has the L-5 following in August 1935. And logo material follows the price list: pearl on the better models, a white silkscreened "Gibson" on budget guitars from about 1928 into the early 1940s, "the old stark white silkscreened 'Gibson' of the thirties" in Wikipedia's J-45 entry.
"Gibson" script and the wartime banner: mid-1930s to 1947
The script thickened in the mid-1930s, on the Super 400 and other top models first and on every model by the late 1930s (guitarhq); the L-5 archive puts the thin script at 1930 to 1936 and the thick script as standard after that. Vintage Guitar magazine describes "a thick pearl script Gibson logo" on a 1941 SJ-100 and a pearl script on the pre-war ES-300's bound headstock.
Then the war. From 1942, Gibson's flat-tops got a gold banner under the script reading "Only a Gibson Is Good Enough." Gibson's own brand history lists "The Banner Guitars (1942)" and calls the banner a decal; Wikipedia's J-45 entry agrees. Every reference we checked shows it only on flat-tops, the low and mid-priced ones: the J-45, the Southern Jumbo and the LG models (American Songwriter's list runs J-45, J-50, Southern Jumbo, LG-1, LG-2 and LG-3), built largely by the women Gibson hired for the war years, the "Kalamazoo Gals."
The end date is where the references split. Bannergibsons.com and one dealer guide's serial chart say 1942 through 1945; one dealer guide's own banner article, Chicago Music Exchange and American Songwriter run it into early 1946; guitarhq starts it a year late, in 1943, and one Danish dealer guide stretches the end to 1947. Take 1942 to 1945 as the core, allow early 1946, and let the factory order number settle the year.
After the banner came a short postwar script: a slanted, heavy, gold "Gibson" with nothing under it, 1946 to 1947 on one dealer guide's chart, and shown slanted again in the mid-1940s by both AntiquiTone and Thalia. Our 1946 Gibson LG-2 guide covers a guitar from exactly that window.
The block logo: 1947 to 1948, and the 1951 change
Gibson replaced the script with block letters right after the war, and that logo has been the company's face ever since. Vintage Guitar magazine says it "was phased in during 1947-'48"; Thalia, Guitar Hunter and one dealer guide start it in 1947; guitarhq starts it in 1948. Phased in by model is the honest answer, which is why two 1947 Gibsons can wear different logos.
The first block logo has three traits worth memorizing. The G and the n have tails that drop below the other letters (guitarhq). The dot over the i touches the G: guitarhq dates the connected dot 1948 to 1951, AntiquiTone shows the "i touching G" logo as very late 1940s and the floating dot as 1950s, and Thalia says the dot "became separated" by 1951. And the b and o are open, with the n joined to the o at the bottom. From 1951 the dot floats free, and that logo runs with only small drawing changes until the late 1960s.
Material still follows the price list: pearl inlay on the better models, a gold logo on budget models, silkscreened or applied as a decal rather than inlaid (guitarhq dates the change from silkscreen to decal at 1954). A gold logo on a budget model is not a sign of a fake or a refinish. It's what the guitar shipped with.
The late 1960s: the dot disappears and the pantograph arrives
This is the most useful change in the chronology and the one with the most disagreement on the year. Somewhere between 1967 and 1969 the dot over the i vanished on most models and the b and o closed up. Thalia dates the squared, closed-letter, dotless logo to 1967; Guitar Hunter says Gibson stopped dotting the i "between 1968 and 1972" on certain models; Charlie Gelber's ES-335 blog says the disappearing dot "occurred mostly in 1969"; AntiquiTone shows the dotless logo as late 1960s, with the closed b and o arriving in the early 1970s. Read it as: no dot means roughly 1968 through the early 1970s, with the edges depending on the model.
The pantograph logo arrived in the same window. Instead of cutting each letter from pearl and inlaying it, Gibson inlaid a flat slab of pearloid and painted over it so only the letters showed through. Gelber says it "comes into common usage in late 1968"; Guitar Center's ES-335 timeline has inlaid logos giving way to "pantograph painted logos" in 1968; guitarhq dates the "pantograph style" closed-letter logo 1969 to 1984. Two dotless versions exist: open b and o with no dot, about 1968 to 1969, and closed b and o with no dot, 1969 into the 1970s.
