Determining the Production Year of a Vintage Stratocaster

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Determining the Production Year of a Vintage Stratocaster

Written by vintage on June 27, 2009 – 5:20 pm -

Determining the production year of a potentially vintage instrument requires more than basing your opinion on just one piece of information. In the case of the Fender Stratocaster, what can make determining the guitar's probable year of manufacture difficult is simply the fact that the instrument bolts together, so that over the years, the original body, neck, pickguard assembly, and pickups could have been replaced or be missing.

I'm going to start the discussion of the identification process by briefly breaking down production eras by neck and fingerboard information.
In 1954, the introductory year of the Stratocaster, the instrument featured a one piece maple neck that included the fretboard, and it would retain that design until early 1959 when rosewood was attached to a maple neck for the fretboard. The maple board years from 1954 to 1959, which I call Phase 1, saw the use of different neck profiles. 1954-55 had a very large, bordering on huge, round "cup" ("C") shaped profile. From 1956 through 1957, you will find what is called a "V" neck because of the ridge up the back of the neck literally giving it a V shaped feel. 1958-59 maple necks reverted back to the "C" profile but with considerably less bulk than the original "C", and are arguably the least favorite among die hard 50's Strat fans.

In 1959, Fender introduced Phase 2, a maple neck with a slab rosewood fretboard featuring "clay dot markers". The board was made with a very thick piece of rosewood, now nicknamed a "slab board", a feature that remained through most of 1962. It can be identified by the straight, even, lamination at the body end of the neck where the rosewood is thicker in the middle, and also by the convex end of the fingerboard at the headstock, as opposed to the concave appearance of the subsequent Phase 3 non-slab boards that appeared in 1962. The Phase 3, non-slab rosewood board is also identifiable by its thinner curved meeting with the underlying maple neck, again seen at the body end of the neck. There is a difference in the sound of slab board versus the later non-slab board. Slabs tend to be a little darker and harsher in tone, whereas the non-slab's tone has a little more clarity, or "politeness".
Phase 3 of the early Fender necks, the non-slab, clay dot, rosewood boards, ran from mid/late 1962 through mid/late 1964.
The final fingerboard/ neck configuration that I will discuss today is the last of the pre-CBS (or small headstocks) era, Phase 4. It varied only slightly from Phase 3 in that the clay dot markers were replaced by pearloid markers that have a shiny, reflective look. These were introduced in late 1964 and continued through the summer and early fall of 1965, at which time the CBS era truly kicked in and many design changes took place, such as the larger headstock, which will be covered in a future discussion.
To summarize,
Phase 1: One piece maple necks/fretboards, 1954 - 1959.
Phase2: Maple neck with slab rosewood fretboard and clay dot markers, 1959 - 1962.
Phase 3: Maple neck with non-slab rosewood fretboard with clay dot markers, 1962 - 1964.
Phase 4: Maple neck with non-slab rosewood fretboard and pearloid dot markers replacing the clay dots, 1964 - 1965 when CBS design changes took effect.
Note that the above discussion about necks does not take into account logo decals, string trees, or tuners, which will be covered in future discussions.
Determining the Production Year of a Vintage Stratocaster: The CBS Years
Above I discussed the changes in Fender Stratocaster necks and fingerboards from 1954 to 1965, and how those changes can help determine the production year of a Stratocaster. I left off at the end of the "Leo" era transition into CBS Musical Instruments.

The ability to determine the production year of a Stratocaster becomes a little more difficult by fingerboard alone after the buyout of Fender by CBS because at that time, based on the growing popularity of the earlier models, the new "regime" reintroduced the maple fingerboard. Buyers of new Strats now had a choice as opposed to past eras where it was either a maple or rosewood fretboard. Not long after the CBS era began in 1965, the Strat received a new large headstock seen all the way through the beginning of the 80's, at which time Smith Strats and vintage reissues were marketed with the traditional old style smaller headstock. Having said that, logos and date stamps become more important.

The decal logos started with the well known "spaghetti logo" in gold at the introduction in 1954 and remained until the "transitional logo" which started in late 1964 and went through early 1968. Some will say 1967 but I have definitely seen many 1968 Strats with the transition logo, which is also gold script but with larger bolder letters and a black border. By late 1968 -- early 1969, the logo's colors reversed and featured bold black letters with gold trim.
Following this era you'll find a slight change in the mid 1970's when the "Synchronized Tremolo" wording was dropped until the beginning of the 80's. At that point so many reissues and special models were introduced that the decal stops being a way of identifying the guitar accurately.

Lets take a brief look at the topic of serial numbers. Again, back to the beginning in 1954, we have a number structure starting with 0001 and going through late 1962 to the upper 5 digit numbers. For example, 0214 would be a 1954, and 73444 would be a mid to late 1962. At this time, 1963, the "L series" kicks in. These are also under 6 digits but prefaced with the capital letter "L" (e.g., L48767). By the CBS change in 1965, you'll see a third system which drops the "L" and marks the back plate with a large reversed Fender "F" in the middle. This serialization system extended through late 1975 -- early 1976 (yes even on 3 bolt Strats) with the serial numbers now being found on a decal on the front of the headstock. For the most part at this point, Fender made dating an easier concept by using a system that started with a letter identifying the decade, followed by the first number signifying the actual year. An example would be S 84763, being 1970 (S) and more precisely 1978 when read in full. S 8.....! There was a little waffling with this system in the early decal serial numbers, but this is the rule of thumb.