Confused on fender neck stamp dating 1969
 

According to this website

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html

The heel stamp by the truss rod on a 1969 precision bass should be a 6 digit number with the first digit being a 5 for precision and the last one being a 9 followed by the nut width. My confusion is that every neck on a '69 I've seen has been in the format like 5 July 69 B for example. This includes '69s on here and eBay.



I'm looking at buying a pbass with a neck stamp of 521214B which is accurate to the websites description minus the 4. Idk if its a 4 or 9. According to the seller its the original neck since he's the original owner.

Anybody want to enlighten me or have an idea?

There's another more accurate date stamp toward the completion of the bass: the underside of the pickups. They will have a 4-digit stamp, the last digit being the year. See if he'll give that to you.

The neck stamp numbers do tend to fade. The pot dating can be helpful, but Fender tended to buy parts in large batches, so there are 68-69 basses that may have pots dated 1966.

Any idea why the different format on the neck stamp assumming its a 69?

Just read this on that site

" 1969: new type of neck stamp consisting of 6, 7 or 8 digits was used on some models. This new stamp was usually green ink. An example of this type of neck code is "529129B". The new green stamp was used concurrently with the previous "XX MMM-YY W" format. So a neck could have either code system!"

So my guess is that the 9 faded to a 4 and that number system wasn't used up to '74 or anything. So it has to be a '69 neck

Nevermind just seen a picture it




It'd definitely a 4. Now I'm confused. I've seen a similar thread but about a telecaster with this same issue with a 4 at the end and it was forsure a '69 so any input or opinions would be appreciated.

*If* the bass is really bought in 1969 like the thinks, then the neck was replaced at some point.
Or the guy is mistaken on the year he bough it.

Did he look at the stamp on the bottom of the pickup?

So what date does that code stamp match to? I didn't think that code was used up to '74

He's checking the code on the pots and pickups now. I'll post codes on them whenever I hear from the seller

Check here
 

http://www.ggjaguar.com/neckcode.htm

google "Fender neck codes" There's more:)

I just took my '69 apart last night to check all of the dates and stamps. It would be interesting to compare notes. I was confused by the website you mentioned as the neck just has a 1969 date code on it. There were also 2 stamps in the neck pocket of which one was legible and 2 more three digit stamps under the pickguard. I have no idea what these mean. The pots were dated 1966 which I believe was very common as mentioned already.

That clears it up now :)

I've read that article too. Still confused though since the code doesn't match what would've been used on either a 74 or 64 neck

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaste...reen-code.html

The link above has the same issue but on a telecaster.

Pickup code is: 2270

Code on pot: 032367 304-7023 on a 250K pot

Neck Plate code: 278530

I think that neck stamp is 71.

Your pickups date 27th week of 1970

Your pots date 23rd week of 1970

The neck plates were randomly grabbed in no particular order, it's a 69 era serial, but again they were randomly grabbed from a bin.

Strange span indeed though.

Thanks for your input. Seems like its a 1970 then with some kind of mistake on the neck stamp. Idk. The seller can confirm it was bought before 1971. Surely fender wouldn't predate their necks. So its a mystery to me

No they absolutely wouldn't predate the neck. But if that bass ever went back to the Fender dealer for an issue, and the dealer replaced the neck wether under warranty or from another bass they had in stock, could certainly have happened.