My hunch about that handle recess (my 6G6B has it) it that some power tubes got longer and possibly tried to melt that dog-bone handle, so they blocked it from getting too close to the tubes.
Just a hunch.
It was a butt ugly fix, tho'
Later editions, with the brown, newer style handles, just had a curved recess on the bottom, and then later, I think, they added slightly taller chrome feet (maybe larger rubber inserts) so the amp would sit over the black handle.
I know some of the earlier feet were slightly smaller than what you find these days.
My 6G6B, actually has the hole, but came with the flatter handle, brown, of course.
I figure they were shoving these out the door as fast as they could, going to the black faced amps.
I had talked to a retired fander tech/builder, some years ago about the differences in grill cloth color of this era and he told me they were trying to use up, what ever they had, in changing over to the black face amps.
Mine, (bassman) actually came with an orangish/gold colored grill cloth, instead of wheat , wheat/gold, or maroon.
It is a late 1962 or early 1963, as far as we dated it.
These are both from 1963 and are 6G6B amps, note the difference.
Mine is like the orange one, but all I originally had is the head. still do
The 3rdpic is how it looks recovered (the old stuff was bubbling up), and with the 1x15 and 2x12 cabinet to match.
The other head is a JTM 45, built to go with it.
Darren Welch couldn't live without it, so he has it now.
darrenwelchgroup.com has plenty of pics with him using it.
The 4th pic is the 1963 showman I recently rebuilt, totally. I couldn't find any othe gold grill cloth, so I went with wheat, which was originally used on these.
The 2x12 cabinet has vintage altecs (rare and VERY hard to find) in it and weighs in at a whopping 125 lbs. The magnets are huge. I had to add wheels, as my 60 year old body can't lift, and carry that cabinet any more, with one arm. (yeah I know boo hoo):oops:
<img src="
http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg">
<img src="
http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... _6G6-B.jpg">
<img src="
http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg">
<img src="
http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... an_new.jpg">
[img]
http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... _6G6-B.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... assman.jpg[/img]
[img]
http://66.7.221.96/~ampcabin/ampcabinet ... an_new.jpg[/img]
well, I tried to get them to show up, but something is wrong with this loading pictures.
If you cut and paste the actual url they will show up, and I know the html is correct.
what's up, I have no idea.
also, when I click the "img" button, it doesn't give me the ending "[/img]" until I click "submit", which I find very odd.....
I am not an expert, but this is what I have seen over the years
edit:
P.s. I saw the "nitch" in the grill cloth on the showman, after I posted this, and went back and corrected it, thanks.