Although his job was somewhat limited, his recollections provided some really fascinating insights to how the amps were built.
For instance, he confirmed our assumption that the amp chassis were put into stock after being stamped with serial numbers and that the chassis were pulled from the stock bins randomly (just as with Fender guitar neck plates).
Since the new owner would have likely removed this tag immediately upon arriving home, I’m amazed that the one in the photo has remained intact since mid-1968!
Well, this universal “truth” was debunked when we found a bunch of amps with transformers made by the Better Coil and Transformers company.Not only that, but to meet Swedish safety codes, Hagstrm removed the external voltage selector switch (fitted to all blackface and silverface export models) and hardwired it internally (see photos).Notice that the original Fender back panel was removed and replaced with a Hagstrm panel.One has to wonder where all those factory original export back panels are! Another interesting tidbit is that a lot of Fenders were imported into Australia in the late 1950s and early 1960s that were stock 110-volt (domestic US) units.The Australian Fender Distributor then installed 240V - 110V stepdown transformers in the bottom of the cabinets.