Gibson BR-6, low volume

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sixstringer
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:13 am
Location: SoCal

Gibson BR-6, low volume

Post by sixstringer »

I have an early '50s Gibson BR-6 that works but does not have much volume. They say it's a 10 watt amp (2 6V6s) but compared to other 8-10 watt amps I've built/heard this thing is way down on output. I replaced all the caps and have a new set of 6V6s installed. I don't know anything about field coil speakers and I'm wondering how to test it to see if that might be the issue (although it sounds ok). Your advice is appreciated.
Leviman
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 12:59 am

Re: Gibson BR-6, low volume

Post by Leviman »

Can you post up some pictures of the guts? I have a '60s Gibson GA-15RVT that was super duper quiet for a 15 watt amp and very, very bright. I replaced a coupling cap that was .001uf with a .22 and now it's very loud, has plenty of bass and screams when cranked. I don't think gibson liked their amps to be dirty. Also, I've heard from one guy who had an old gibson with a feild coil speaker that it sounded absolutely amazing.
Current rig, Modified Yamaha EG-112 with filter-tron knock offs - dyna comp - '60's White Face Gibson Explorer amp , modded.
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Deric
Posts: 775
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:56 am

Re: Gibson BR-6, low volume

Post by Deric »

I recently acquired a 46/47 BR-6 with the same issue. It has all original caps still so was planning on changing them.

Amp sounds great, zero hum, just very low volume for a 10 watter....
Deric®
sixstringer
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2010 11:13 am
Location: SoCal

Re: Gibson BR-6, low volume

Post by sixstringer »

Thanks for the replies. I changed the caps, and checked the resistors to be sure they had not drifted too far off. Also double checked the solder joints, I found one that had never been soldered from new but it had a good enough mechanical connection that soldering it made no difference. I changed out the power and rectifier tubes for new. The amp sounds fine and is maybe a little louder (probably the new rectifier tube) but still not very loud at all. I going to check out the coupling cap change and see how that works out. I was also thinking of adding a cap bypass cap to the cathode resistor.
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