1950s Gibson BR-9 Lap Steel Electric Guitar

This cute old BR-9 has to be a '54 or later judging by its equipment, but I'm not sure exactly when it was made. It has its original, adjustable-poles P90 pickup under the cover but I did replace the wiring harness as its cap and pots were on the way out -- it got a fresh pair of 500k pots and an "orange drop" capacitor for the tone control.

It's got the neat "speckled" finished and even has its original hard case that's also in good order. Tonewise, it's got bite and chime with a nice, strong, mids-centric snap to its sound. Who can argue with a P90 in a lap steel? They've just got a round sauciness to them in that position and use.

I have pictures of both the original wiring and my new wiring among the photos and when I installed the new harness I used the same-style shielded wire that was in the original circuit for the runs. In addition, I also added foam material under the pickup to allow it to be height-adjustable as it was hard-mounted to the body and too low. That allowed it to be brought-up closer to the strings and the poles adjusted for better string-to-string volume balance.

Currently it's tuned to open E (EBEG#BE low to high) but one can restring and tune this however they like -- though if using a wound 3rd that pole will need to be "dialed-up" for good string balance. It's currently set for 3-wound, 3-plain stringing.

Repairs included: new wiring harness (500k pots, orange drop cap, new Switchcraft jack), cleaning, adjustments.

Body wood: unsure

Bridge: steel, nickel-plated

Fretboard: plastic

Pickups: 1x original adjustable-poles (standard) P90

String gauges: unsure, feels like a heavy nickel set

Scale length: 22 3/8"

Nut width: 2 1/4"

Body width: 8 1/8"

Body depth: 1 3/4"

Weight: 5 lbs 5 oz

Condition notes: it's in good cosmetic condition with an average amount of small scratches, nicks, dings, scuffs, etc throughout. The pickup is original but the wiring harness and jack plate are not. The knobs are original. The tuners are later replacements and are a little shorter than the original Gibson-style Klusons used when it was made. The original wiring harness is in the case.

It comes with: its original hard case!