Calling Fender Experts - Neck Plate Question

[lfmn16]

I have a generic question that might be of interest to others so I'm not posting this in a thread specific to my bass. I also did a search, but didn't find the information I was looking for.

My question is - in the 60's did Fender put a neck plate from one year on a bass body from another year? I have a neck plate with the number L95900 on a body which dates it to 1965 according to Fender - Invalid Link Removed. However, the neck is a 1968 tele bass neck and the body is a slab body which is consistent with the other 1968 tele basses I have seen.

I'm just curious if this is likely something Fender did, or if someone else just swapped out neck plates for some unknown reason.

Thanks!

 

[lfmn16]

Not a single reply? I thought we would have a few Fender experts.

 

[Johnny Alien]

It is not uncommon to find a body from one year mated to a neck from another year (as long as they are close) and the electronics (such as the pots) often will be from an earlier year until they used up stock but I have never seen a serial number off of the year like that. If you said it had a 65 SN but parts were dated to 1964 I could see how that happened. Older parts didn't get used until a later year. But having a serial number for years earlier than the parts is something I have never seen. At least not to the degree of what you are saying. The E4 (1984) serial number got used for quite a few years all the way up to the late 80's and the late seventies "S" serial numbers get a little wonky too but again...something like what you are seeing of years and years prior would suggest to me that the plate got swapped.

 

[One Drop]

Yeah, definitely not originally from the same bass. Serial numbers could vary within a year but that's way too long an interval.

 

[lfmn16]

It is not uncommon to find a body from one year mated to a neck from another year (as long as they are close) and the electronics (such as the pots) often will be from an earlier year until they used up stock but I have never seen a serial number off of the year like that. If you said it had a 65 SN but parts were dated to 1964 I could see how that happened. Older parts didn't get used until a later year. But having a serial number for years earlier than the parts is something I have never seen. At least not to the degree of what you are saying. The E4 (1984) serial number got used for quite a few years all the way up to the late 80's and the late seventies "S" serial numbers get a little wonky too but again...something like what you are seeing of years and years prior would suggest to me that the plate got swapped.

Thanks. I was thinking that myself. I've done a little more research on line. I need to take this apart and post picks in my other thread. This was kind of a generic question so I posted it separately.