Dating A Crate Vintage Club Amplifier
You date Crate amps the same way you date Ampeg amps (SLM period only) which were owned by St. Louis Music and manufactured in St. Louis from 1985 to 2005. They are essentially the same amps.
1985-2005 - These are the amps during the St. Louis Music (Crate Amps) period. A
new serialization system was developed and it became a code used for
many years. This is the best way to identify the date of manufacture
during this period. A 10 digit number is used as a serial number, which
contains lots of information. The number is set up like this:
LLLCYMNNNN. LLL stands for the model, C stands for the country. (U is
U.K., Y is Europe, W is Worldwide, and D stands for domestic or U.S.).
The Y is a year code that is a letter, starting with A as 1988, (see chart
below). What happened before 1987 for the year is unclear as very few
amps were made because of bankruptcy for MTI. The M is a number
code for January-October. (Jan is 1, Feb is 2, Oct is 10, fill in the blanks.)
For November and December the letters A and B were used
respectively. The last 4 numbers (N) are the actual serial number for the
instrument.
A= 1988 G= 1994 M= 2000
B= 1989 H= 1995 N= 2001
C= 1990 I= 1996 O= 2002
D= 1991 J= 1997 P= 2003
E= 1992 K= 1998 Q= 2004
F= 1993 L= 1999 R= 2005
You date Crate amps the same way you date Ampeg amps (SLM period only) which were owned by St. Louis Music and manufactured in St. Louis from 1985 to 2005. They are essentially the same amps.
1985-2005 - These are the amps during the St. Louis Music (Crate Amps) period. A
new serialization system was developed and it became a code used for
many years. This is the best way to identify the date of manufacture
during this period. A 10 digit number is used as a serial number, which
contains lots of information. The number is set up like this:
LLLCYMNNNN. LLL stands for the model, C stands for the country. (U is
U.K., Y is Europe, W is Worldwide, and D stands for domestic or U.S.).
The Y is a year code that is a letter, starting with A as 1988, (see chart
below). What happened before 1987 for the year is unclear as very few
amps were made because of bankruptcy for MTI. The M is a number
code for January-October. (Jan is 1, Feb is 2, Oct is 10, fill in the blanks.)
For November and December the letters A and B were used
respectively. The last 4 numbers (N) are the actual serial number for the
instrument.
A= 1988 G= 1994 M= 2000
B= 1989 H= 1995 N= 2001
C= 1990 I= 1996 O= 2002
D= 1991 J= 1997 P= 2003
E= 1992 K= 1998 Q= 2004
F= 1993 L= 1999 R= 2005
