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Post subject: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 8:40 am
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I am trying to find out when the Fender Stratocaster I have was manufactured (if at all possible). The serial number is E819457. Can anyone help me? Many thanks. Paolo


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 9:56 am
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Did you already look up the Fender Product Dating pages?


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 12:36 pm
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Need a lot more info - even to help you find it on the product dating pages.

For example - is it a USA Fender or is it made in Japan?

How about some photos of the guitar as well?


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 1:06 pm
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1988-1989 if it is american made


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:26 am
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The very best way to find out the actual date you guitar is to open it up and look inside. Fender places a date on the neck heal and I think the body, too. Keep in mind that even this can be tricky as the date on the neck or body is the date they were built, not the guitar put together and shipped.

My '00/'01 EC Strat has a S/N for 2000 and the body parts are dated in 2000, but I ordered the guitar in Jan 2001 and had to waite for it to be built. I received it in late Feb 2001. I'm glad that I didn't get it later. This was about the time that Fender swapted over to the new pups for Clapton, which I really don't like that much.


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:57 am
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Many thanks indeed for all your replies. I was not expecting such help. I have taken pics of the guitar and posted them in my facebook profile. I dare not open the guitar to check on the inside as I am rather clumsy and don't want to cause any damage. I have inherited this guitar from my brother and want to sell it. Hence my interest in the year of manufacture: this way I can try and get an idea of its worth.

Best wishes

Paolo

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... uploaded=3


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:36 am
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paolaccio wrote:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200671196935181.1073741825.1618530993&type=3&uploaded=3


I'm getting a page not found error from your link - I don't know if it's because I'm not on facebook and it's not set for public viewing or if there's another error.

If you put them somewhere else like photobucket anyone can take a look at them and see what you have.


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:40 am
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My American Standard has a very close serial number E80XXX and I purchased mine new at a Fender dealer in October 1989.


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 4:03 am
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I have uploaded the pictures on photobucket. When I tried the link to Facebook, it was working. Don't know what happened there.

Best wishes

Paolo

http://s1318.photobucket.com


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:25 am
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paolaccio wrote:
I have uploaded the pictures on photobucket. When I tried the link to Facebook, it was working. Don't know what happened there.

Best wishes

Paolo

http://s1318.photobucket.com


Thanks. It was purely because I'm not on facebook (plus it's blocked where I'm posting from during the days). I looked at it last night on my wife's computer (she is on facebook; I'm still a holdout :mrgreen: ).

That's a nice American Standard so the "E8" serial number will date it to sometime from about mid-1988 until sometime in mid-to-late 1989. Unfortunately that's about as close as we can get without you taking it apart.

You've probably heard the story about FMIC/Fender using up left-over decals on the American Standards - that they used up the "E3" (i.e. "1983") and "E4" (i.e. 1984) decals that were among the materials they got from CBS in the sale first. Those were used from the time they put the American Standards into production (as early as October 1986 in preparation for the official launch of the line in January 1987) up to as late as June 1988. So sometime circa May/June/July 1988 they finally used up the "E4" decals and moved to the "E8" decals. Who knows how many serial number decals they actually printed, but since production was much lower back then it likely took them over 12 months to use up the number they printed.

This is just me trying to go by memory here, but I don't recall the serial numbers getting close to matching the calendar year (or at least as close as Fender ever gets with these; there is always year end/year start overlap) until about 1994. Plus there was the mix-up where "N9xxxxx" numbers were used in either 1990 or 1991 by accident.

Even now Fender is again "off" the calendar year - because they used two different serial number formats in 2010 the "changeover" now occurs in about March or so (at least April is when I start seeing new stock having the current year's serial number). Fender used a number that started with a slightly bolded "10" (i.e. "10xxxxxx") for the first 3-4 months of 2010, then switched over to using a "US10xxxxxx" number.

Sorry we can't give you a more accurate date, but that's at least the ballpark for a USA Fender with an "E8xxxxx" serial number.


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:26 am
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Thanks very much for what, as a layman, is quite a comprehensive reply. I really appreciate it. I now have a year, well 2 in this case, that I can use to try and figure out how much it is worth so that I can sell it. Thanks again and my very best wishes. Paolo


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Post subject: Re: Year of Manufacturer
Posted: Thu Jun 20, 2013 12:01 pm
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paolaccio wrote:
Thanks very much for what, as a layman, is quite a comprehensive reply.

As a not-layman I think it's a pretty comprehensive reply too! Nice work, John. 8)

Condolences about your brother, paolaccio. Good luck finding a home for his guitar.

Cheers - C

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