Gibson Lucille

The Gibson Lucille is a variant of the famous ES 355 which itself is an upmarket version of the classic ES 335. The guitar was designed for the legendary blues player BB King. It is different from the stereo version of the 355 by not having ‘f’ holes in order to reduce feedback (they are not even painted on) and the headstock carries the Lucille name.


Why Lucille? The story goes that when playing in a hall in the late forties, King was caught up in a fire when a couple of men started a fight over a woman, pushed over a kerosene brazier and burned down the place. The name of the woman was Lucille and King later wrote a song about the experience.


The Lucille is quite a late commercial development with the first instruments being offered for sale around 1982.


I find that my Lucille has exceptionally bright pickups and is considerably louder than most of my other guitars. My major criticism is its prodigious weight.

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