Can anyone explain the hierarchy of Gibson BR series lap steels?

[Joseph Lazo]

I have my eye on one of these guitars from the BR series. Hoping someone can explain this series.

The BR-9, for instance, looks like it was the student model, so then the lower the number in the series would designate a higher end model, right? Except there's the inconsistency of the BR-3 having no binding on the body, while the BR-4 has top binding--so you'd think the BR-4 is a nicer model, right?

I've never seen a BR-1 or BR-2... was there such a thing? It seems like the line starts with BR-3 and goes to BR-9, but all I've seen online are BR-3, 4, 6, and 9. Was there a 5, a 7, and an 8, too?

Someone on here probably knows all about this line.

[D Schubert]

Maybe this will help...

https://guitarhq.com/gibson7.html

[Jack Hanson]

As you probably know, "BR" is a Gibson in-house designation for the designs of Barnes & Reinecke, a Chicago industrial design firm. The original BR designations, dating to the WW II era designs of Barnes & Reinecke are as follows:

BR-1 = Ultratone, an all-new design finished gloss white
BR-2 = Century, basically a downscale, black-finished Ultratone
BR-3 = Solid mahogany sunburst finished traditional style body similar to prewar EH-125 with little apparent Barnes & Reinecke influence
BR-4 = Similar to BR-3 with bound body
BR-5 = Unknown, unlikely to exist
BR-6 = Original postwar entry level model, similar to a black BR-3, numbered fretboard attributed to Barnes & Reinecke
BR-7 = Unknown, unlikely to exist
BR-8 = Unknown, unlikely to exist
BR-9 = Superseded the original black BR-6 as the entry level model. Subsequently, the BR-6 became a mid-level model with a sunburst finish binding on the top

There were multiple distinct versions of most of these models, and other postwar instruments such as the
Royaltones and Skylarks as well.

[Joseph Lazo]

Jack, thanks for your reply! I actually didn't know what "BR" stood for.

Do you know if Gibson ever marked the model number anywhere on or in the bodies of this series? I've not seen one in person yet, but so far none I've seen listed show an identifying model number anywhere. Even sellers of these seem to not know which model they have. I'm looking at one that's listed as a BR6, for instance, but it's a burst finish with binding, not black with no binding, and it doesn't have a numbered fretboard.

[Joseph Lazo]

D. -- yep, that guitarhq page is a huge help!Don't know why it didn't turn up in my online searches.

[Noah Miller]

Most Gibson steels underwent changes at least once over the years. Most BR-6s are sunburst, for example. The best authority on the subject is A.R. Duchossoir's book "Gibson Electric Steel Guitars", which goes into each version of each model.

But to answer your question, the Ultratone said "Ultratone" on the bridge cover but I don't think any of the other BR series had a model ID. Certainly the large majority did not.

[Jack Hanson]

To the best of my knowledge, there were two models of postwar Gibson lap steels with their identifying model names printed somewhere on the instrument:
1: The first version of the Ultratone -- the white one -- which had the word "ULTRATONE" printed on its fragile hinged Plexiglas pickup/bridge cover).
2: The second version of the Century -- the blue one -- of which there are two distinct variations, the first of which had a metal fretboard, while the second had a Plexiglas fretboard. The ones with the metal 'boards had the word "CENTURY" silkscreened beyond the 29th fret.

Only the very first BR-6s from 1946-47 were black. With the introduction of the BR-9 circa 1947 as Gibson's entry level lap steel, the BR-6 was upgraded in 1947 to a mid-level instrument with a sunburst finish, binding, and an all new molded Plexiglas bridge/pickup cover (Gibson called it a "fingerrest") that attached to the top with screws, similar to the cover on the BR-9. With the introduction of the new P-90 pickup with adjustable polepieces in 1951 on all models, the BR-6 changed again. Essentially there are three distinct variations of the postwar BR-6:
v 1: Black with original postwar (racetrack or wide-oval) pickup, 1946 - 1947.
v 2; Sunburst with original postwar pickup, 1947 - 1951.
v 3: Sunburst with P-90, 1951 - 1959.

To muddy the waters, there is also a BR-6B, which is basically a v 3 BR-6 finished in white with black binding, instead of sunburst with cream binding.

It's important to know that there are several different distinct versions of Ultratones, Centuries, BR-6s, BR-9s, Royaltones, and Skylarks. Most are relatively common, some a little less so, and a handful are truly scarce.

Virtually all information above was lifted from Andre Duchossoir's excellent book Gibson Electric Steel Guitars 1935 - 1967.

[Joseph Lazo]

Great info here on the BR series! To muddy the waters...there was a changeover from square neck to rounded neck. Per the guitarhq site, the BR6 started in 1946 with a square neck, but by '48 Gibson had changed it to a round neck. I have to wonder what the thinking was, since it seems highly unlikely anyone actually played these guitars Spanish style.

On the square neck vs round neck topic, it seems as though the square neck would be preferable from a tone standpoint, as well as for stability on one's lap. Maybe naive of me, but I think of the greater mass of a square neck as being better for tone.

I started this thread because I was GASsing for a BR6 I saw listed online. In the meantime, a Supro model I've been wanting to nab showed up on eBay over the weekend and my offer was accepted. I'll probably end up with one of those BR models at some point, but for now I'm glad I didn't go further down that road because the Supro was about half what the BR6 cost.

This is the little cherry bomb I'd been after:

[Michael Lee Allen]

From Julius Bellson's 1973 "The Gibson Story"...

Barnes Reinecke had designed for us unusual concepts in the Electric Hawaiian and amplifier fields. The best ones were tooled and put into production.

The new Electric Hawaiian Guitars included the Ultratone, a dazzling unique instrument of unprecedented individuality, the BR-4, and the BR-6.

The amplifiers, which were to undergo many changes as new ideas were developed, featured new styling throughout, as illustrated in the BR-1, BR-4, and BR-6 amplifiers.

MLA

[Scott Houston]

Joseph--you might enjoy this article about Barnes & Reinecke.

products.jpg

[Joseph Lazo]

Scott, great article on B & R! What a history, from sign painting to industrial design for some of the biggest companies in the country. Coincidentally, just saw a slide projector designed by them at the local St Vincent's thrift shop. Now I know who designed it!