The most important thing to keep in mind when dating a Fender is the highly modular nature of the designs. Like Henry Ford, part of Leo Fender's genius was in optimizing the company's production efficiency. His guitars were built en masse by an entire factory, not a single luthier toiling over one instrument at a time.
Features like bolt-on necks and pickups wired into the pickguard all helped the Fender factory churn out guitar after guitar, day after day.
This also means that various parts used on a particular guitar may have come from different points in time, so no single number can absolutely define when the instrument was built. Instead, the best approach to dating a Fender is to combine indicators from the design of the instrument, the dates found on the neck and body, along with the serial number. Once you have the information you need, if you're interested in selling your Fender, you can use Reverb to get it in front of the largest audience of musicians in the world by clicking on this link.
Perhaps the best place to start when dating your Fender is to get an approximate idea of the era based on the instrument's design and components. This can be a tall order for someone less versed in guitar history, but we do have some resources here on Reverb to help you out. For starters, there's the Reverb Price Guide which has thousands of entries with pictures and details on various guitars and other gear.
Some browsing around the Fender section of the Price Guide can definitely help you find which model you have. We also have some other blog posts related to Fender that can hopefully be of some help. Similarly, take a look at Behold the Jazzmaster for general timeline of the history of everyone's favorite offset guitar.
Through much of Fender's production history, Fender workers would print or write a production date on both bodies and necks where the two pieces meet. These dates will tell when the original part was manufactured, but are not exact indicators of when the guitar was actually put together and finished.
If you're not comfortable removing the neck of a guitar to peek at the date marker, I encourage you to take it to a local tech or luthier. I will also mention briefly pot-codes as a resource numbers on the internal potentiometers of the guitar. These can definitely be useful in cases where no other numbers exist, but just tell when the pot itself was made.
Who knows how long it was waiting in the Fender factory before finding its way into a Tele? Like the body and neck dates, using serial numbers to date a Fender is not a sure bet. At many points in Fender's history, serial number usage overlapped again owing to the modular manner of production.
Below we'll go into detail about the various serial number schemes employed by Fender as far back as There are certainly plenty of exceptions, so again, using serial numbers in conjunction with other dating methods is always the best bet. Click on the links here to jump directly to the serial number style that matches your instrument:.
In the early years, Fender serial numbers schemes were specific to the model. Esquires, Broadcasters and Telecasters shared a serial number sequence, while the landmark Precision Bass had its own system. In this early period, the serial number can be found on the bridge of the instrument see image.
Here are the rough serial number ranges for the early Esquires and Telecasters :. Also, for the first half or so of , the inaugural run of Stratocasters had a distinct number sequence all under number There are some exceptions as you can see in this information provided by Mike Gagliano. A likely explanation is the use of leftover necks, which Fender is known to have done at several occasions.
Other exceptions exist as well. For example, a Strat with the neck code B. Example: a Music Master with serial number and the code The first 6 digits are in pairs and the last two digits are standalone, giving us 49 00 21 5 The chart below shows the serial numbers used by Fender from to You may notice the significant overlap in numbers and years.
The only way to try to narrow the date range of your instrument is to remove the neck and check the butt end of the neck heel for a production date as mentioned above. Some users may find the prospect of disassembling their Fender unsettling; if so, please refer to an experienced professional guitar tech for help.
Fender was sold to CBS in January The chart below shows Fender serial numbers from to Again, notice the overlap in numbers and years. In things were made a little easier. In , Fender introduced the U. Vintage series. For U. Vintage Series, check neck date for specific year.
The numbers and decals were made years in advance, and some N9 decals denoting were, in a blunder, affixed to some instruments in Z0 is ; Z1 is , etc. As usual, there is some overlap from year to year. Only the seven-digit suffixes were actually entered into the database. These serial numbers did not identify the country of origin in the body of the number.
The first two digits of the number identify the year of manufacture, 10 for , 11 for , etc. The next six digits are the unit identifier. This new system is now standard on the majority of U. These apply to instruments that exist outside the more well known Fender serial number schemes. Some may have stayed in the U. For dating on non-U. Sign up for news from vintageandrare, get special featured product offers, industry insights and find vintage instruments.
Sign up now! Sign up for mypage Get your own account. CBS sold Fender in March The numbers and decals were produced far in advance, and some N9 decals denoting , were inadvertantly affixed to some instruments in Z0 denotes ; Z1 denotes , etc. As always, there is typically some number prefix overlap and carryover from year to year. If you have what you consider an odd serial number, it might appear here.
We highly recommend each of them. They are detailed reference resources with a wealth of information on determining the production years of various instruments and on Fender history in general.
Indeed, we use these same books here at Fender when researching historical and date-related issues. You can order these titles through your local Authorized Fender Dealer. The Music Zoo is not responsible for any inaccuracies that may exist in this information.
Republished from Fender. Home Guitar News Fender. Dating Your U.
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