Ok, I've spent many many hours today going through this & everything else I have in my serial number lists.
I have discovered the same sequence in other series.
Firstly Rev Sound First run.
Includes all neck through guitars & Bass's
Same principal as I have described for the TS series.
If 9 is the 3rd number then the first 2 are month 3rd is year.
I have also pinpointed the exact month when the serial numbering went from this format to first number = year.
It is December 1979.
If the serial # starts with a 9 it will be followed by 12.
Eg: 11th month 79 = 119216. 11 being the month, 9 being 79 & 216 production number.
12th month 79 = 912341. 9 = year 1979, 12 being the month & 341 the production number.
So from the 12th month 79 the the first number = the year of manufacture.
I'm now working on my SB series Bass serial numbers, it looks like the bat ear models also follow this system.
Still more compiling to do on that but its looking pretty good at this stage.
This finally helps explain why so many guitars & Bass's serials start with 0.
They weren't all made in 1980 after all, its just that 9 of the 12 months of production per year had a Zero in front of them, & then of course we did indeed hit 1980 just when they changed to first number = year.
My Brain Hurts now, must sleep
.
Cheers.