1970 to 1981: Made in USA, the volute and the dot's return
Turn the guitar over. From 1970, Gibson stamped "MADE IN USA" into the back of the peghead under the serial number; guitarhq, one dealer guide, Guitar Hunter and mycoolguitars.com's Norlin history all put the start at 1970, and one dealer guide notes the six-digit serials of 1970 to 1975 carry the stamp underneath. That answers the question Gibson's reused six-digit numbers create: a "1960s" serial with the stamp is a 1970s guitar.
The volute, a carved ridge on the back of the neck just below the peghead, arrives at the same time: late 1969 (Guitar Hunter), 1969 (guitarhq) or 1970 (mycoolguitars, Guitar Center), and runs to 1981 (guitarhq, mycoolguitars) or about 1982 (Wikipedia's Les Paul Custom entry). guitarhq and Guitar Center both have fiber replacing the holly peghead veneer in 1970, and the headstock grew slightly wider: 1968 per Guitar Center and the Les Paul Custom entry, 1969 per mycoolguitars.
On the front, the dot came back in 1972 on most models (Thalia, Guitar Hunter), but Guitar Hunter says the rest waited until 1981, so a dotless mid-1970s Gibson is not automatically wrong. The b and o stayed closed through the decade. Serial dating gets easier from 1977, when the eight-digit system started; our Gibson serial number dating guide decodes it.
1981 to today: the modern logo
In 1981 the logo settled into the form Gibson still uses: dotted i, open b and o, and the n joined to the o at the top instead of the bottom. Thalia and Gelber both date it to 1981, Gelber adding that the older type "can be seen well into 1982"; guitarhq is the outlier, dating the open b and o from 1984. The volute was gone by 1982, and guitarhq has the 17-degree peghead angle back in 1983. From here the logo stops helping: use the serial number, which encodes the production day and year.
Headstock shape and inlays as supporting tells
Peghead angle
Gibson cut the tilt-back angle from 17 to 14 degrees in the mid-1960s to reduce headstock breaks: 1965 on the ES-335 family per Gelber and Guitar Center (Gelber calls 1965 "the only year that both angles were available"), 1966 per guitarhq, 1968 on the Les Paul Custom per Wikipedia. The return to 17 degrees is disputed too: 1973 on Les Pauls per 59 Parts, 1983 per guitarhq. Three degrees is hard to eyeball, so treat it as a confirming detail.
The crown
The small pearl crown under the logo belongs to mid-line models such as the ES-335 and ES-345; guitarhq describes it as "a 'crown' or long skinny 'diamond'" on fancier models. Gelber documents a slight raise between the first 1958s and the first 1959s, then a drop of about 3/4 inch in late 1966; Guitar Center's timeline has the crown "moved lower on the headstock" in 1966. A crown sitting low, near the middle tuners, says late 1966 or later.
The split diamond and the flowerpot
The split diamond marks the top of the line: the Super 400, and from it the 1953 Les Paul Custom and the ES-355 (Wikipedia's Les Paul Custom and ES-335 entries). The flowerpot is the L-5's mark; Vintage Guitar magazine notes the 1970s L-5S borrowed one "similar to the L-5," and prewargibsonl-5.com traces the design to the F-5 mandolin of 1922 and shows it simplifying decade by decade.
What the logo cannot tell you
A logo is a decal, a silkscreen or a piece of pearl set in a thin veneer. All three can be changed, and all three have been.
Refinished headstocks
A refinish buries a silkscreen or decal under new lacquer, wipes it off entirely, or hides the checking that should surround a pearl logo. A glossy, uncracked face on a guitar that is otherwise 60 years old is a refinish until proven otherwise; check the back of the peghead and the binding edges for overspray.
Replaced overlays
The logo lives in a veneer glued to the peghead face, and that veneer can be replaced. A replaced overlay carries whatever logo the repairer chose, so a period-correct logo on a repaired headstock proves nothing by itself. Look where the face meets the binding, and at the back of the peghead, for signs of a repair.
Reissues that copy old logos
Gibson copies its own old logos on purpose. The banner returned on reissues in the 1990s (bannergibsons.com), and Gibson's own 1942 J-45 reissue page describes "the period-correct banner" under a gold logo. Reissues of 1950s and 1960s models copy the logo of the year they imitate. The serial number and the construction settle which is which.
So the logo starts the conversation and the numbers finish it. Run yours through our Gibson serial number lookup, read the serial number dating guide, and use the pot codes guide to date the electronics. Acoustics get their own Gibson acoustic dating guide; Les Pauls get the Les Paul dating guide. Or skip the homework and upload a photo for a free identification and value range.
