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INSTRUMENT DATA

A frequently asked question in bass & guitar forums is, "What year was this bass made?"  Click the underlined white headline links below and find out.

Brother Dave's Printable Fender Field Guide - I personally cooked up this four-page printable WORD document applicable to practically all Fender guitars and basses ever produced from day 1 in the back room of Leo Fender's radio shop up till this very moment.  I did it for ME but I'm sharing it with YOU.  Just download, open & print!  Keep a copy in your car for those pawn shops, flea markets and yard sale finds where  you don't have computer access.  The Field Guide includes ALL serials from 1950 to 2009!   BONUS!!!!  THE BROTHER DAVE POT CODE DECODER RING allows you to date any USA made pot with just a mere GLANCE!   The Pot Decoder is on page 4.   Additions and corrections appreciated!  My Field Guide is a work in progress.   If you don't have Microsoft WORD you can download the Microsoft "WORD READER" free HERE.  (You're welcome.) 

Dating a US Fender Guitar/Bass From Fender

Dating a Mexican Fender Guitar/Bass From Fender

Dating a Japanese Fender Guitar/Bass From Fender

Dating Fender Acoustic Instruments From Fender

Dating Fender Amplifiers From Fender

Dating Odd Fender Serial Numbers - Includes basses like the otherwise impossible to date short California Series run!  Again, from Fender

Guitar Dater Project for FENDER - MIA, MIJ and MIM formats with the exception of Custom Shop, Relic and Reissue instruments.  The entry field is at the bottom of the page and note the tic boxes that apply to your guitar. 

Fender Guitar & Bass Dating Help Page - Overview of collecting vintage Fender guitars, basses and amps. General specifications, serial numbers, neck codes, Fender vintage guitar case logs.  Excellent reading!  Fender fanatics will LOVE this page! 

Fender Country Codes - If you suspect an instrument has been modified to hide the true country of origin but you have the original serial number, then the country code reveals where it was made.  Another BrotherDave.Com site addendum page.

Dating a Squier Bass - This is a WIKI page on dating Squier guitars and basses.  Squier serials are VERY confusing but this page can help date at least of them.

Guitar Dater Project for Epiphone - Note the caveats in the left margin.  The entry field is at the bottom of the page. 

Dating Modern (1977+) Gibson Guitars & Basses

Guitar Dater Project for Gibson - Works for pre-1977 instruments too.  The serial entry field is at the bottom of the page and they also like to get your model number to help them sort serial ranges among models.

Dating Guild Guitars & Basses (1952+) - From Guitar Nucleus (Gotta love Guild basses.  They are still AWESOME!)

Guitar Dater Project for Ibanez - Often Ibanez instruments are very difficult to date, but this tool seems to be an excellent dating method.  I've tried it on two different basses of known manufacture date with dead-on accurate results.   The input field for your serial is near the bottom of the page.

Dating Rickenbacher Guitars & Basses - The official Rick site.

Guitar Dater Project for Yamaha - You might or might not ever find out what year your Yamaha was made.  Apparently Yamaha serials are the most difficult to pinpoint.  The input box is near the bottom of the page.  Yamaha serials are even more convoluted than the Squier or Ibanez serial schemes.

Guitar Dater Project for POT CODES - As a last resort when you can't find a reliable date from the instrument serial or super reliable neck codes you can resort to dating the pots.  Only works for USA made pots.  Also if you have the guitar manufacture date you can see if it has original pots.  The input box is at the bottom of the page.

Fender Precision Bass Timeline Chronology - From Vintage Guitars in the UK comes a wonderful source of information detailing the evolutionary chronology of the number one electric bass in history!  There are three pages in total:  1950's, 1960's and 1970's! 

Vintage Bass Information - Also from Vintage Guitars in the UK.  This page is a gateway to a wealth of information on vintage electric basses by Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Hagstrom, Gretsch, Hofner, Epiphone, Guild, Harmony, Vox, Ampeg, Danelectro and Kalamazoo.  Warning, you can waste hours on this site.  Very educational and very fun site with tons of historical information.  This site also has a forum. 

