Look-n-Stop.jpg' alt='Look N Stop Serial' title='Look N Stop Serial' />Fender Serial Number Lookup Guide and Database. How Old is My Fender Guitar I often get asked, how old is my Fender guitar Most of the time this question cant be answered specifically. The Fender numbers tell the story of the company over the years. Unfortunately, the serial number placement is sporadic and many ID numbers over lap between years and models. In many instances, there is no exact known date for a specific guitar. That is why I decided to write this article. Opengl 2.0 Windows 7 32 Bit here. I want to help you understand how to tell the age of your Fender as well as any Fender you see. Fender like Gibson has been producing guitars for many years. Certain styles and colors have come and gone over the years, but there is no real obvious way to tell how old a Fender is other than the indentification number. Unfortunately, Fender decided not to simply write the date of manufacture on the guitar. They decided that it would be easier to decipher the serial number code than just write the year on the guitar. I say this only joking. Most manufactures dont actually write the production dates on the guitar in plain view. First lets take a look at where to find ID numbers on a Fender guitar. Bushmaster Serial Number Date more. Where do I find my Fender Serial NumberThis article is intended to help you date your Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster, and Precision Bass guitars all the way back to the early 1. In order to tell how old your Fender is you will have to find the indentification number or neck number. The serial number location has changed a few times of the years. Yahoo Lifestyle is your source for style, beauty, and wellness, including health, inspiring stories, and the latest fashion trends. Serial ports provide an easy way to communicate between many types of hardware and your computer. They are relatively simple to use and are very common among. Jason Torchinsky. Senior Editor, Jalopnik Running 1973 VW Beetle, 2006 Scion xB Notsorunning 1973 Reliant Scimitar, 1977 Dodge Tioga RV. SBL Serial Number File. Email your information to wswellsearthlink. Here is a page from South Bend that estimates the starting serial numbers by year. Look N Stop Serial' title='Look N Stop Serial' />From 1. Fender guitar unique numbers were stamped in the bridge cavity cover plate. From 1. 95. 4 to 1. Fender stamped its guitars serial number on either the top or bottom of the neck plate. Best Of Queen Transcribed Score Pdf on this page. Modern Fender production guitars, 1. ID numbers on the front or back of the headstock near the Fender decal. In 1. 98. 2 Fender decided to start making reissued vintage guitars. These guitars were replicas of the early 1. True to form the reissue guitars have their indentification numbers stamped in the neck plate. The serial numbers on the outside of the body are not the only way to date a Fender guitar however. Fender also dated the neck when it was manufactured. Look N Stop Serial' title='Look N Stop Serial' />After the neck was finished, a Fender employee would either stamp or handwrite the date on the end of the guitar neck on its heel. This marking is only visible when the neck is removed from the body because it is covered in the neck pocket. Almost all Fender guitars have a dated neck. Some Fender guitar bodies and pickups also have dates written on them. Few Fender guitars have dates written on the bodies under the pickups, in the routed out cavities, and near the wiring harnesses. Fender only decided to write dates on the bodies for a few years here and there. They never really did that consistently. What does the date on the neck mean Many people think that the date on the heel of their Fender neck is the production date of the guitar. After reviewing the ID number, you might find out that the two corresponding dates dont coincide. Why is this It all has to do with how Fender produced guitars. Leo Fender was a genius with minimizing the costs of production. Unlike Gibson, Leo found did everything the cheapest and fastest way possible. He made a bolt on neck, so the neck and the body could be manufactured at the same time. He wired the pickguard with pickups, so all the wiring could be finished before the body was even dry from finishing. Thats how the Fender production line worked. The number and date on the neck is simply the date that the neck was finished not the date that the guitar was completed. Necks could sit for days, weeks, or even months at a time before being matched with a body. After the entire guitar was assembled, the indentification number was stamped in place. Being many months later, the serial number date and the neck date might not match. Remember, these serial and neck numbers were never really intended for historical dating. They were simply internal numbers to help with production. Fender Serial Number Guide. Now that we have talked about where to find your Fender guitar ID number and what it means, here is the Fender serial number database that I have compiled. It includes most of the Fender serial numbers issued along with the corresponding dates and a short history of Fender Guitars through the years. When Leo first started putting indentification numbers on his guitars, he segregated them by model. Each models unique numbers started at 1 or a number close to it. That means that there could be a Tele, Strat, and Precision bass with the exact same serial number. He didnt stop doing this until after 1. Telecaster Esquire Broadcaster No caster. Numbers Years 3. 3 8. Stratocaster. Numbers Years 0 6. P Bass. Numbers Years 1. At some point in 1. Fender decided to stop grouping the guitar ID number by model. He started using one sequence of serial numbers for all the guitars coming off of the Fender production lines including Teles, Esquires, Strats, and P basses. Some of these indentification numbers are still out of sequence, jumbled up, or missing. You may notice that there is a great deal of over lapping numbers in these nine years. The only way to verify an over lapping date is to check the corresponding neck date and body date. This list is a little convoluted because there are so many over lapping serial numbers. The number column represents the general number grouping that Fender and most experts agree on. The low and high columns show the range of indentification numbers that have been positively matched to specific years. As you can see, there is quite a bit of overlap. For some reason during 1. Fender decided to place zero or a dash in front of ID numbers periodically. Some guitars in these years have them and some dont. Fender Guitars. Numbers Low High Years 0. Toward the end of 1. Fenders success kept on building. He was nearing his 1. Instead of adding another digit on to his 5 digit ID numbers, Leo decided to add an L, presumably for his first initial, in front of the serial numbers and start the sequence all over again. This time all the indentification numbers under 1. For example, the 9. ID number would not be L9. It was L0. 09. 89. Since this change wasnt until the end of 1. Fenders have an L serial number. Late 1. 96. 2 Early 1. Fender Guitars. Numbers Low High Years L0. L1. 99. 99 L0. 00. L6. 03. 30 1. 96. L2. 00. 00 L5. 99. L0. 88. 25 L9. 25. L6. 00. 00 L9. 99. L2. 35. 37 L9. 99. In early 1. 96. 5, Leo Fender sold Fender Musical Instruments, Inc. CBS for 1. 3 million. A lot of changes happened to the company as well as the guitars themselves under the new ownership. The indentification number sequences were no exception. CBS came up with a new numbering system to take advantage of the fact that Leo did not use 6 digit ID numbers. CBS continued the sequence Fender started in 1. These 1. 96. 5 1. F series because of the neck plate design change. The new neck plate only had the Fender F logo stamped in place. Late 1. 96. 5 1. Digits. Numbers Low High Years 1. In 1. 97. 6, Fender decided to stop stamping ID numbers in guitar parts and started making decals for the guitar peghead or headstock. Along with the new location a new series of serial numbers were instituted. Fender apparently was thinking long term because they developed a serial numbering system with one letter codes preceding the indentification numbers. The letters referred to the decade that the guitars were produced.