Strange Yanagisawa Serial Number

[fballatore]

I have a Yanagisawa straight soprano that I will soon be posting for sale. It's my teacher's horn, and he said he bought it in the mid 1970's. In trying to narrow down the year of manufacture, I looked up serial number lists online and found that the serials in the 1970's were 12729030 through 12791801. The serial on this horn is 9752xxx. Does that make any sense?

Thanks,

Frank

[Fred]

I have found the "prefix" on Yani serial numbers highly variable . . . and I still don't know what they are supposed to mean. I think your "9" is the prefix (instead of the more common 2-digit prefix), making yours a 1975 model.

[fballatore]

Oh, so you're saying that I should be looking at the last 6 digits on both the horn and the sn charts?

Does anyone know the significance of the prefixes?

Thanks

[Fred]

Usually the 3rd and 4th digits were the year back then. I have seen others besides yours where it was the 2nd and 3rd digit.

[shaulls]

Have a yani that I bought new s/n 75298 in 1976.

Shaulls
York Pa

[Fred]

That's wild! I never heard of a 5-digit Yani serial number back then. Maybe it was a special model to compete with the 5-digit VI's. ;)

[shaulls]

Checked my soprano again the SN # is 4752398. Bought in 1976. Need new specs. or getting old...........Shaulls