Need Gibson BR-9 Plate or Tracing - PROJECT COMPLETED-Photos

[Tony Oresteen]

I just rescued a 40s/50s Gibson BR-9 husk and I need the pickup plate that holds the P90 pickup. My plan is to have Pickguardian make a new pickup plate without the "dog house" over the bridge.

Does anyone have a BR-9 pickup plate that you can make a tracing of for me? Or better yet, a BR-9 plate that you would be willing to sell or loan so I can get a plate made?

I've been wanting to give a P90 lap steel a go so I decided to do another rescue (which I said I would not do ).

[Jack Hanson]

I have made a handful of these:



I also have a couple of original Gibson BR-9 fingerrests from rescues (such as those pictured) that I replaced with a custom plate because I can not abide with the stock fingerrests. Coming from a pedal steel background, I'm most comfortable resting the heel of my hand directly over the strings atop the bridge. The stock fingerrests on many postwar Gibson lap steels prevent it, so I either take 'em off (I have a box full of 'em), or replace 'em with a new, custom, flat plate if they double as a control plate -- like on the later BR-6s and virtually all BR-9s.

[Steve Gwizdalski]

Nowhere near as cool as Jack's pickguards, but I made these to go around the wide oval or racetrack pickup that I think came earlier than the P90s. I made the first one out of a bamboo cutting board from Menards that I planed down - pretty stable. The 2nd one didn't make the cut as I couldn't get the fake leather to lay down around the corners of a small pc of 1/4" plywood. Now the bridge is pulling up, so here we go...
Tony if you needed a tracing of the original plate I could snail mail that to you if you want - not sure how much difference there is from the oval to the P90. I'd bet Jack would have a handle on that.
Steve

[Michael Miller]

One for sale over on Reverb. No affiliation here:

https://reverb.com/item/81529423-gibson ... -1958-1959

[Tony Oresteen]

Thanks all!

Jack, great job on those BR-9s. You have set a high bar!

Steve, that is food for thought.

Michael, I looked on eBay & Reverb and I must have missed that one. Ugh! My bad, I put in an offer .

[Tony Oresteen]

Michael ,

The seller accepted my offer and the OEM PICKUP plate doghouse is on the way. Thanks for the tip.

Does anyone know a source for the BR-9 style knobs?

Any recommended replacement knobs?

Thanks!

[Michael Miller]

Tony, you're welcome. There are a couple of sites that sell various antique/repro knobs. I would look out for bakelite. Good luck!

[John Haspert]

I also have been looking for these with little success. I found some dark color ones in the UK on eBay and ordered them years ago. Never found any of the “Cream” colored” knobs.

Todd Clinesmith told me he could 3-D print some. However the color was nearly white. Many of the BR-9’s I’ve seen, the originals were replaced with Speed knobs or top hats etc. Guessing the originals just cracked due to age. I’d like to find a couple of the knobs in the original cream color.

[Jack Hanson]

I have yet to find a source for the postwar ivory 481 knobs, the the brown prewar (and postwar KEH) 481 knobs are readily available -- but they're quite spendy. PM for more info.

[George Piburn]

Is this what you are looking for Tony?

Thanks to the magic of the internet and post office one of Jack's Hand crafted Pickguards arrived in The Land Of Enchantment.
My Team of graphic and laser operators have managed an exact copy of his design.
We cleaned up the control pot holes and hold down holes too.
The control holes are .390 perfect for 3/8 shaft pots. The White Acrylic is 3/16 thick.

These require effort and ingenuity to do edge edge work.
You can use a round over router bit with a roller pattern bearing - flat angled too.
Some folks use files and sandpaper.

Top photo is the Tortoise from Jack laying on top of the new white one -



Next Photo is the new white acrylic 3/16 raw cut.

[Tony Oresteen]

George,

My P90 arrived today and the OEM doghouse does not fit over it. I thought that this might be the case as the P90 is a DiMarzio Super Distortion.

Yes, I would like to buy one of your plates. PM me with the details.

