Gibson Lap Steel.... what the @#%^ is it?

[Silvertone005]

Hello,

I have recently acquired this Gibson lap steel from family, and am in the process of stripping and cleaning it. I have taken off every concievable part, and there is NO serial number anywhere.

I have googled and googled and have come up with nothing. There is one single coil pickup that reads on the back: "Rove industries, Toledo, Ohio".







Cheers!

[VintAxe]

Hi Silvertone005,

Your steel is a Gibson BR-9. They were produced from 1947 to 1959. I'm not sure how to get an exact date on yours since they didn't change much stylistically during this time, but now that you know what it is you might be able to figure it out.

Here's a link to a steel that looks alot like yours that Elderly has for sale:



You can also take a look at Clay Harrel's page on Gibson Lap Steels here:

[Silvertone005]

Thanks, Vintaxe..

Like my Jupiter I have stripped it down for some restoration work, and I have checked the pots for the source date code, but the pickups were stamped 1961, so they were obviously replaced at some point.

Cheers!

[VintAxe]

Yeah, the pickup sounds like a replacement. Rowe Industries were the folks that produced De Armond pups. I see their replacement pickup literature in most of the large musical instrument distributor counter catalogs of the 1960's. sb

[evilLordJuju]

theres a BR9 on ebay now
- got a p90

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-50s-Gibson- ... dZViewItem