Serial number dating / Amps
Guitar amp dating
Date a Fender, Marshall or Ampeg amplifier from the code stamped on it. Pick the maker, enter the code or serial, and we read it against the maker’s own scheme to tell you the year.
Can't read a digit? Type ? in its place. Looked-up serials are kept, never tied to you. How it works
Type the serial or code from the instrument. We read it as you type.
Date by maker
About amp dating
How amps are dated
An amplifier usually carries its date in a code rather than in a running serial. Fender stamped a two-letter code on the tube chart inside the cabinet, the first letter the year and the second the month. Marshall put a single year letter in the serial from 1969 to 1992, then switched to a serial that spells out the year. Ampeg used a numeric serial that encodes the year and month. We read each the way its maker wrote it.
Where the serial carries no date, we say so rather than guess. Many Fender amps before 1970, and Ampeg’s 1970s and early-1980s amps, were never numbered sequentially. In those cases the answer is the transformer and speaker date codes, which the pot and speaker code reader decodes: it reads the same EIA code on an amp’s transformer or speaker as it does on a guitar’s potentiometer.
How sure is it
Every result carries its confidence. A tube-chart code or a modern serial dates an amp well; an older serial often cannot, and a reissue can copy a vintage code. Treat the year as a strong guide and confirm it against the amp’s features and its component date codes.