There are some easy ways to find out when your vintage Fender was manufactured. First, to get a general idea,there’s the appearance/style of the amp. There are some exceptions and some overlap, but the general idea is this: Tweeds (early 50’s to very early 60s), Browns (1960 – 1962), Blondes (1962 – 1963), Blackface (1963 – 1967), and Silverface (1967 – 1981). Up until the end of the blackface era (1967), all amps left the factory with a tube chart that had a two letter date code stamped on it.

TUBE CHARTS:

Welcome to the vintage Kustom amp site, VintageKustom.com. This site is dedicated to sharing the collective knowledge about the vintage Kustom Tuck-n-Roll Amplifiers of the mid 60's to early 70's, and their accessories. The information in this site has been and will continue to be compiled from the contributed facts, photos, and stories of.

The tube chart date code works like this: the first letter indicates the year and the second letter indicates the month. So if your blackface amp has a date code stamp of OB, it was made in 1965/February. If your tweed champ is stamped HH, it was made in 1958/August.

• It has the early thin plastic handles, a red power light that in later production was changed to blue and the stove top style control knobs. The serial number is hand written and according to the number chart and Vintage Kustom, it is the 193rd one of approximately 110,000 tuck and rolled amps made. The amp has two channels marked guitar and bass.
• Vacuum Tube Amplifier Sets. Looking to revitalize your amp? We maintain an extensive list of amplfiers and their required components - browse to your amp manufacturer below and select your amplifier to see a listing of the components which you can replace in your amp - we will show you all of the components which are interchangeable so that you can select the one that works best for you.

A – 1951 A – January

B – 1952 B – February

C – 1953 C – March

D – 1954 D – April

E – 1955 E – May

F – 1956 F – June

G – 1957 G – July

Vintage Kustom 200 Bass Amp

H – 1958 H – August

I – 1959 I – September

J – 1960 J – October

K – 1961 K – November

L – 1962 L – December

M – 1963

N – 1964

O – 1965

P – 1966

Q – 1967

TRANSFORMER DATE CODES:

Kustom Amp Serial Number Chart

Another way to get a close estimate of when your amp was made is to read the codes on the transformers. Most post tweed Fenders had trannys manufactured by Schumacher.

Vintage Kustom Bass Amps

They used a code like this: 606 – 645

The date is in the last three digits, after the 606 – . The first of the three digits tells us the last digit of the year (unfortunately not decade specific) and the last two numbers tell us the week. In the above example, the transformer was made in either 1966 or 1976, week 45. Now if it’s a blackface amp, it’s a safe bet that 6 means 1966. If it’s a silverface amp, that 6 indicates 1976.

This code can be found on the power transformer, output transformer, choke, and reverb transformer. They are all usually within a few months of each other. Use the latest one to give you a good idea of when it was made. For example, if your silverface super reverb has transformer codes all from 1974, it was made in 1974! Let’s say the weeks are 27, 29, 33, 41. Based on the last number (45), it’s safe to say it was made in late 1974.

Vintage Kustom Amps History

Vintage Kustom Amp Parts

Many silverface and some blackface amps have the exact week, month and year stamped insie the chassis.

FENDER SERIAL NUMBERS:

Here’s a link to a great webpage that has compiled the dating list forFender Serial Numbers.