You may prefer to believe otherwise and that's entirely your right, but there's no ambiguity about the meaning of the serial number.
On the other hand if you go to Japanese websites, they will tell you that CIJ began in 1995, and that CIJ - Q0 + 5 digits indicates a 2002-2004 manufacture date.
MatthewK wrote:There's no mystery, the Fender guy told you it wasn't in his database so his answer was a guess.
