The Neck Plate Sticker

A quick forum search shows these changed to the 'By Leo Fender' style ~1988 and application ceased around 1991 during the start of the BBE era; but curious, were these uniformly applied to all Leo-Era G&Ls? Were there other variants, aside from the simple early patent number style and the later fancier typography?

Curious as my (well-worn) F100 hasn't had one since I've known it. Sort of wonder if it would have originally, if it was an '83 . I assume so, it's of course 'Pat Pend' on the headstock and they must have wanted the numbers somewhere

Danleyl,

Looked over all my pre-BBE G&Ls. Of the 53 with the S/N on the neck plate, 38 have the sticker and 15 do not have a sticker. But of the latter, 6 are prototypes and 1 is a guitar specifically built for George Fullerton. So the sticker is pretty standard. The oldest is a 1983 fretless L-1000 (Thanks to KenC for pointing out the original error. No, it is not a fretless SB-1 as I had stated before!) , the latest a ASAT Classic Signature from October 1991:


An interesting observation is that these stickers are identical. However, on my 1985 Broadcaster w/Kahler has the different sticker and continues unto a Skyhawk Signature from 1990:


But every instrument I have from 1991 are either missing the sticker or have the old style starting with the 'Buck Owens' from early-1991:


Hope this helps,

- Jos

Last edited by yowhatsshakin on Fri Sep 21, 2018 7:47 am, edited 2 times in total.

My old SC-1 (Pictured in my avatar) never had a sticker.

Awesome pics & info! My '88 SC3 still has the 'By Leo' sticker- But a corner is a bit peeled and the foil pokes me in the palm any time I play too high up the neck; guess my guitar is telling me I'm playing too high

From the ones I've owned, the stickers started showing up around the middle of 1983. I've never seen a sticker on anything with chrome or matte black neck plate.

I have an '89 L-2000 fretless that I believe is an employee guitar (body wood, finish, neck profile and fingerboard all off-menu, and not in the sales log). That one has a sticker. I also own a '90 ASAT Classic Signature that I believe to have been one of Dale's samples (not in sales log, and also went on market with other presumed demos). That one does not have a neck plate sticker. I wonder if it those guitars might be a matter of whether stickers were applied before the plates went into a parts bin, or after assembly.

The oldest is a 1983 fretless SB-1

A factory fretless SB-1???

Ken

Interesting, mine would be matte/'83 (if it wasn't worn to bare copper.)

I wonder if it those guitars might be a matter of whether stickers were applied before the plates went into a parts bin, or after assembly.

If the employee guitar was 'sold' to the employee, that sorta makes sense since the
application of the stickers was part of the G&L 'Music Sales' side of things.

From the ones I've owned, the stickers started showing up around the middle of 1983. I've never seen a sticker on anything with chrome or matte black neck plate.

I have an '89 L-2000 fretless that I believe is an employee guitar (body wood, finish, neck profile and fingerboard all off-menu, and not in the sales log). That one has a sticker. I also own a '90 ASAT Classic Signature that I believe to have been one of Dale's samples (not in sales log, and also went on market with other presumed demos). That one does not have a neck plate sticker. I wonder if it those guitars might be a matter of whether stickers were applied before the plates went into a parts bin, or after assembly.

The oldest is a 1983 fretless SB-1

A factory fretless SB-1???

Ken

Oh, shucks. That was supposed to read L-1000F!

- Jos

Oh, shucks. That was supposed to read L-1000F!

I still haven't played a fretless L-1000, although I have the same opinion of fretless L-2000s as many around here do of ASATs (you just can't have enough of them). I missed a mint 1980 L-1000 fretless by 30 minutes last year and still grumble about it.

I was afraid I was going to have to start a hunt for a fretless SB-1...

Ken