[Jack Hanson]

My P90 arrived today and the OEM doghouse does not fit over it. I thought that this might be the case as the P90 is a DiMarzio Super Distortion.

If you come to find out that the polepieces on your DiMarzio do not match the string spacing of the BR-9 bridge (which is quite likely), Christine & Jerry Sentell's LS5 "Tennessee Honey" pickup is tailor-made for a BR-9.

https://www.sentellpickups.net/steel

Many people do not realize that Gibson made different P-90s for Spanish guitar, and 6-, 7-, and 8-string P-90s for Hawaiian guitar. All have differently spaced polepieces. The 6-string Hawaiian and the 6-string Spanish pickups have (approximately) 58mm and 52mm polepiece spacing, respectively.

[Tony Oresteen]

Jack,

Thanks for the heads up! You are right, the DiMarzio does not line up. As I have a bunch of Sentell pickups, I took your advice and bought the LS5 Tennessee Honey.

Now, what do I do with the DiMarzio P90 Super Distortion? Not to worry, I have a project for it !

[Jack Hanson]

Tony,

The two BR-9s pictured above both are sporting Sentell pickups. I think they sound great. Your new LS5 will almost certainly fit perfectly inside one of George's beautiful new mounting plates, and the polepiece spacing will match a BR-9's bridge perfectly. Good luck with your project, and be sure to keep us posted.

[George Piburn]

I went ahead and made a few of these pickguards designed by Jack Hanson in Beige - Cream - Ivory color.

I could only find 1/8 thickness

Hope the color comes through.

[Tony Oresteen]

I have finished the BR-9! Thanks to all for their help!

As bought:




The husk came with the original nut and bridge making this rebuild a lot easier to so.

The pickup screw holes lined up perfectly for a P-90.

It's a Type 2 - Gloss ivory paint with the P-90 pickup (1951-1954). I'm picking 1952 for it's birth year (same as mine) !




Here she is now:



The tuners I used are Kluson new ones model KD-3P, Kluson 3 On A Plate Deluxe Series Tuning Machines. I got the nickle ones with metal Butterfly buttons as I prefer them over the original small oval buttons.

https://www.kluson.com/kluson-3-on-a-pl ... tails.html

As bought:




New tuners installed:



The tuners fit perfectly - all screw holes lined up perfectly.

I bought George's unfinished pickguard (Jack Hanson's design - hope you don't mind!) and sent it to Tony Dudzik Pickguardian and had him make a new one out of 3-ply cream pearloid material.



It fits a P90 perfectly. I had Tony make me TWO as I am thinking about getting another BR-9 .


Yes, those are genuine cream original BR-9 knobs. A couple of weeks ago they popped up on eBay and I grabbed them. Expensive yes, but I love them!


I found a couple of wiring diagrams for the BR-9 lap steel. None of them showed a bridge ground wire. I added one. Pots are CTS solid shaft 500K audio taper, cap is a 0.022nf

The pickup is Jerry Sentell LS5 Tennessee Honey. I asked Jerry to make it with a cream cover and he did.

https://www.sentellpickups.net/steel

I love this pickup!

I have the BR-9 set up with OPEN D tuning (L2H):

1 5 1 3 5 1

Here are the strings that I used:




The #6 low D string is a 0.074" which is huge. It would not fit through the tuner post hole. I used a 5/64" (0.078125") drill bit to open the hole just enough to let the 0.074" string fit. Works like a charm.

I am having a hard time putting this guitar down! It's a keeper!

So, another guitar husk is rescued and brought back to life. It should last another 70 years.

[Jack Hanson]

Looks great, Tony. Good job!

[Michael Butler]

great job, tony!
play music!