Sell your vintage Gibson
Edgewater Guitars buys vintage Gibsons from every era in this guide, a "The Gibson" archtop, a banner flat-top or a dotless late-1960s ES-335, in any condition, refinished and repaired examples included. Gavin Coe does the buying in Ohio, we travel for the right guitar, and we pay by check or cash the same day. We don't put values in a dating guide, because the logo alone can't support one; the accurate answer for your guitar is a free appraisal. Get a free estimate or call or text (440) 219-3607. Our sell your Gibson page explains how the process works.
From a recent Google review: "Gavin was super helpful and fast in getting me a real world estimate for my vintage Gibson. I recommend using Edgewater." (Matt Clark, January 2026)
Frequently asked questions
When did Gibson switch from the script logo to the block logo?
Right after World War II. Vintage Guitar magazine says the block logo was phased in during 1947 and 1948; Thalia, Guitar Hunter and one dealer guide start it in 1947, guitarhq in 1948. Because it was phased in by model, 1947 guitars turn up with either logo. The earliest block logos have the dot over the i touching the G.
What does the dot over the i on a Gibson logo tell you?
Three things. A dot touching the G means the first block logo, about 1948 to 1951. A dot floating free means 1951 to the late 1960s, or 1972 onward. No dot at all means roughly 1968 to 1972 on most models, and some models stayed dotless until 1981. Sources disagree on the exact edges by a year or two.
Is a Gibson with no logo, or no dot over the i, a fake?
Not on that evidence. A missing dot is a documented factory feature of the late 1960s and 1970s. A missing logo is usually a worn silkscreen or decal on a budget model, or a refinished headstock. Judge the guitar by its serial number, factory order number, pot codes and construction, then have someone who handles vintage Gibsons look at it.
How do I date a Gibson with a banner headstock?
The banner puts it in World War II: 1942 through 1945 in most references, with some running into early 1946. For the year, find the factory order number stamped inside the body and check it against the FON section of our Gibson acoustic dating guide, or send us photos for a free appraisal: (440) 219-3607.
By Stephen Pedone, co-owner of Edgewater Guitars. Last updated: September 2026.
Sources
Gibson General Info (logos, pegheads, Made in USA), guitarhq / Vintage Guitars Info: guitarhq.com/gibson.html
Gibson ES-335 model info, guitarhq: guitarhq.com/es335.html
Gibson serial number lookup and guide, True Vintage Guitar: truevintageguitar.com
Gibson's golden banner "Only a Gibson is Good Enough", True Vintage Guitar: truevintageguitar.com
Banner Gibsons: bannergibsons.com
Gibson brand history (The Banner Guitars, 1942), Gibson: brandbook.gibson.com
1942 J-45 Legend features, Gibson (legacy site): legacy.gibson.com
Gibson ES-300, Vintage Guitar magazine: vintageguitar.com
1939-'42 Gibson SJ-100, Vintage Guitar magazine: vintageguitar.com
Gibson L-5S Ron Wood Signature, Vintage Guitar magazine: vintageguitar.com
Headstock Logos, Charlie Gelber, es-335.com: es-335.com
Headstock Angle, es-335.com: es-335.com
Early 58 to Early 59 Evolution, Part 2 (crown position), es-335.com: es-335.com
Head and neck, pre-war Gibson L-5 archive: prewargibsonl-5.com
The story of the Gibson flowerpot, pre-war Gibson L-5 archive: prewargibsonl-5.com
A Definitive History of Gibson Headstock Logos, AntiquiTone: antiquitone.com
The Evolution of the Gibson Logo, Thalia Capos: thaliacapos.com
How to date your vintage Gibson, Guitar Hunter: guitarhunter.dk
Gibson Norlin history, My Cool Guitars: mycoolguitars.com
The History of the Gibson ES-335, Guitar Center Riffs: guitarcenter.com
Vintage Vibes: 1945 Gibson Banner J-45, Chicago Music Exchange: chicagomusicexchange.com
"We Did Good Work": the Kalamazoo Gals and the WWII banner guitars, American Songwriter: americansongwriter.com
Gibson headstock angle, 59 Parts: 59parts.wordpress.com
Gibson J-45, Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org
Gibson L-5, Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org
Gibson ES-335, Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org
Gibson Les Paul Custom, Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org
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