Register your Fender product today. Create your Fender profile to get started. Enter serial number or add your product manually. Access your orders, gear, product info and offers. Newsletter sign up company. The serial numbers in principle chronological, but as already mentioned, as a result of Fender's production, there are a several serial numbers that overlap. The only way to try to figure out the date is to remove the neck from the body and check the butt end of the heel of the neck.
Serial #'sDATING YOUR KOREAN-MADE FENDER/SQUIER INSTRUMENTfromAlthough Fender began producing Fender and Squier instruments in Korea in 1988, its digital records only go back tomid-1993, with little if any information available on serial numbering from 1988 through 1992. It is accepted thatthere were serial numbers with and without letter prefixes at that time, but as definitive information is lacking,serial-number dating for Korean instruments made before 1993 is highly uncertain.Digital records beginning in 1993 show some “CN” and “VN” prefixes on the serial numbers of Korean-made instruments(these numbers almost certainly occur before 1993, but there is no documentation of this). Serial numbers withoutletter prefixes have been found dating through 1996; these are six-, seven- and eight-digit serial numbers with thefirst numeral (or first two numerals in the eight-digit numbers) indicating year of manufacture. A seven-digit serialnumber beginning with six, for example, indicates 1996; a seven-digit number beginning with seven denotes 1997; aneight-digit number beginning with 98 denotes 1998, etc.A “KC” prefix was introduced on Korean-made instruments in 1997, designating instrument made in Korea at the Cort factory.The letter prefix is followed by an eight-digit number, the first two digits of which identify year of manufacture,(i.e., 97 for 1997, 98 for 1998, etc.). The remaining six digits are the unit identifier, but they are not sequentialand do not provide further identification information about the instrument.The numbers for each year typically overlap, as there is always a transitional period between successive years and asnecks and complete instruments that were made and serial numbered late in any given year were used on instrumentsassembled and sold in the early months of the subsequent year.As always, dating by serial number is not an exact science and is seldom definitive.