For years, serial numbers have been used in various locations on Fender instruments, such as the top of the neck plate, the front or back of the headstock and the back of the neck near the junction with the body. Serial numbers are also helpful in determining an instrument’s production year. While there have been periods of dramatic change-such as the transition periods between the Leo Fender years and the CBS years or the transition between the CBS years and the current ownership-most models are generally feature-specific and do not change from year to year. Most specifications for a given Fender instrument model change little (if at all) throughout the lifetime of the model. Therefore, while helpful in determining a range of production dates, a neck date is obviously not a precisely definitive reference. Given the modular nature of Fender production techniques, an individual neck may have been produced in a given year, then stored for a period of time before being paired with a body to create a complete guitar, perhaps, for example, in the following year. Neck-dating can be useful in determining the approximate age of a guitar, but it is certainly not definitive because the neck date simply refers to the date that the individual component was produced, rather than the complete instrument. Most notably, production dates have been penciled or stamped on the butt end of the heel of the neck of most guitars and basses, although there were periods when this was not consistently done (1973 to 1981, for example) or simply omitted. instrument production history, production dates have been applied to various components. It's generally quite possible to track down what you have in ways other and better than just the serial number.How can I find out when my American-made instrument was manufactured?ĭATING YOUR U.S.-MADE FENDER STRINGED INSTRUMENTįor most of Fender’s U.S. The production of fake CS neck plates, etc., is causing problems, of course. As we move towards the present and digital all digital record-keeping, the database gets better and more thorough. I have encountered plenty of double listings (2 guitars with the same number) and the absence of a guitar for this or that serial #. For the CS, Fender treats the actual, physical COA as definitive, not the serial number records. The gist of it is that the older records, including early CS (which mine is) are incomplete and gaps and errors are very common. I contacted Fender customer service and rec'd a prompt and thoughtful response. Then, a year later, I though I would try to get a copy of the floor traveler that goes with the guitar through the shop to ensure that the right features are built into the instrument, and so I went back into the database and the serial number yielded a CS Tele, not my Strat. I used the newest Fender-sponsored serial number checker in researching a CS Strat, and it returned exactly the right info and specs for the instrument (to which I had direct access, and which I purchased.). The serial number lookup is largely correct for more recent years, but has many gaps and inconsistencies when it comes to some years and models.
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