B.B. KING’S “LUCILLE” ES-335

THE AXE

One thing all of the guitars on this list have in common is that their owners treasured them like family – perhaps none moreso, however, than B.B. King treasured his little Gibson L-30 Archtop, which despite costing him just $30, was a staple in his setup writing some of the most striking blues tunes of the era. Each of King’s guitars post-1949 were dubbed Lucille, and he played a great

THE REPLICA

Gibson have issued a range of certified Lucille replicas throughout the past four decades, most recently at the tail end of 2018 in collaboration with the

B.B. King Family Trust. It’s a work of true passion for King’s classic tone, rocking his beloved Gibson 490R and 490T humbuckers and a Stereo Varitone setup. Other spec highlights include the TP-6 Fine Tune tailpiece, rounded C neck with mother-of-pearl inlays, gold hardware and multi-ply bound tortoiseshell pickguard. The 2018 Lucille ES runs for a hefty $6K+ on the resale market, but there’s always a cheaper model floating around somewhere on the web. The beauty of King’s philosophy behind the Lucille means that not every ‘Lucille’ guitar needs to be an actual branded ‘Lucille’ model – grab a semi-hollow of your own choosing and cherish it with all your being; voila, you’ve got a Lucille of your own! right-handed axes – partially because it was what he already knew, and partially for the unique advantages such configurations would offer him.

THE REPLICA

As one of the most iconic musicians in the history of the art form, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Hendrix lent his name to dozens upon dozens of signature models that echoed his own setup – the most notable of which are Fenders, available in configurations ranging from entry-level beginner bits to the kinds of hand-crafted beauties that only those with mafia money could afford to wail away on. Of course, Hendrix played an almost comically wide range of Strats in his day – any properly restrung Strat played upside-down could technically qualify.