the MOONSHINE'39 Head

The NOCTURNE MOONSHINE'39™

One of the greatest sounding tweed amplifiers I've ever played predates
not only Leo's tweed amps from Fullerton but even solid body guitars and
humbuckers.  It came from swingin cats in Kalamazoo back in the
1930's not So Cal.
Yep,The Gibby EH-185 is the holy grail of jumpin, jivin' late 30s-early 40s. Mr Charlie Christian made it, & the earlier EH-150 famous.

The EH-185 had its start in 1939 as the type IV EH-150 was fading. I'm certainly no historian and correct me if I'm wrong but the actual schematics
are blurred somewhat between where one starts and the other ends.
Maybe my grasp of the shaky history needs better research but the research I do best representing, comes from my own two original vintage EH-185's amplifiers.
One has the Bass & Tone controls yet is stamped with the "EH-150" on the plate,
this model is a 39'-40" era and the other is the later tone knob version. Which is better? BOTH!

So, I took the 1939 version and changed the separate bass & tone controls
to the later versions simple one tone knob while making it a little
more practical & tonally versatile. All the way to the right, is the full fat,
flutey sound of the '39 Eh-185 and as you dial back the tone knob,
the tone begins to shift towards a leaner mids focus woody
and reedy (best I can describe it) tone. It has the normal channel
and a hotter channel called "Mic". We gave that one just a bit more
bite and gain if you like your swingin and boppin on the brighter, dirty side.

SPECs:
20watt Class A Cathode Biased Octal tube amp in
either 1x12 aged,lacquered Tweed covered pine combo
or "Shinebox" a head cab version that is loaded with a 6X9 valco style speaker.
Independent dual channel amp,
independent volume controls for the Normal gain channel,
and the Hot gain channel (Mic),
independent input for Normal and Hot channel
Tone control is shared by each channel.
Dual inputs for Normal and Hot channel

Tubes:
(3) NOS 6SQ7 preamp,
(1) 6N7 driver/phase inverter
(2) Tungsol reissue 6L6-STRs
(1) 5U4G rectifier tube.

Components to keep the original feel:
Mercury Magnetics tone clone Output and Power transformers,
Custom aluminum chassis
with Solen fast caps, Mojo Oil N Paper caps, carbon comp resistors,
Sprague Electrolytics.
Speakers:
112 combo = Tone Tubby Alnico hemp cone 50w 12".
It keeps the low end warm and tight without
getting too wooly like some import reissue speakers.
Its mids bark on command and its treble is pristine and true without any icepicky ear stabs. As its pushed the upper mids compress and break
up when the amp is cranked toward its full 20 watts of Class A tweed power.

head cab version "SHINEBOX" comes loaded w a
6"x9" weber 25watt speaker and plugs into any
extension cab