TRC, upside down?

adorshki

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with out the "backwards" model designation stamped in white.
It looks like they both "stamped" and engraved those TRC's with model numbers on 'em.
For high volume models the best economy would have been to buy 'em from the TRC maker already printed. All those early "Starfire" TRC's are a good example,
(And didn't we just see an example where apparently they had so many of 'em they were used on other models, to boot?)
But it seems there's a lot of "layered" TRC's with engraved model names.
Or take Bonnie Raitt's F50 TRC, says "Bonnie Raitt" in a font that'd be easily rendered on an engraving machine.
And cheaper than making a stamp or a silkscreen for just one sample.
The "plain" TRC's could just be just plain solid back and purchased in "massive volume".
So wondering if they kept a supply of "layered" blanks in house to accommodate small runs where an engraved TRC would be desirable.
The engraving machine itself ain't so expensive and labor'd be pretty cheap too for like a 5 minute job.
In other words, I don't think it would be cost efficient to order a small run of silk-screened TRC's so I don't think that "M-85" TRC was "stamped" in the sense of there being paint or ink on it, I think it was engraved which would be supported by the fact that it looks like it's got a white center layer.
I can't see the edges of the TRC's in Frono's pic to see if those might offer clues to verify that they used both methods, but I'm pretty sure of it now.
the tuners not being orignal would do zero to explain the TRC, It would have to be a misprint in that scenario.
Or engraved that way on purpose as I think you started to understand. Cheap and easy.
the lefty thing is just too many dots to connect on such an obscure model.
I agree

The tuners do look like the later, higher quality (Schallers?) with the longer keys. the bass is a 1977 so that could be possibly original?
You know better than me about that stuff.
 
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jcwu

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Dude, charge your phone! Your low battery meter is giving me the conniptions.
 
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