Roland Serial Numbers

The serial numbers on equipment manufactured by the Roland Corporation tell you the month and year the device rolled off the production line, and how many of that model had been produced. The scheme results in a six digit number that breaks down as follows. The first two digits are the month of manufacture, where month 01 was September 1972. The remaining four digits indicate how many of that model had been produced. So someone somewhere may have a TR-77 (Roland's first model) with either serial number 010001 or 000001 depending on whether Roland started counting production months from one or zero. In November 1980, the two digit production month number wrapped around to zero, and then ran up until 1989. Roland then introduced a new format for their serial numbers.

	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980
Jan	-	06	18	30	42	54	66	78	90
Feb	-	07	19	31	43	55	67	79	91
Mar	-	08	20	32	44	56	68	80	92
Apr	-	09	21	33	45	57	69	81	93
May	-	10	22	34	46	58	70	82	94
Jun	-	11	23	35	47	59	71	83	95
Jul	-	12	24	36	48	60	72	84	96
Aug	01	13	25	37	49	61	73	85	97
Sep	02	14	26	38	50	62	74	86	98
Oct	03	15	27	39	51	63	75	87	99
Nov	04	16	28	40	52	64	76	88	00
Dec	05	17	29	41	53	65	77	89	01

Based on this serial number format my older Roland equipment is dated:

• Roland JP-4, serial number 135510, 5510th one made and manufactured in December 1981.
• Boss DR-55, serial number 093700, 3700th one made and manufactured in August 1981.