![What type of guitar did B.B. King use for Lucille?]](https://backingtracksfullcollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/What-type-of-guitar-did-BB-King-use-for-Lucille-758x406.jpg "What type of guitar did B.B. King use for Lucille?] 1")
It’s safe to say that B.B. King was a Gibson man through and through. Aside from his brief dalliance with a Fender Esquire in the ’50s, B.B.’s favoured first-call guitars all started their lives at a Gibson factory.
The teenaged Blues Boy’s first instrument was a modest L-30 f-hole acoustic bought around 1940, soon going electric with a retrofit DeArmond pickup.
In the ’50s, as well as that Fender Esquire, he played a few other Gibsons, including a Byrdland, an ES-125 or an ES-175, as well as an ES-5N – influenced by his hero T-Bone Walker, who used an identical instrument.
By the early years of the ’60s, B.B. had settled on a sunburst ES-335 with Bigsby, a custom order with a 345-style Varitone switch and stereo wiring. Occasionally, he played a regular 345, but this 335/345 was clearly a favourite of B.B.’s, likely the guitar he played on his legendary Live At The Regal recording in November ’64.
Later in the ’60s, B.B. shifted to the model that’s now most associated with him. Gibson’s top semi-solid, the ES-355, was a luxurious guitar that seemed the right kind of high-end instrument for a musician considered by then to be one of America’s most impressive bluesmen.
B.B. continued to attract new fans, swelling the ranks of the blues faithful, and maintained his seemingly endless life on the road and in the studio. Meanwhile, Gibson decided to build on its successful endorsement deal with B.B. to develop a signature model, thanks mostly to the enthusiasm of the company’s R&D boss Bruce Bolen and salesman Dennis Chandler.
The first signs of this closer link to B.B. had come in the shape of a one-off guitar that Bolen presented to B.B. in 1978.
This ornate 355 had floral fingerboard markers like those of the contemporary Les Paul Artisan, and engraved into the tailpiece cover was a touching message: “To B.B. King: An artist’s music represents his sensitivity, growth, and way of life. A legend in your own time, this guitar is a symbol of our growth together. With sincere appreciation, Your friends at Gibson.”
B.B. played that guitar for a few years, but by summer 1980 he’d switched to another new Gibson, a prototype much closer to the forthcoming signature model. Bolen had explained to B.B. that its body would not have f-holes, to allow for more volume with less feedback – and the visual bonus of a sleekly distinctive look.
Production versions finally appeared during 1981: the B.B. King Standard, with a list price of $1,389, and the B.B. King Custom, at $1,789. They had several Gibson high-end features, including Crank fold-out tuner winders, a TP-6 fine-tuning tailpiece, a Tune-o-matic mounted into Sustain Sisters brass studs, two ‘Pat-Appl-For’ humbuckers, and stereo circuitry.
The Custom boasted gold-plated metalwork and a Varitone, while the Standard had chrome-plated hardware and regular controls.
The Standard lasted only a few years, but a Custom-like model is still in the line today as the B.B. King Lucille Legacy, alongside an Epiphone B.B. King Lucille.
Quite how many Lucilles there were is unclear, although in his 1996 autobiography B.B. said he was already up to Lucille number 16
Through most of his long and successful career, B.B. played a series of 355s, each one in turn known to him as Lucille. Quite how many Lucilles there were is unclear, although in his 1996 autobiography B.B. said he was already up to Lucille number 16.
Back in 1969, when Gibson and B.B. signed their endorsement deal, BB soon began to appear in publicity material.
A striking ad from the early ’70s celebrates “the man and the woman” – B.B. King is the man, of course, and “Lucille, the King’s Gibson guitar” is the woman. “They’ve been places few ever dream of getting,” ran the ad’s copy.
“To the bluest. The lostest. The downest. To the top of the heap. The mountain. The world. If you’re going places on the guitar, wouldn’t it be great to travel with a woman like Lucille?”
