Fender telecaster serial number information

In an effort to produce lower priced products, without having to utilize Fender Japan in the process, Fender built a second modern manufacturing facility in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, with the goal of being able to build quality instruments and offer them at more budget-oriented prices.

Not all schemes are covered here. Below are some examples of letter prefixes used in recent serial number schemes. Some may have stayed in the U. They were made for the export market and have Made in USA stamped on neck heel. They were made for the export market and have Made in USA stamped on the heel of the neck. Japanese Squiers: For Japanese serial number dating see Fenders site.

Mexican Squiers: M stands for Mexico, the second character refers to the decade: N represents Nineties 's. And the first number following is the year. Those made by Cort are the most desirable.

The second character refers to the decade: N represents Nineties 's. Exceptions: Pro-Tone Series solid ash bodies had serial numbers with either a no preceding letters and 7 digits, with the first number being the year, or b starting with KC for Korean Cort, followed by 2-digit year. Stagemaster Deluxe neck-thru maple necks with basswood wings , and the Double Fat Tele Deluxe all solid mahogany with set necks , with serial numbers starting with KC for Korean Cort, followed by 2-digit year.

So, post models only would have this form of serial number. Six-digit serial numbers with no preceding letters, with the first number being the year. Some Squier II's were made in India around A lot of the Squier II's had a plywood body. CY is followed by 2-digit year. CY appears on most models produced in China, and is by far the most common form.

These forms are apparently associated with the change to Crafted in China, so post models only would have this form of serial number. Some Chinese Gretsch's use a CY serial number. YN is associated with 'made in china' rather than 'crafted in china' and was the year they swapped to 'crafted in china' and mostly CY prefixes. Probably made by Yako Taiwan.

Squier serial numbers beginning with CA are made by Axl China. Bullet Series plywood , followed by 2-digit year. Some recent Squiers are being made in India. Reference Materials to Help Date Your Guitar If you are unable to place the approximate year of manufacture of your instrument using the above charts, there are a few great books available, which have invaluable information on the history of Fender instruments. If you have serious interest in learning about the history of Fender instruments, or if you just want to try to establish the year of production of your own axe, we would highly recommend that you pick up one or more of the following books.

They are detailed reference resources with a wealth of information for helping to either establish the vintage of your guitar or bass or for just learning more about Fender history in general.

These books are the same resources we refer to here at Fender, when trying to research answers to these same history and dating questions.

See picture inset or separate "Telecaster Books. Most notably, production dates have been penciled or stamped on the butt end of the heel of the neck of most guitars and basses. There were periods of time when this was not consistently done, between and , and there are certainly other examples of short periods of time, and individual pieces, where the dating was simply omitted. While this neck dating is useful in roughly determining the age of a guitar, it is certainly not definitive.

The neck date simply refers to the date that the individual component was produced. Given the modular nature of Fender's production techniques, an individual neck may have been produced in a given year, placed in the manufacturing warehouse and remained in stock for a period of time, and then subsequently paired with a body to create a complete guitar in the following year.

So, obviously a neck date, while being helpful in providing a date range of production, it cannot be a definitive reference. The quality of the Fender guitar dipped due to CBS cutting corners with cost and a lower quality of craftsmanship. The bold black Fender headstock logo and brushed aluminum faceplate were introduced in as standard features for guitar bass and amplifier. August 18th, was a huge day for the Fender Stratocaster. Jimi Hendrix destroyed Woodstock with guitar playing from another universe.

Also notably a 5-way pick-up selector switch. StringRay 1 and StingRay bass. Both guitars fitted with a two-way pickup, bolt-on neck, and a single humbucker. In the Custom Shop was born. The initial master builders were John Page and Michael Stevens. Since then the team has expanded and produced some of the most sought-after guitars made. The Fender Custom Shop produces special order guitars. Creating limited edition high-end quality instruments. If you love the road-worn relic look, these guys assemble some real mouth-watering pieces.

February the Ensenada Mexico manufacturing plant was burnt to the ground, leaving the production to move to Corona, CA for a temporary solution. Here is a summary of the serial number, model, and year.

To gain the best results use our decoder. During this time period, there are a lot of overlaps. Use our decoder to find out which instrument fits your serial number. Serial Numbers were from the midss but we lack instrument details and overlapping makes this period difficult.

We know the year the guitar was made and manufactured in Fullerton, USA. Use decoder to determine. Use decoder for exact year. There are no model details just that this period was in Fullerton, USA. The digits purely stand for a production number. This period of guitars were the U. S Vintage Series. The date of the guitar should be on the back of the neck. This article deals only with U. Typically the serial number is penciled or stamped on the butt end of the heel of the neck of most guitars and basses.

Neck dating can be useful in finding the approximate age of your guitar. Since the neck is only a component of the guitar, it could have been produced a number of years before the actual instrument was assembled, hence the date on the neck is not necessarily the production date of the whole guitar. On some Telecaster guitars the serial number is found on the bridge plate between the pickup and the saddles. From the production of the first solidbody Fender guitars and until , Fender tagged a production date at the butt of the detachable neck of their guitars.

Only about half the guitars still carry any intelligible information here. First half of : No markings for a period after a customer complained about an obscenity written on the neck butt.

Markings start to appear again around mid-year. March to : Dark blue or red ink stamps below the truss rod adjustment at the neck butt.

The new stamp was usually green ink. Models from this period could have either code system. Again, either stamp can occur on instruments from this era. Again, a neck was stamped with either the new or the old date stamp, but not both.

April : Fender dropped the old style date stamp after March and continued with the new 8-digit code. April to After March , Fender dropped the old style date stamp and continued to use the new style, 8-digit code.

The approximate production year can be determined from this more about serial numbers will follow. Sometimes a date is stamped or hand-written on the butt of the neck.

Vintage reissue instruments have the date on the butt end of the neck like the originals. The neck stamps on Fenders from to can be most logically translated by reading from right to left. Starting with the letter B , this is the same neck width code Fender has been using since The following three digits, here , could be a batch or lot number, or i could be the count for how many of this one instrument that was made within the month.

Since Fender could probably produce more than of any one type instrument in a month, it is more likely a batch or lot number. Finally, the first one or two digits of the code tells you which model you are holding; 22 being a Stratocaster.

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.