VINTAGE GUITAR COLORS - Fender color offerings changed periodically which can help with dating.  For example any Fender Candy Apple Red instrument is 1963 or later.  Keep in mind that scans of color charts will be an approximation at best.  The following sites will help identify your color:

Curtis Novak Restorations Color Blocks (Appear very accurate renderings to me.)

In-Depth information on Fender Custom Finishes from Provide.Net including FENDER COLOR CHARTS from 1960 and 1966.  A good read!

ReRanch Custom Colors for FENDER

Reranch Specialty Colors for GIBSON

(The following 6 color charts are from Strat-Central.Com)

Scan of the 1961-1963 Fender color chart

Scan of the 1963-1964 Fender color chart

Scan of the 1965 Fender color chart

Scan of the 1966-1967 Fender color chart

Scan of the 1970 Fender color chart

Scan of the 1976-1977 Fender color chart

Vintage Fender/Gibson Guitar Finishes - A "300 Guitars" interview with Gord Miller of Canada who is a leading authority on vintage instrument finishes.

Gruhn Instrument Appraisal - Gruhn Guitars of Nashville operates one of the most reputable, highly regarded and knowledgeable guitar appraisal services.  An appraisal of a vintage collectible instrument by a recognized authority is indispensable should you ever need to file an insurance claim on the instrument.  Also knowing the appraisal value gives you a starting point for setting a price to sell an instrument, plus you will have an accurate and authoritative description to use when advertising it for sale and can quote the appraisal value and appraiser's name.  Usually an appraisal will contain information you were not aware of that would be of significant interest to potential buyers.  Many times I see vintage basses on eBay for sale with incorrect color names or other obvious errors and an appraisal would have prevented the seller from looking like an idiot.  Instruments almost never actually sell at full appraisal value, but instead usually sell for a majority percentage of the appraisal value.  I call the sale price "actual value."  This actual value percentage fluctuates based on several factors including location, the state of the vintage instrument market and the overall state of the economy.  At this update in the 4th quarter of 2009 the vintage guitar market is still sluggish with "actual value" being a smaller percentage of the appraisal value than two or three years ago.  Vintage instruments are also still taking longer to sell, even at lower actual value percentage, than just two years ago when the vintage market was more active and the economy stronger.  People fearful of losing their jobs are not apt to buy $8,000 guitars.   That makes now a better time to buy a vintage instrument than to sell one.  Once the economy turns around the actual value percentage will rise.  It will be a sure sign the recession is over when vintage guitars actual value percentages make a comeback.

Autographs Authentication - If you have a signed instrument but can't prove it was the artist that actually signed it, having the autograph authenticated may add value to your instrument.  Whether or not authentication adds enough value to cover the cost of the authentication depends on the collectability of the artist's signature.  My advice is not to buy a celebrity signed anything, vintage or otherwise,  without authentication that the autograph is in fact genuine or proof that it is the artist's signature.  Proof could be a photograph of the artist signing the instrument or a photo of the owner with the celebrity while he is signing it is even better.  A letter from the original owner detailing the chain of ownership is also important and it should be notarized.  Defacing a vintage instrument is never a good idea as even an authentic signature will usually hurt the collector value.  Of course if the signature turns out to be fake it even more substantially hurts the instrument's value.   A celebrity signing a vintage instrument hurts the value of a vintage instrument as a general rule.  However there are exceptions to all rules.   Would an authentic 1968 Gibson flattop signed by either Elvis or John Lennon be worth more or less than an unsigned one?  More of course!  However, I've seen a  few basses signed by little known and sometimes unidentifiable people which is a huge value mark off.   In the case of celebrity owned instruments a notarized signed statement and photo of the celebrity with the instrument is far more desirable than the artist actually defacing the instrument by signing it.  Remember 60 or 100 years from now the instrument may survive but nobody will know why some moron wrote their stupid name on it.  With very few exceptions (Elvis for one) every artist's fame fades over time, but instruments can endure indefinitely far outliving most artists' popularity or collectability.