Both the Cort and Sungham plants used unique numbers. Since Fender was using new plants to build their guitars, they decided the change the numbering system again, but this time they changed it to something more like the American guitars. They switched to two different plants: the Cor-Tek or Cort plant and the Saehan or Sunghan plant. 1988 – 1993 Korean Squier Fender Serial Numbers NumbersĪfter 1993, Fender really cleaned up their serial number process. Watch out for these! Here’s a reference for the first few years. Korean serial numbers starting with “M” are said to actually be made out of plywood. Some of these no prefix serial numbers have been found on guitars produced all the way through 1996. They just had six, seven, or eight digits with the first number representing the year. Some early Korean serial numbers didn’t have a lettered serial number at all. The 1980s guitars’ serial numbers were written in silver ink.
#Samick guitar identification how to#
It doesn’t get more confusing than that, right? Here’s how to tell the duplicate serial numbers apart. In 1991, they reused an “E1” serial number. At this point, they decided to start corresponding the serial number with the actual year, so in 1990 they used an “E0” serial number. An “E2” serial number was then used for 1989 since it was the second year of production. They used a “1” because it was the first year of production. The first year Young Chang produced guitars with in 1987-1988, but they didn’t use a “7” or an “8” as the first number. It does stand for the year of production in a way. The first number on the “E” serial numbers is a little confusing. The Young Chang and Sung-Eum guitars used a serial number starting with an “E” followed by six digits. Usually the first digit represented the year of production. Guitars produced by Samick used a serial number starting with an “S” followed by six digits. What we do know about the early Korean days was that there were three different plants: the Samick pant, the Young Chang plant, and the Sung-Eum plant.