1951 GIBSON LAPSTEEL BR-9

Gibson BR-9 lap-steel from 1951, in very good original condition.

This model is arguably the most popular steel guitar produced by Gibson in the post-war period. Offered from 1947 as an instrument destined to students and novices, you could then acquire an “outfit” including the guitar and an amplifier in matching colors for the sum of $99.50. Thus, through music school programs offered by instrument dealers (as has been the custom between manufacturers and dealers since the beginnings of the guitar in the United States), the BR-9 was spread to an entire generation of budding lap-steel players throughout the 1950s, until the model was dropped from the catalog in 1959.

With its body carved into an elegant art-deco shape, an attractive ivory-color finish topped with a contrasting fingerboard, a simple wiring configuration with volume and tone controls, this little instrument has a certain charm in its appearance and its use. Under the cover at the bottom of the body is a non-adjustable AlNiCo pickup which, despite its rudimentary appearance, delivers clear, cutting reproduction of the instrument’s sound – the present lap-steel, which left the factory line around mid-1951, is probably one of the last models equipped with this older type of pickup which was be replaced the same year with the new P-90 with adjustable pole pieces. Setup in our workshop with strings for playing in open E, it is possible to adapt the string gauge for other tunings.

Sold in its original hardshell case.