Hello, I’m new to this forum. Like many of you who went through guitars back in the late 60’s and early 70’s I have returned to playing for the fun of it. I always was partial to the Strat sound but also tried out a couple of Les Pauls. Unfortunately I never kept any of the 60’s Strats and only ended up keeping N1034370, a used Strat I picked up in the early 90’s. Recently I purchased a used Reissue (V061351) that looks like it was actually used for a number of years. It plays and sounds very good and it is my favorite.
It really doesn’t matter much but I’m curious about the build dates. I believe that N1034370 was probably built around 1990 and I think V061351 is pre 1993. I read you can take the neck off and read a production date written during assemble but was curious if an approximate year can be known just by the serial numbers.
Thanks…

Nope can't tell the "Born On" date by the Vintage Reissues neck plate number. You are gonna have to take the neck off to find the build date.

And welcome to the Forum and back to the Stratocaster fold.

T2

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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

I always thought the serial number tells the age of a Fender; regardless from if it's on the neck plate or elsewhere. (And I know that one should never trust on that alone when judging the authenticity.)

Anyways, according to Support > Product dating: that N1034370 is from 1992, and the V061351 (from the "Japan" page) from 1996/1997...

But then again, I may be totally lost...

The US Vintage Reissue guitars are an exception to the neck plate dating scheme Fender used way back when if you will. They simply had the numbers stamped and then dumped into a big bin and workers pulled from there, so they are not consecutive in any way.

They even started back at V00001 when they moved from Fullerton to Corona...so gotta pull the neck on US Vintage Reissues no two ways about it.

T2

_________________
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What time is it? It's Fender Time.

+1

Actually you'll have to pull the neck off that 1991/92 "N1034370" as well to verify if it's a 1991 or a 1992.

If you have a guitar from 1993/94 or newer Fender can give you detailed production dates and shipping info if you contact them with the serial number. Unfortnately their database only goes back to sometime in 1993.

jmattis - the serial numbers are always just an approximation and there are so many oddities, adjustments to when numbers changed, etc. that you really do have to verify things. For example, the better know anomalies include:

"S9xxxxx" numbers being used on Strats from 1979 through 1981 (and even the last of the big headstock Strats in 1982)

"S8xxxxx" numbers uses on the variou Tele models also from 1978-1981.

"E3xxxxx" numbers used not only on 1983 Standard and Elites but virtually all 1984s as well.

"E4xxxxx" numbers (and even some "E3xxxxx" numbers) used on the first American Standards starting with early production runs in October/November 1986 and going on into mid-1988.

"SE9xxxxx" serial numbers used on Artist Signatures well into 1991.

More recently Fender tried a couple of different formats for 2010 - first they used just a "10xxxxxx" for about 3 months or so, then about April they began using the "US10xxxxxx". Since they didnt' start using the "US10xxxxxx" until a few months into the year now the annual changeover seems to happen in March instead of January or February.

Learning every day...

Thanks for the input.

The thing with dating Fender guitars is that all Serial number are close, but not always on the money. E4 s/n have been known to be on guitars from the later 80s. My '04 50th Anniv. Am. Series Strat has a date of '03, but I bought it brand new in '04. By the way it's a great sounding and playing guitar. My '01 EC Strat I ordered in January 2001 has a '00 s/n. It was between Jan and Feb of 2001.

Also back in the day Fender would make hundreds of parts and grab them when they needed them. So neck plate number 0001 doesn't mean that it was the first Strat made.

I'd hazard a guess that the N1 is from '91 or '92. Taking the neck off is the only way to really know the exact build date of the parts.