The "2" on the back of some vintage Gibson headstocks

[sookwinder]

I always read Charlie Gelber's postings on his "The Gibson ES-335" website.
I have learnt a hell of a lot from his postings. http://www.es-335.com/

The second posting down for this month is about the "2" that is sometimes seen of the back of the headstocks of vintage Gibsons.
Very interesting article. http://www.es-335.com/2018/04/

The additional information I have read about the process of adding the "2" was that (as in the auto industry) these guitars can be sold slightly cheaper to dealers and then onto consumers which causes an increase in sales... more through put, when increased cash flow is required.

[jimboyogi]

It's an interesting read for sure.
Many times I've read a description of a for sale guitar with a "2", where the seller claims that they can't find any flaws, and I was always dubious. Now it makes sense!

[Despot]

I've had a few guitars with a '2' stamped in the back of the headstock ... the flaws are not always obvious.

Sometimes it was something like an odd sunburst shading pattern (covering a flaw in the wood maybe), or the alignment of parts (which is rarely immediately obvious).

Example - that SG Custom I had earlier this year was a 2 stamp. I couldn't find the flaw ... until I was looking at the pickups. I was wondering why the neck pickup magnets didn't align to the strings ... think it was a saddle issue. It was slightly off ... just a little bit. But the saddles were perfect - it turned out that the entire pickguard was slightly off centre. Once you realised it you could see it easily ... but until you twigged the pole pieces being off the strings a tiny bit you'd never have thought to look for it.

I've rarely seen a 2 stamp with something that would have stopped me considering buying the guitar though - they're usually very minor things. Interesting to see that Gibson once had a very tight eye on QC though! Of course in those pre-internet days folk would have had no clue on buying the guitar what the 2 stamp meant ... so I'm sure lots of people bought these 'seconds' at full whack with the store pocketing the profit.

[sumlin]

My 57 ES125 has a "2" - the back of the neck has some overspray at the top and bottom. I thought it had had a headstock break but a black light test shows nothing at all. My guess is it had a knot in the wood grain or some similar flaw so they gave it a coat of dark stain to hide it.

[MrFingers]

With the current Gibson QC using the standards of yesteryear, I think almost every guitar would have had a 2 stamped in the back... and quite a lot a 3 or 4...

[cmatthes]

As a kid in the late '70s/early '80s, everybody knew what the "2" or "SECOND" stamped in the back of the headstock meant. Every single time we saw one at a dealer, the guitar was priced $25-$100 less than the exact counterpart without the stamp. My brother and I saved up all of our money from working months of fast food slave labor and bought two new '81/'82 LP Customs off the rack. Mine was $50 cheaper ($629 at the time) because of the "SECOND" stamp. I still have it, and have never found the flaw.