Dating Fender Tube Amps by Serial Number, Part I by Greg Gagliano Copyright 1997, 20th Century Guitar Magazine. Well, we'll get to good parts, but first a little background information is in order.

After reading Teagle and Sprung's excellent Fender amp book, I took them up on their challenge that maybe someday someone will compile enough serial numbers so that Fender amps can be dated that way. I contacted several Fenders collectors and dealers who were kind enough to supply me with data.

Oddlings – Yet another printing error has surfaced, this time from the FEI (pre-CBS) days.

Besides, no article in the Dating Fender Amps by Serial Number series would be complete without some interesting information, n’est ce pas?

Well, this one uses unashamedly old technology, albeit with a bit of a twist, but it certainly scores very heavily on the latter point.

Fender’s Princeton model, the smallest of their dual 6V6–based combos, has been through a number of iterations in its lifetime, but it was the iconic ‘Blackface’ model that Fender chose to recreate as part of their Vintage Reissue Series.

Okay, I know you’re all just dying to skip ahead to the serial number tables but try to contain your excitement and read through the article first.

The only indication of power is the “300 watts” label on the back.

I've wanted a silverface Twin or Pro Reverb since I was a teen.

It’s unknown if the tweed covering was a mistake (“Oops, I thought this was a 4x10 Bassman cabinet that I was covering”) or intentional, perhaps as a special order.

Non-Schumacher transformers – It’s been universally accepted that Fender only used Schumacher transformers on amps made in the 1960s and 1970s.