[Steve Cole]

Congrats, Tony! I just completed the same project with a husk that I recently bought. I haven't gotten around to posting the end results so I hope you'll forgive me for including that here for the knowledge dump aspect. My husk seems to be part of the 1st generation of production based on the paint finish and the wood left in the control cavity for pickup mounting. To ground out the bridge, I elected to use a 1/8" x 6" drill bit to drill an angled hole from underneath the bridge back towards the control cavity so that the wire is hidden. I also went overboard and used shielding paint and a ground lug:



My husk also didn't come with tuners so I used a set of Wilkinson tuners which have a plate base like the originals. As it turned out, the Wilkinsons are a bit shorter than the originals or Klusons so I did end up plugging and re-drilling the tuner screw holes. If I had to do it again, I would have gone with the Klusons. That being said, I don't have any real problems with the Wilkinsons so far in terms of tuning and operation.

My husk came with the original cover but it has several significant cracks so I decided to remove it and set it aside. I did use it to trace out a new pickguard from some leftover acrylic that I have lying around-



As the original cover really is just some acrylic with a painted underside, I used my Nix color sensor to try and get a color match. As it turns out, I find a really good match from a Benjamin Moore paint- Fallen Leaf (code CSP-330), which you can get a sample batch mixed up at your local Ace Hardware-



I think I gave it 3 coats in order to blend out the uneven paint that happens from a brush (If I did it again, I'd use the Wagner paint sprayer I now have). I applied some shielding tape on top of that and was ready for wiring. Like you, I didn't have the original pickup and I also went to Sentell Pickups for my replace but I got the LS69. I did have them change to Alnico 3 for the magnets and wind up for a 7.5k output. My wiring job is similar to yours with Audio tape 500k CTS pots and a 0.022uf capacitor. I did use a Puretone jack because I just love the solid connection they provide.



Finally, here's everything buttoned up-




One last thing, if you're looking to have more of an "original" look for the overall finish, I found the McMaster-Carr sells slotted wood screws that are almost identical to those of the original ones. You'll want the #3 x 1/2" screws (link here). The only real difference is that the originals have a slight dome to the top whereas these newer ones do not.

[Jack Hanson]

Good job, Steve! Congrats on yet another rescued BR-9 that will be good to go for 70 more years or so.

[Tony Oresteen]

Steve,

Great post! The photo of your cavity shows us how the Type 1 bodies were routed. Now it's easy to ID all three body types without having to use pot date codes.

I used the same drill hole but put it at the treble end of the bridge where it is closer to the controls. Both location are great solutions to a problem that Gibson created by being cheap and not putting a bridge ground in. Maybe that is why they called the BR-9 a "student" model. Grounded it becomes a 'professional" model.

I just ordered another set of the Kluson tuners as I have (drum roll...) another BR-9 inbound !!

[Jack Hanson]

...a problem that Gibson created by being cheap and not putting a bridge ground in. Maybe that is why they called the BR-9 a "student" model. Grounded it becomes a 'professional" model

Every postwar Gibson with a Plexiglas fingerrest and a top-mounted, screw-on bridge that I've seen, has a bare ground wire emerging from the pickup cavity and wedged between the bottom of the bridge and the top of the body, making a ground connection merely by tightening the bridge screws. (See the '55 Royaltone with its fingerrest removed, below.) Inelegant perhaps, but it did the trick. Since the factory had intended the bridge, pickup, and bare wire to be covered by the fingerrest, aesthetics weren't really an issue.



To hide the ground wire on my rescues, I drill an angled hole from under the bridge into the pickup cavity, just like Steve described, and showed in his above photograph. Voila! Hidden ground wire! As shown below on another '55 Royaltone:

[Tony Oresteen]

Jack,

Thanks for the ground wire info. I stand corrected. Since my BR-9 was a husk, I never saw the ground wire. I looked for a ground wire hole under the bridge and didn't see one. Like Steve I drilled one as well.

Here's how I wired my BR-9 and I explicitly show the grounded bridge.

[Daniel Flanigan]

Hey, Tony, I found some original BR-9 knobs on Reverb. Kinda pricey for what they are, but they're worth takin' a look at.

https://reverb.com/item/81964387-1947-1 ... knobs-p233

[Steve Cole]

Regarding the knobs, it might be worth it to search out “vintage radio knobs” on eBay. That’s actually how I found my pair. I paid $28 when someone else was parting out the same knobs for $80.