As seen in the overlap of numbers and years, even these references to actual production dates are rather loose. Once again, there is quite a bit of overlap in numbers and years. Fender was sold to CBS in January The charts below detail the most common Fender serial number schemes from to the present. The chart below details Fender serial number schemes used from to Notice that there is quite a bit of overlap in numbers and years. 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. 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 tofor example or simply omitted. Hit the jump to see just how old that guitar or bass really is. When was my Fender instrument made? If you have a Fender in your hands, you can use this guide to precisely date your Fender instrument all the way back to Information on Japanese and Mexican-made instruments is included towards the bottom.

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