[Ron Ramirez]

If you want my guess, and it is only a guess because the principals involved are dead...and dead men tell no tales...and this sort of thing was not documented...

I would say that the 1938 selling season neared an end, the 1939 models were waiting in the wings, and Philco had one - or a few - 38-1 cabinets and 38-3 chassis left over.

So...they created some Phactory Phranken-Philcos utilizing the mismatched cabinets and chassis and sent them out the door to be sold.

It wouldn't be the first time they did that. I have a 200X cabinet with a 201 chassis, and it has the factory stickers inside the cabinet indicating it as a 201. One was stuck over an original 200X sticker where the "MODEL 200X" still shows.

There are other examples of Philco doing this sort of thing, some of which have been documented here in the Phorum.

Now, if that cabinet didn't have a 38-3 tube layout sticker, I would have said that it was mismatched by some "collector." But with the factory tube layout sticker indicating it as a 38-3 points to this having been done at the factory.