There are easy ways to determine date of your Marshall amplifier’s manufacture by the serial number. The charts below will explain how to read the serial numbers and decode the model numbers.
July 1969-September 1992
First here is a chart with the model numbers and what they mean for this era.
| A/ or /A | 200 Watt |
| RI | Reissue Series |
| S/ or S/A | 50 Watt |
| SB/ or SB/A | Super Bass - 100 Watt |
| SL/ or SL/A | Super Lead - 100 Watt |
| SP/ | Super PA |
| ST/ or ST/A | Tremolo - 100 Watt |
| T/ or T/A | Tremolo - 50 Watt |
From July of 1969 until September of 1992 the date code system included a letter of the alphabet in the serial number. Here are the letters with their corresponding years. The letter B was skipped because the letter A was used for 18 months and the letters I, O and Q were also skipped to avoid any confusion being mistaken for numbers.
| A- 1969/1970 | N- 1981 |
| C- 1971 | P- 1982 |
| D- 1972 | R- 1983 |
| E- 1973 | S- 1984 |
| F- 1974 | T- 1985 |
| G- 1975 | U- 1986 |
| H- 1976 | V- 1987 |
| J- 1977 | W- 1988 |
| K- 1978 | X- 1989 |
| L- 1979 | Y- 1990 |
| M- 1980 | Z- 1991/1992 |
The serial number on a Marshall amp is usually located on the back panel of the chassis but some amplifiers made between 1979 and 1980 had the number on the front panel. From July 1969 to December 1983, the letter denoting the year was put after the serial number. For example:
S/ 15679 E
S/ would indicate the model which is 50 watt
15679 is the serial number
E indicates the year 1973
From January 1984 to October 1992 the date code letter was put before the serial number. For example:
S/L C 12357
S/L would indicate the model Super Lead 100 watt
C indicates the year 1971
12357 is the serial number.
Photo credit: Mike Bratihwaite at Cathedral Stone.
1993-1997
Starting in 1993 until 1997 Marshall switched over to a new serial number system. The new system designated the year of manufacture in the first two digits of the number and the week of manufacture in the last two. This number is found under the bar code. For example:
93579942: Year of manufacture is 1993 in the 42nd week.
95873214: Year of manufacture is 1995 in the 14th week.
Photo credit: SlashMarshall.com.
1997-Present
In 1997 Marshall changed to the latest date code system. It is very easy to read because the year is directly followed by the week. For example:
1999-22-1349: Year of manufacture is 1999 in the 22nd week.
