Gibson BR-6 -- thoughts?

[Alejandro Slinin]

Hi everyone,

Just saw that a Gibson BR-6 is for sale in my local area in good condition. Price is $650. They are claiming it's from the 40s but who knows. A little web research reveals this model was made up through the 60's.

Any thoughts on this model lap steel in terms of its sound and playability? Does that price sound reasonable, assuming it's in ok condition?

Been playing lap steel for about 8 months in Open E on a decent Mellobar. It's served me well for learning, but I'm looking to get a nicer second lap steel to start learning C6 tuning.

[Peter Lindelauf]

What happened to that last comment? Check eBay. $650 is probably at least a couple of hundred dollars high. For more or less that price, have a look at a new Chandler or Asher or Gold Tone. Or a custom built lap steel from a small shop.

[Brad Bechtel]

That price sounds high to me, but they are pretty nice lap steels. Elderly Instruments had a BR-6 on their website for $575.

I'd agree with Peter - there are an awful lot of good lap steels available for considerably less than that right now.

[George Piburn]

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[Alejandro Slinin]

It's a guitar center so they're probably overpricing it. I'm going to go check it out and play it. If it's in good condition and plays/sounds good, I'll see if I can get the price down

[Peter Huggins]

I have a couple of BR-6 guitars from the first run in 1946, one in pieces awaiting restoration. These are finished in black with the plastic parts in white, same Alnico pickup as in a BR-3 or 4. I paid $500 for the good one (wish I could find a case!). There was a later model finished in green that they only made for about a year, those are the rare ones. The later design with the sunburst finish, P-90 and gold plastic parts is most common, and $650 is high unless its MINT MINT MINT. Even the Korina Skylarks seem to be coming down in price as evidenced by recent ebay sales - some people are still asking $1000 for clean examples, but few seem willing to pay that much right now in what is still a poor economy for many people. Most GC stores will usually deal if you're talking cash so perhaps you can get a better price.

[Brad Bechtel]

I'd go with the Georgeboards lap steel over a Gibson BR-6, no hesitation at all. Otherwise, if you can get that guitar down by $200 or so you might have a deal.

[Peter Huggins]

I was quoting details from memory in my last post. Today I was checking in Andre's book (Gibson Electric Steel Guitars by A.R. Duchossoir, published by Hal Leonard) and realized I screwed up a couple details.

There were two BR-6 demonstrators prepared for the July 1946 trade show, and one of them was finished in green. Production models shiped Nov. '46 and by '47 were Gibson's top selling lap steel, outselling the BR-4 1100 vs. 600 units (so why do they seem so much rarer today?). Late '47 they went to the smaller headstock, and the modern block logo (my unrestored example has the smaller headstock but the older script logo). Later in '47 they went to the sunburst bound body with the gold plastic control plate that completely enclosed the nonadjustable alnico pickup. In 1950 the BR-6 was dropped in the catalog in favor of the Royaltone but was back in the 1952 catalog. The pickup was changed to the P-90 and that is the most common version, in production through 1959. The Royaltone Version 2 appeared in '55-'56 and that was the rare green model ("Sungold finish with contrasting London Grey") I referred to in my earlier post (only 67 examples shipped). There is a BR-6B model mentioned in the factory records (77 units shipped between '56 and '59) but what do they look like? Duchossoir speculates they may have had an all-black finish.

This is probably more than you wanted to know, but you should all go out and buy the book anyway.

[Alejandro Slinin]

Here's a pic of the lap steel in question. It played well, and had a sweet sound. The only playing problem was that around the 15th fret and higher I wasn't getting much sustain at all on the higher strings. Is that easily fixed with a setup? Also, couldn't tell what kind of pickup was in there. Even if I can get them to open that up for me, how do I know whether the pickup is an original? I think I can get the price down to about $550.

[Tom Pettingill]

... The only playing problem was that around the 15th fret and higher I wasn't getting much sustain at all on the higher strings. Is that easily fixed with a setup? Also, couldn't tell what kind of pickup was in there. ...

On sustain, there was a good discussion here recently on the topic http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=189042
My best guess is that a setup and some proper strings will help some. If they put a regular old 6 string set on there, the light gauge high strings just don't have much energy storage potential. Short of that, being a short scale top loader will limit things a little further too.

The only way to tell for sure if the pickup and pots are original is to pull the cover. Even then without being an expert, it could be hard to tell, but clues you would look for would be general appearance, does it all look old with similar aging amongst the parts. Look for fresh / disturbed solder joints that look out of place, etc. As for pickup type, without pulling the cover you should be able to peek in through the front and get a clue. If it has round domed adjustable screws for pole pieces it is a P90.

[Blake Wilson]

I recently sold the spittin' image of that guitar to my student for $400 w/ case.

Blake

[Richard Shatz]

Alejandro,
Even $500 is too much to pay for a BR-6 in that condition. That one appears to have the clear barrel knobs without numbers, which dates this instrument to pre-1950. The pickups had non-adjustable poles and to my ear are not as good as the later P90s with adjustable poles.

Peter,
I'm glad you referenced ARD's book. Here's a link to a previous thread. Andre confirms it is a BR-6B.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... light=br6b