A guide to dating your Verithin by looking at the pickups and volume/tone pots
The majority of Verithins on this site will have been fitted with Volume/tone pots,
manufactured by a German company called "Preh".


There are two sets of numbers on the pot.


As seen here, the first set that says 500K refers to the resistance value of the pot. You will also find pots marked 250K, in fact they are more common.

The second set of numbers tells us the date that the pot was made. It does this by week number and year. The last digit is the year and the preceding 1 or 2 digits represent the week during the year.

The pot shown on the right was made in week 22 in the year 1966.

This appears to apply to years from 1960 to maybe 1973 after which time the design of the pot was changed and the dating code lost.

For years between 1970 and 1973, we need to look at the pickup type. If the Pup is a "Blade" type then the pots are from 1970+

They look like this from the underneath.

Our Verithins are fitted with 4 basic styles of pickup, and they are a useful guide to dating your guitar, along with the pot information above

The very lovely "Toaster" pickup. Why toaster? Just look at the slots in the top!

According to the serial numbers that I have recorded on this site, guitars with the numbers from 313 to 460 are fitted with the Toaster pickup.
These guitars were shipped to Selmer UK during 1960 and early 1961.

The "Diamond" pickup was fitted to guitars with serial numbers 543 to 1771 and covers the years later 1961 to mid 1963

 

"Staple" pickups were fitted to the end of the run of Venetian shaped bodies, and for the first two years of production of the Verithin "66".

On this site the numbers are from 1821 to 3992 and cover the years from mid 1963 to 1965 when the Florentine '66 was introduced.

 

Blade pickups were fitted to the '66 Florentine guitars and to the later Verithin bass guitars.

They were produced from late 1967 to at least 1971.
The numbers for the '66 run from 1000 to 1411.

 

Selmer Verithin Serial Numbers/pots/panels/pups
Pickups. T=Toaster, D=Diamond, S= Staples and B= Blade
Model
Verithin
'66
65-3
Bass
Year
S No.
from
S No.
from
Pickup
type
Controls type

--

1960
313
350
T
Rect panel
1961
351
699
T to 460
D from 543
Rect panel
1962
700
1238
D
4 pots
1963
1239
2223
D to 1771
S from 1821
4 pots
--
119
276
1964
2260
3313
S
4 pots
--
309
540
1965
3314
3992
S
4 pots
1000
1190
160
180
541
658
1966
--

S to 1287

4 pots to 1287
1191
1293
--
659
664
1967
--
B from 1301 3 pots and 3 way switch from 1301
1294
1388
665
670
1968
--
B 3 pots and 3 way switch
1389
1398
671
672
1969
--
B 3 pots and 3 way switch
1399
1404
673
674
1970
--
B 3 pots and 3 way switch
1405
1408
675
679
1971
--
B 3 pots and 3 way switch
1409
1411
680
681
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