my friend has a fender its easier a squire or a stratocaster and this is the serial number on it
E1001529

can anyone tell me if those numbers mean a date or something.
appreciate the responses.

Read this:

http://www.fender.com/support/articles/ ... uct-dating

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Bill

You would be very hard pressed to find a USA Fender Stratocaster with an "E1xxxxx" serial number - Fender used "S9xxxxx" serial number from 1979 through to early 1982 when they changed to E2xxxxx" serial numbers. I don't think I've ever seen an "E1xxxxx serial number on a Strat, just on other Fenders like Lead series guitars, Bullets, etc.

Also the serial number you posted has six digits after the "E1" - back then Fender serial numbers only had 5 digits after the "E1", "E2", "S9", etc.

Please post some photos of the guitar so we can take a look at it.

whenever i can get him to sesnd me some pics. ill post them. i noticed there was the 6th digit instead of 5. my uncle said it was made in korea. i used to play his guitar alot. it looks like the one hendrix used at woodstock. i appreciate the info

It might also be MIJ - they used serial numbers that started with an "E" a couple of times over the years. However, for the MIJs that first digit after the "E" doesn't represent the year; it's just the first digit of the serial number.

+1

that's it!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

If it would be of any help, here is what I found in The Stratocaster Guitar Book (A Complete History of Fender Stratocaster Guitars) by Tony Bacon, pp. 150-152.

"Serial numbers ... should be regarded merely as a guide to dating, and ideally the production year of a guitar should be confirmed by other age-related aspects."

US number series / Approximate year(s)
S9, E0 or E1 + 5 digits / 1980-1981
E1, E2 or E3 + 5 digits / 1982

'MADE IN JAPAN'
number series / Approximate year(s)
E + 6 digits / 1984-87

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This is the Blues. Are you listening?

thanks for all the help guys. so MIJ i take it means made in japan
is that a good thing? does this mean its not a real strat. im awaiting pics of it ill post some when i get them

Yes, "MIJ" does stand for "Made in Japan". These are generally well thought of and they are "real" Strats/Fenders.

In fact, for a fairly large part of 1985 the only Fenders being produced were those made in Japan - CBS sold the company to the current owners, FMIC, in early February 1985. However, CBS only sold the name, designs, parts, intellectual property, etc. to FMIC; they did not sell their factory in Fullerton, California to FMIC. That was always part of the deal - CBS was going to sell of the equipment and property separately.

FMIC opened their own factory in Corona, California in mid-late 1985 (they did wind up buying some machinery from CBS and moved it into their new factory). It took FMIC until about October to actually start producing some guitars, and even then they were down to only producing about 7 guitars a day. These were all reissue models (which would have been the '52 Tele, '57 and '62 Strat, '57 and '62 P-Bass, and '62 Jazz Bass at that point in time).

So from February until October the only new Fenders produced were the MIJ ones, and even through 1986 I suspect the majority of Fenders available were MIJ - although by the end of 1986 Fender was building both the reissues and the American Standard line (the American Standards were officially introduced in January 1987) and had really ramped up their production capability (I believe they were up to 150 guitars per day by the time the American Standards came out).

hey guys i got a pic of the body and one of the headstock heres the pics in my facebook account

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... cc82349077

i never seen a guitar with the serial # on the frontlike that. usually there on the back of the head right?

like i dont know much about fenders. i know this guitar was definitly before 1997 as i had borrowed it from him for awhile. it was a gift to him from his brother who was in the military.

im just wondering is it just a squier or is it a genuine stratocaster? i appreciate u all helping me

I'm not super familiar with the Squier line so I'll let someone else verify it, but it does look like an early one (right after they moved Squier production from Japan to Korea) from what I remember.

Fenders did have the serial number on the front of the headstock for quite a while:

USA models had them on the front from mid-1976 until 1995 (of course this does not include the reissue models that had the serial on the neck plate); in 1995 the USA non-reissues moved to the back of the headstock.

Made in Japan models had them on the front as well for a while - but they varied as after about 1986 had them on the headstock like the Squier you have while other models had them on the back of the neck right above the heel.

Again, I'm just not up on the Squiers but this looks right for an early one to me. However, I'll defer to someone with more expertise on them.

Squier with E1 + 6 digits with silver serial = made by Young Chang in 1987-88.

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PeTe

young chan? is that a joke or?
so if someone had to date this guitar about within how many years would you say

Nope, not a joke. Young Chan is a Korean company that still exists, manufacturing for example pianos and Kurzweil keyboards. They were the first to make Squiers in Korea for Fender. So it really should be 24-25 years old as the only ones made with a silver E-serial are those from -87-88.

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PeTe

thanks for the help guys