Gibson EH-150 Tube Amplifier (1938), ser. #9198.

Gibson EH-150 Model Tube Amplifier (1938), made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, serial # 9198, tweed fabric covering finish.

This is a lightly worn-in but lovely sounding example of the world's first great professional guitar amplifier, Gibson's EH-150. This amp is the most iconic 1938-9 variant, built into the distinctive larger slightly arched cabinet with rounded off upper corners. The gold/brown tweed cabinet cover has orange and black vertical stripes in the center, with a black script Gibson logo in the lower right hand corner. The square lower cabinet edges have leather corners and round hard rubber feet, with a leather-covered handle at the top. The round front speaker aperture is covered by a black metal grill.

The detachable latched-on back cover reveals the chassis mounted on the bottom with a deco-styled control panel. This lays out left-right with an on/off switch, fuse, "echo speaker" output jack, microphone volume, instruments volume, single mic and twin instrument inputs and a tone control switch (selecting bass and normal). The original field coil 12" speaker is still mounted. This era EH-150 was the most popular professional amplifier of its day, as used by Charlie Christian and a host of other 1940s greats, and is still a wonderful and unique-sounding amp today. There are still players who won't leave home without one!

Height is 15 5/8 in. (39.7 cm.), 16 1/4 in. (41.3 cm.) width, and 8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm.) deep.

Cosmetically this nearly 90 year old amp is beautifully preserved. The Geib-made tweed covered case has an attractive lightly-smoked patina and some visible wear around the corners and a couple scuffs on the front, including some noticeable darker staining toward the bottom front. Still far less than most of these for its decades on earth! The original handle is present and albeit showing some heavier tearing on each end it is still nicely intact and has plenty of life left in it! All four leather corners are nicely intact and the grille cover is nicely clean as well.

Electrically, the amp remains all original. The speaker is the original Gibson-branded "Ultrasonic Reproducer" field coil speaker, which still retains its original cone and sounds great. The power, choke, output and interstage transformers are original to the amp, bearing the codes T40069, T40070, T8790, respectively. Both of the original Stackpole pots are present and working. The amp has seen our typical maintenance and servicing, including a grounded 3-prong power cords, all electrolytic capacitors replaced, all sockets, pots and jacks cleaned and biased to spec.

This amp is quickly becoming a shop favorite, it is a fantastic sounding example. The EH-150 is a perennially sought-after amplifier by players as well as collectors, with a versatile sound that remains unique many decades since its creation. This is one of the finest we have ever had both sonically and cosmetically. Very Good + Condition.