1947 Kalamazoo KEA (Gibson) 10w 1x10" Tube Amp Combo

The speaker code suggests 1946 manufacture and this model started production in 1947, so I expect this is a '47 build. These are Gibson-made amps and similar to Gibson-branded models from the time, though this was likely sold to pair with a lap steel or "electric Spanish" Kalamazoo-brand model of some sort.

This one arrived pretty clean but the components inside were not happy. We had our amp guy Dave Fenity sort it out and he swapped pretty-much all of the caps and resistors inside and gave it a 3-prong cable for safety. It was an expensive repair but, work done, it sounds alarmingly good. It plays pretty-much clean all the way up and gets into a little sauce only when turned up to the tippity-top and given some punch from a higher-output pickup. It would make a perfect "old-timey" jazzbox or rockabilly amp, especially when mic'd on stage.

In the video I'm playing a guitar that has a splittable humbucker, so as I cycle through the volume settings (I start at dimed) I'm also switching between the higher-output humbucker and single coil modes to give you an idea of what it would sound like with different pickups.

I like this amp so much that since it came back I've been using it for the latest electric guitar video demos, coupled with an overdrive to get some (slightly cheesy) drive at lower volume.

Anyhow, aside from the removed components (which are included in baggies), this amp also has a replacement handle but is otherwise original. It even has the original field coil speaker!

Dave told me that the wiring is a bit of a mystery and other folks online have said the same in their own writeups on these amps. Still, components replaced and things fixed, it works 100% and is ready to roll. It should be a 10w or so amp per its specs but it acts like a 5-7w amp, though when it gets loud it does stay pretty clean, so perhaps that's part of the design -- reserve power to keep it from overdriving when full-on.

It's lightweight, looks great, and sounds great. What else?