i have a 5G4 (yes 5) from 1960 and am looking for more info on it. anyone else have one?

Bill, no offense intended here. You are theoretically correct, but factually a bit fuzzy. If Fender still had the components, they used them until they ran out. Furthermore, you could order just about anything you wanted.

I have my cousin’s 1964 brown tolex, brown control face Fender Reverb unit that he ordered to match his 1962 Concert Amp and 1962 Super Amp — and yes, I have those amps too. When he ordered his Strat with gold hardware for Christmas in 1966, he also ordered a Vibrolux Reverb. Sure enough, they put gold sparkle grill cloth on the amp instead of silver sparkle. Fender often did that for gold hardware/amp combos. I still have that amp, but the guitar was gone long before I came into the picture.

They also did whatever it took to deliver an item. They weren’t thinking about the future collectibility of their products. In fact, the Vibrolux with gold sparkle grill cloth may have simply been a convenient way to use up existing material, especially since CBS owned Fender by that time.

Many supposed “anomalies” were actually quite common — they were just examples of companies, like all others, using whatever was on hand to maximize, drum roll please… profit, of course.

That’s true…by ’64 it would have disappeared altogether?? Or maybe evolved into the 4×10 Super-Reverb?