Fender produces their Guitars both domestically and off-shore. Fender is headquartered in Scottsdale, AZ. The domestic line (marketed as "Fender") is manufactured in Corona, CA. The off-shore line (marketed as "Squier" and/or "Cort") are made in either Mexico, Japan, China, Indonesia and Korea.
1990 MADE IN KOREA IN 2003...K for korea....first two numbers is year, 03 1990. Absolutely not made in Korea 2003 - these were higher speced Japanese instruments that were discontinued in the mid ninties.
Stratocasters are electric guitars made by Fender. They are mostly used in rock music, but can be used in many other genres. Fenders are not only made by Fender, but also by Squier. Squier is a company by Fender, but they make their products in Mexico, and not in California.
!995 in Korea
like to be made in Korea by Sunghan around 1996 check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squier
The bass was made in 1992, by Cort. Value? No idea, except to say that it's far less than those made in Japan or the US.
I don't know too much except I recently purchased an acoustic fender made in korea, plays beautifully.
Conventional wisdom would say '96. The first digit indicates country of origin, and the second letter, N, stands for the decade of production; in this case, the 90's. The first number that follows these two letters stands for the year of that decade. Example: YN5XXXXX would be '95, YN7XXXXX would be '97, etc.
This Squier Bass was made in Korea 1989. In the Samick factory. Samick has been a manufacturer since the early 1950's starting with making pianos. Samick produces many variety of guitars for several big named companies and host their own line of Greg Bennett/Samick guitars. The quality is as good as any US factory. The value of this bass, based on a recent listing on Ebay (5/13) is $350.00.
Made in Korea
I love these questions!! If you want absolute accuracy, you may be able to get help from Fender directly, but they prefer to research US-made instruments. After a little research, here's what I was told about the Squier numbering system, which is supposed to be the same. The "C" is for the Korea Cor-tek plant (which also made Cort brand guitars). The "N" means "Nineties." The next digit (3) is the year. So (at a good guess) I'd say you appear to have a guitar made in 1993.
Likely a 1991. The M prefixis sometimes referred to as the Mystery serial number. Normally the first digit after the alpha prefix is the year of manufacture and squiers were made in Korea in the late 80's and early 90's.