Fender pro reverb amp serial numbers

Email Address:. Sign me up! Fender switched back to the blackface era cosmetics some time in Pro Reverbs produced between late and have a black control panel and silver sparkle grille cloth. A Boost switch, master volume, and hum balance control was added before Pro Reverb was discontinued. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Note the removal of the voltage selector switch and hard-wiring.

Also note the vertical black lines on the control panel found on earliest silverface amps and the large ceramic power resistors coming off the power tube sockets which indicates the AB circuit. I just discovered that the silverface Bandmaster speaker cabinet the big, tall one without tilt-back legs is ported see photo. I thought they were completely sealed units. One thing we know for sure is that production codes can help date an amp to a particular month within a given model run.

Greg and I also disagree about determining production from serial numbers. I will present my hypothesis here and let Greg present his side of the story in a future article. Unlike serial numbers used for most Fender guitars and basses, we know that serial number sequences are unique to a particular model or a family of models of amplifiers.

Because the serial numbers are for a particular model and that chassis were stamped sequentially, is reasonable to assume that the serial number infers the Nth unit manufactured. Some caution is advised since it is likely that not all chassis were used due to defects or that duplicate serial numbers may have been stamped.

There is no way to separate out production for these models, but with enough data, we might be able to do some frequency distribution and such to determine a rough estimate. For the uniquely serialized models, the production estimates using my hypothesis, can be determined from the serial number tables. For example, the serial numbers for 5F6 and 5F6-A Bassman amps run from BM to BM therefore we can conclude that there were about 4, units made.

How about those rarebird Vibroverbs? Well, the serial numbers for the brown Vibroverb run from to indicating a total production of around units, and the serial numbers for the blackface Vibroverb run from A to A indicating a total production of around 5, units.

The brown Deluxe is less common at about 4, units made serial numbers run from D to D Anyway, you get the idea. For instance, the serial numbers for tweed Bandmaster 3x10 run from S to S Remember, this model shares a chassis with the narrow panel tweed Pro and Super. Therefore, the only thing we can infer is that there were 3, tweed Bandmasters, Pros, and Supers made in total. DATING The tables are pretty much self-explanatory, but here are some guidelines to keep in mind when using the tables to date your amp.

First, the tables should be used as a guide only. Large overlaps in years may be due to lack of sufficient data late s to mid s or simply that the stamped chassis were used way out sequence mid s to early s. Thankfully, these aberrations are pretty rare. Some serial numbers have a letter prefix plus 4-digits instead of the usual 5- or 6-digits.

Likewise there are some serial numbers with an extra digit usually a zero after the letter prefix. Most amps have a Fender serial code that lets you know when or approximately when they were made. Most amps have a clearly labeled model name.

Depending on when the amp was made, the code could be in a few different places. We already mentioned that some amps have tube charts pasted on a wall in the back of the chassis. Older amps will usually have the serial number stamped into the right side of the chassis.

And on newer amps, look on the back for a quality assurance sticker. This sticker will have the two-letter date code that you need. In almost every case, Fender amps made in this window have a small paper tube chart showing the tubes included in the amp inside the back of the amp.

You should see two letters hand-stamped on it. On these charts, the first letter represents the year the amp was built, while the second represents the month. Fender had a system where certain letters stood for both years and months. If your amp is stamped with GL, it was made in December of The first letter, G, represents the year which is on the chart. The second letter, L, represents the month which is December on the chart.

In some cases, an amp may have lost its tube chart, or you may not be able to read a serial number anywhere else. You can get an approximate idea of when an amp was built by taking a look at the transformer. But how do you date a Fender amp transformer code? Once you find the transformer, you should be able to easily locate its code.