Fender began negotiations with several Japanese musical instrument distributors and reached an agreement with Yamano Gakki and to establish Fender Japan. The neck plate if you want to know the production year of your squier guitar,you can decipher it with the serial number decoder, or find it in explanation about the dating system below squier serial number date decoder (v21) enter only the serial number (no type or model) for example: cy 07365171 or 203651. For years, serial numbers have been used in various locations on Fender. Fender was also losing sales in Japan to Japanese guitar brands such as, and and the establishment of would benefit Fender sales in Japan, as well as overseas. Serial numbers are also helpful in determining an instruments production year. In the early 1980s, Japanese labour and production costs were much lower than in America and to compete with the Japanese made guitars, Fender moved the lower priced Fender guitar production from America to Japan. The higher priced Fender guitars were made in the United States and could not compete with the lower prices of Japanese made Fender copies.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Fender was facing competition from lower priced Japanese made guitars. The serial number was applied to the bridge plate until 1955. SERIAL NUMBERS : PRODUCTION YEAR : 0001 - 0999 : 1950 - 1952 : 1000 - 5300 : 1952 - 1954 : Precision Basses 1951-1955 There is some overlap of the serial numbers and dates. Until the introduction of the Fender Squier series, Fender had never produced lower priced guitars based on its main and models and had always used different model designs for its lower priced guitars. Fender then switched to a serial numbering on the neck plate for all models in that year.

Squier Guitars (1982-present) Before the Fender Squier line of guitars was introduced in 1982, Fender was making lower priced guitars such as the at its plant.

Squier serial number on neck plate