Gibson BR 9

post world war II gibson tube amp. the amp i have, along with the matching gibson lap steel, worked very well years ago. didn't need all the effect loops and fancy switches. it only has two inputs. this amp is fine for small venues, nothing major. i wouldn't go on a stadium tour with it. very nice 10watts, easy to push it. i love the sound, but my BR-9 is currently out of commission. i let sit in the barn too long. gotta replace the speaker and tubes. i give it a 1 for having only two channels, but hey its a antique, what do you expect?

this amp is great for jazz, blues, or country, just about anything if your using effects. the sound of the tubes are unlike any other. these tube amps sound so good that after listening, it may cause players to quit the solid state amps.

amps made in the 50's that still work today are what i like to call, reliable. there is not much to replace is something goes out.

N/A

this amp is a treasure, keep it forever.

I tink it was produced in the early 50's

I am playing a 1959 gibson les paul and a 63 fender strat
a smattering of 50's rock and country and some zz top--
a little bit of everythin

man I would rate this little up right up there with my TFL 50'000
duel showman reverb stage amp for reliabilty.

N/A----UNKOWNN
gibson couldn't help me.
this amp as well as my 59 les paul were made in my mother's peoples
country AMERICA.

been playing neigh onto 40 year
a couple OLD flat top and f hole gibsons es 335's
Ijust hate playing guitar

Going by the date code one the pot and FIELD-COIL SPEAKER and the plexi-glass orange front overlay this appears to be a 1950 Gibson BR-9.
It has ON/OFF, VOLUME and a FUSE. About as straight forward as you could want. Good for retro-40's/50's Hawaiian steel- what it was designed for. I'll give it a 5 as a tone control would have been nice to combat single coil noise.

Wonderful, warm tone at moderate volumes. With a 10W amp moderate is
about as far as it goes! So far it seems that it would kick a Champ's
ass.
Style:Hawaiian lapsteel, though sounded good with my Franken-Tele w/Gibson humbucker. Lapsteel is a 50's National.
No noise with guitar plugged-in, HOWEVER the input jacks are #11 Switchcraft so the input doesn't short to ground as it would with a #12 Switchcraft.
Very clean and full though pretty hairy distortion is possible with the volume dimed as the preamp stage I built puts out 150Vp-p of undistorted sine wave at full volume. It's all power-amp/speaker distortion. Give it a 9 due to the lack of grounding input jack which
APPEAR to be original.

I think it will be very reliable as i've rebuilt it completely. The
Gibson Master Service Manual I have shows a schematic for the BR-9
that is a Push-Pull Class AB amp. This model has a single-ended output xfmr so even though it has 2 6V6's it must have been class A.
THe preamp tube supplied was a 6SN7. THe schematic shows a 6SN7 though what was left of the original componets and wiring seem to indicate a 6SJ7 or similar pentode. I rewired it for the 6SN7 twin triode using the resistor values shown on the schematic. I changed the common 6V6 cathode resistor to run the tubes at their test current. Only time will tell but it's a very simple machine that is
built of 1st class componets so failure isn't likely. My only concern is the 52 year-old feild-coil speaker. THe speaker will have to drag it down to an 8.

Have never talked with Gibson's amp people.

As I've indicated in the price space this amp was free. It was given to me as a tip by a greatful customer who didn't know what to do with it. I let it sit for about 4 years before investing 4 hours and about $75 worth of parts in it. It seems a VERY NICE little lap steel amp for vintage Hawaiian stuff that I enjoy playing on occasion.
It's a very specialized amp for a very small niche of player.
I've been playing guitar for 45 years and steels for about 10 years.
The rest of my amps are mostly vintage Fender from 1962 to 1979 with
a 1960 Silvertone and some Peavey and solid state Fenders thrown in.
I fix vintage amps and design/build high-end boutique effects for a living- (Austone Electronics).

This amp has nothing.This amp has less than nothing. Two inputs and a volume control, that about covers it

Sounds surprisingly good.Has four tubes, very warm sounding amp, has one 6 inch speaker and one 2 inch midrange speaker, good for clean sounds, with maybe a tube screamer or daddy o it would probly sound good and distorted

No, wouldnt use it at a gig period, its like 5 watts i think,very limited amp

The amp was made in 1953. and gibson stopped making amps a while back if im not mistaken,no comment

Well, i bought this amp for basicaclly one thing, to Bring it into the shop i go to which just happens to be a vintage dealer, and see how much i can get for it. From the gibson web page, they said anywhere from 150-325 dollars, pretty damn good for 5 bucks, its a decent little amp considering no eq, small wattage,etc.