The big brother to the Philco 38-4XX we restored, the 38-116 was a top of the line radio for Philco that year only to be surpassed by the 38-690XX. The XX in the model numbers for Philco’s ’38 models indicated that it had the inclined controls/dial and the speaker board inside the cabinet was also inclined. Gimmicky, but hey, if it sold radios, go for it. Although I have read, with the back on the radio, the sound is greatly improved.

15-tubes, 5-bands (broadcast and 4 shortwave), 14″ speaker with 3 “accoustic clarifiers” which are basically speakers without a coil to supposedly improve the sound, Philco’s cone-centric tuning, automatic tuning, magnetic tuning, cathedral speaker, 4-point tone control (the gimmicky stuff again). The cabinet is a beautiful burled walnut, the pictures I have here do not do the radio justice.

All kidding aside, this is a great performing radio. As a disclaimer, we do not do cabinet work unless it is minor, we tend to look for radios with cabinets in good condition. But if the radio is something we really like or somewhat collectable with a bad cabinet, we’ll get it and have someone who know what they are doing redo it. This cabinet was refinished by a gentleman named Brad Lush in Zion, IL and he did an outstanding job. Sadly, he passed away from cancer after completing a couple more for us. The manual is attached below.