Cort Bass Serial Numbers

You cannot identify a particular Cort model just by the serial number alone. Serial numbers mainly identify the year that the instrument was produced in. For instance, if a serial number starts with 00, that guitar was produced in 2000. Guitars being produced in 2006 start with 06 and so on.

Just like many other companies in the late 1980s, Fender decided to start manufacturing products in Korea. As with any new product line, Fender came up with a new numbering system for these guitars.

You would think after nearly 40 years of producing guitars, Fender would have a standardized serial number system down by now, right? Well, they didn’t. The Korean Fender serial numbers are just as scattered and confusing as all the rest of their guitars. Let’s take a look at the different serial numbers and see what they mean. 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.

Guitars produced by Samick used a serial number starting with an “S” followed by six digits. Usually the first digit represented the year of production.

The Young Chang and Sung-Eum guitars used a serial number starting with an “E” followed by six digits. The first number on the “E” serial numbers is a little confusing. It does stand for the year of production in a way. 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. They used a “1” because it was the first year of production.

An “E2” serial number was then used for 1989 since it was the second year of production. At this point, they decided to start corresponding the serial number with the actual year, so in 1990 they used an “E0” serial number. In 1991, they reused an “E1” serial number.

It doesn’t get more confusing than that, right? Here’s how to tell the duplicate serial numbers apart. The 1980s guitars’ serial numbers were written in silver ink. The 1990s numbers were written in black. Some early Korean serial numbers didn’t have a lettered serial number at all.

They just had six, seven, or eight digits with the first number representing the year. Some of these no prefix serial numbers have been found on guitars produced all the way through 1996. Fender did some crazy stuff back then. Korean serial numbers starting with “M” are said to actually be made out of plywood.

Watch out for these! Here’s a reference for the first few years. 1988 – 1993 Korean Squier Fender Serial Numbers Numbers Years 6 Digits 1988 – 1996 7 Digits 1988 – 1996 8 Digits 1988 – 1996 E1 + 6 Digits in Silver 1987 – 1988 E2 + 6 Digits in Silver 1988 – 1989 E0 + 6 Digits in Black 1989 – 1990 E1 + 6 Digits in Black 1991 – 1992 E2 + 6 Digits in Black 1992 – 1993 E3 + 6 Digits in Black 1993 – 1994 S9 + 6 Digits 1989 – 1990 S0 + 6 Digits 1990 – 1991 S1 + 6 Digits 1991 – 1992 S2 + 6 Digits 1992 – 1993 S3 + 6 Digits 1993 – 1994. After 1993, Fender really cleaned up their serial number process. They switched to two different plants: the Cor-Tek or Cort plant and the Saehan or Sunghan plant. 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. Both the Cort and Sungham plants used unique numbers.

All Cort serial numbers started with the letter “C”. You would assume Sungham would use the letter “S”, but that was already taken by the Samick plant a few years earlier. Sungham ended up using the letter “V”. Both of these serial numbers used an “N” to represent the 1990s followed by a number that stood for the exact year. This is similar to the American. So a guitar produced by Cort in 1992 would have a serial number of CN2 followed by five digits. Sungham guitars would be the same only starting with a “V”.

These serial numbers were used until 1997 when Fender stopped producing guitars at the Sungham factory. 1993 – 1997 Korean Squier Fender Serial Numbers Numbers Years CN0 + 5 Digits 1990 – 1991 CN1 + 5 Digits 1991 – 1992 CN2 + 5 Digits 1992 – 1993 CN3 + 5 Digits 1993 – 1994 CN4 + 5 Digits 1994 – 1995 CN5 + 5 Digits 1995 – 1996 CN6 + 5 Digits 1996 – 1997 VN0 + 5 Digits 1990 – 1991 VN1 + 5 Digits 1991 – 1992 VN2 + 5 Digits 1992 – 1993 VN3 + 5 Digits 1993 – 1994 VN4 + 5 Digits 1994 – 1995 VN5 + 5 Digits 1995 – 1996 VN6 + 5 Digits 1996 – 1997. Since all guitar production was moved to the Cort factory, Fender decided to change its numbering system again. Starting in 1997, the Korean Fender Squiers used a “KC” prefix that stood for Korean made in the Cort factory.