Ok, I'll go first.

[David Powell]

I'm guessing with all the changes in ownership of the company from Fender to CBS and beyond to whatever the current status is, keeping old records was probably not the first priority. The same probably goes for Gibson and the Norlin period. I guess the date mentioned is when they finally put all the pieces together maybe? It sounds like the typical crank-em-out style factory process. So what about the neck stamp thing? I'm missing that on my old bass or I don't know where to look. All it has on the head stock are the name decals and some patent decals. I've had this one long enough to know that only a few parts are not original, mainly the POS bridge was replaced with a 25th anniversary type brass one, the knobs were changed to match, and the nut (when it broke) was replaced with a brass one. And I put strap-lock lugs on it a long time ago. And I have changed the strings but not recently!

[Phil Maneri]

Originally Posted by David Powell

I'm guessing with all the changes in ownership of the company from Fender to CBS and beyond to whatever the current status is, keeping old records was probably not the first priority. The same probably goes for Gibson and the Norlin period. I guess the date mentioned is when they finally put all the pieces together maybe? It sounds like the typical crank-em-out style factory process. So what about the neck stamp thing? I'm missing that on my old bass or I don't know where to look. All it has on the head stock are the name decals and some patent decals. I've had this one long enough to know that only a few parts are not original, mainly the POS bridge was replaced with a 25th anniversary type brass one, the knobs were changed to match, and the nut (when it broke) was replaced with a brass one. And I put strap-lock lugs on it a long time ago. And I have changed the strings but not recently!

Neck stamps were gone by late '72. Serial numbers moved to peghead faces sometime in '76. The dead zone in between has lots of hotly debated dating issues.