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B.B. King will forever be the undisputed King of the Blues, and the Gibson Custom B.B. King Lucille Legacy is a testament to his everlasting impact on the genre. This semi-hollowbody electric guitar is a meticulous re-creation of B.B.'s famous custom-spec'd ES-355. It all starts with a 3-ply figured body — sans F-holes — with a head-turning transparent nitrocellulose lacquer finish. The Lucille Legacy's CustomBucker pickups deliver true-to-life vintage PAF tone, and its handwired harness vaunts CTS audio-taper pots and paper-in-oil Bumblebee caps. The Lucille Legacy's comfortable SlimTaper neck profile and 22-fret ebony fingerboard facilitate fluid string bending, shimmering vibrato, and effortless staccato picking. Visually speaking, the Lucille Legacy features attention-grabbing gold hardware, including a gold "B.B. King" engraved truss rod cover and a TP-6 tailpiece with fine tuners. You also get split block mother-of-pearl fingerboard inlays and stunning multi-ply binding throughout. If your current semi-hollowbody electric leaves you feeling blue — or if the proverbial thrill is indeed gone — take a ride with the B.B. King Lucille Legacy. It's one of the most inspiring guitars you'll ever play.
Gibson's ES semi-hollowbody guitars have a solid center block into which the pickups, bridge, and tailpiece are affixed. This not only gives the guitar sustain characteristics more similar to a solidbody, but also provides feedback resistance. Even so, B.B. reportedly used to stuff rags into the F-holes of his '335, and ultimately requested that Gibson omit the F-holes altogether from his Lucille signature model. This gives the B.B. King Lucille Legacy a unique sonic profile, somewhere between a semi-hollowbody and a chambered solidbody. It does indeed provide superior feedback resistance, while the hollow body cavities on either side of the center block enhance the tone with rich warmth and resonance.
Gibson paid just as much attention to this guitar's electronics as they did to its aesthetics. Every part of its internal signal path was designed to replicate the tone of a classic Gibson semi-hollowbody. Of course, it's next to impossible to find genuine vintage PAFs — even for Gibson. Instead, the B.B. King Lucille Legacy sports a dynamic duo of Gibson's CustomBucker pickups. Armed with Alnico V magnets, the CustomBucker is the most historically accurate PAF copy ever. Thanks to these pickups, the Lucille Legacy not only nails the look and feel of a vintage ES-355, but it also nails the sound, too. Beyond that, the Lucille Legacy's mono Varitone circuit allows for pre-set frequency "maps" you can dial in with the flick of a switch. From blues and jazz to rock and country; from chimey rhythm parts to blistering leads and everything in between, the Lucille Legacy delivers a sound worthy of blues royalty.
Join Guitar World as we revel in another re-telling of the Lucille legend that goes something like this: As a young man just coming into his own as a blues guitarist, B.B. King saw a certain Gibson ES-335 in a music store and had to have it. After working hard and saving his money, he finally was able to buy the guitar of his dreams. B.B. took his new axe to a gig he was playing in a club in New Orleans. During the set, a fight broke out between two men; a gas lamp was knocked over and a fire broke out. As the club began to burn, everyone ran outside — including B.B. — who upon reaching safety, realized that he had left his prized '335 in the club. B.B. ran back in, grabbed his guitar, and barely made it out the door with his guitar (and his life) as the club collapsed in flames behind him. As the story goes, the two men were fighting over a woman named Lucille. And so B.B. named the guitar Lucille — reputedly to remind himself never to do anything that foolish again.
