[Arran]

Sometimes they needed the shaded lacquers, the sides, and skirts, on Roger's less expensive models used cheaper woods like ash, or maple, and the colour and grain were not always consistent. These days it's more a matter of personal taste, but when you were marketing a mass produced product they needed the sets to look more or less alike when they came off the assembly line. I had a five tube Rogers battery console from around that era and the sides were solid ash, much like that 10-65, but the front corners were a beaded poplar with no grain, all had a dark lacquer on them, only the control panel, and the top, had higher end woods, and it was mostly veneer. In some cases the grain of the ash would look quite nice, in other instances it could have knots, holes, or be glued together from narrow strips where the grain would be all over the place. It also likely depended on which furniture factory in Southern Ontario made the cabinets, McLagan made a lot of them, like that battery console cabinet I had, Kneichel made the ones for the 10-12s I think, Strathroy Furniture made others.
One thing I have learned about all Rogers sets from that era, you really need to check the resistors, some were 1/3 Watt, with spade terminals, and they like to drift upward, much like the other "dogbone" BED code resistors. They did like using Sprague brand paper caps, which are often still good, but you can't trust 80 year old paper caps. Then there is the rubber/gutta percha covered wire, something they had in common with their American Majestic cousins in Chicago
Regards
Arran