equipment dating(sounds perverse)

[Craig Villalon]

I have never been sure about the manufacture dates of my stuff...Emmons D-10 has 2749A stamped on it and I always thought it was a '68. My Black face twin has A04571 stamped on the chassis and thought this was a '66. Can anybody help out?

thanks

[Ed Miller Jr]

Craig, can't help you on the emmons but maybe on the amp. On the tube placement chart inside the amp there should be two letters stamped with a hand ink stamp. they started this in 1953 with the letter C and ran with it through 1967 letter Q. the first letter is the year. The second letter is the month and they run A(january) through L (december). Another trick is to date it by speaker code or the pot code. first three digits are the manufacturer, last four refer to the date made, originally there was one digit less, EG.(137312) would mean CTS, 53,12th week of the year. In the sixties the added a digit (1376552) CTS,65,52nd week of the year. As I understand this, this code works on pots and speakers too.... Warning this applies to original parts only! And on the part codes then can be off by months because of inventory, opening new boxes before old ones, dumping a new box in a bench bin and mixing them right in with the rest. The tube chart date is official from the fender factory ( I'm an auth. tech for fender). The part codes on pre-53 amps is often the only way to guess. guys, get the fender amp book by Teagle and Sprung,Fender amps the first fifty years; they did there home work

ED

[Rick Johnson]

Craig,
Ed said about everything there is to
help date the BFTR.
Thanks Ed, I may need your help someday too.

Rick

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Rick Johnson

[Craig Villalon]

Ed,
Thanks so much for your help...will check out those reference numbers tonite!!! will also look into the book you suggested....I absolutely love this amp for my steel work and strat!!!

[Donny Hinson]

Craig, check out this site...
http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/index.html