Neck date is put on when the guitar is assembled. Pot dates come from when the pot is made, and can be years older then the guitar (especially in 60s Fenders).
The neck plates were stamped in bulk and drawn from a big bucket at assembly, so they're unreliable.
othomas2 wrote:So a pencil'd neck date should override a neck plate no. (date) to a serious collector ?
Yes'm.
It's not uncommon to find plate numbers that predate the guitar by 9 months in some cases. It gets even more complicated when people try to associate serial numbers with neck dates, when really the serial numbers aren't sequential. A lot of confusion is due to people thinking the serial numbers go in order.
Pots were bought in bulk and used until they ran out, sometimes years. Forrest White was fired for buying a ridiculously huge lot of 1MEG pots in 1966-7, despite the guitar specs calling for 250k. This is the real reason late 60s Teles used 1MEG - Fender was trying to use up all the leftover stock.
The neck date is put on when the neck is first screwed to the body.
Thanks for the info.It makes sense.My friend said the guy he is selling it for bought it with a 1956 Tweed Deluxe amp as a package deal in 1957.My friend said that the owner remembered that he had bought it when the guitar was brand new, and the amp had been sitting in the shop for awhile so he got a special deal on for he buying them both at the same time.I asked about the amp but my friend said he is keeping it for himself.He told me it also in near mint condition except the owner's son blew the original speaker so my friend had to replace it with a Weber.
othomas2 wrote:So a pencil'd neck date should override a neck plate no. (date) to a serious collector ?
Yes'm.
It's not uncommon to find plate numbers that predate the guitar by 9 months in some cases. It gets even more complicated when people try to associate serial numbers with neck dates, when really the serial numbers aren't sequential. A lot of confusion is due to people thinking the serial numbers go in order.
Pots were bought in bulk and used until they ran out, sometimes years. Forrest White was fired for buying a ridiculously huge lot of 1MEG pots in 1966-7, despite the guitar specs calling for 250k. This is the real reason late 60s Teles used 1MEG - Fender was trying to use up all the leftover stock.
The neck date is put on when the neck is first screwed to the body.
Not sure about that. Many Swinger necks are stamped '66 and Swingers were assembled in '69. The lore is that the necks were originally made for Musicmasters and date stamped, then reprocessed in '69 to make the pointy headstock.
