It just proves you really have to remove the neck and check the dates with Fenders.
You really have to pull the neck and see the dates written or stamped on the neck heel and on the body in the neck pocket to find out when the guitar was really made.įYI - Fender had a bunch of SE8XXXXX and SE9XXXXX decals and they used them well into the 1990s on Clapton, Malmsteen, SRV and Beck Strats I believe it was 1993 or 1994 before they caught up to the actual year.ĮDIT: Well based on Mike's guitar Fender was still using the SE9XXXXX decals at least as late as April 1993 when his guitar's neck was made and the neck was made 6 months before the guitar was assembled (or at least the body was made - don't they date bodies just before assembly?). 'XXXXX' - actual sequential number of the decal (not necessarily the guitar)įender typically uses the decals up they don't throw away any remaining 1997 (in this example SN7XXXXX) decals on January 2, 1998. '7' - year 7, so it would have been made in 1997 'N' - 'Nineties' (likewise 'E' is for 'Eighties' and 'Z' is for 'Zeros' or 2000s) The next one or two digits are for the month, here 10 October. The next number is the production year, in this case 9 1969. Starting with the letter B, this is the same neck width code Fender has been using since 1962. If for example the serial number was 'SN7XXXXX' the number would be read like this: For example, let’s take a Stratocaster with the serial number 279515 and the code 22384109B.
The first number should be the approximate year. Click to expand.Generally speaking sometime in the 1990s.
