Gibson has given the most iconic blues guitar in history a new look, with the BB King Lucille Legacy entering the Custom ES Collection in classy Transparent Ebony finish that shows off a highly figured maple veneer.
But there’s no mistaking this for any other model – not with the Lucille MOP headstock inlay and a gold truss rod cover engraved with BB King’s name. Like the King of the Blues’ original Ebony finish, this is an ES-355 all dressed up in tuxedo, with split mother of pearl block inlays, gold hardware, and multi-ply binding on the headstock, neck and body completing a classy look.
We’ve seen them in Cherry Red, Ebony, Alpine White. Transparent Ebony is a new one. But all the ingredients are here to make this high-end electric guitar a veritable tone machine. The body is a three-piece laminate build, with poplar sandwiched between the aforementioned figured maple and maple for the inside. A maple centre block is in situ to guard against feedback. Following a similar logic, the F-holes are gone, too.
The Lucille Legacy has a SlimTaper mahogany neck with long neck tenon that’s glued to the body in customary style. The fingerboard is ebony, with a 12” radius. BB King was a player for whom intonation was everything, and so the Lucille Legacy comes fitted with a TP-6 tailpiece with fine tuners, and a set of gold Grover Tulip tuners.
A pair of Custombuckers are fitted in the neck and bridge positions, and are controlled by a two volume and two tone pots, a three-way pickup selector switch, and a mono six-position Varitone switch.
When you are making a guitar for the King, you can’t skimp on the details; Gibson has used a high-quality Switchcraft switches and 1/4” output jack, and under the hood, the circuit features 500K CTS pots, Paper in Oil Bumblebee capacitors, with the harness hand-wired.
As for the dimensions, the Lucille Legacy is on-brand Gibson, with a 12” fingerboard radius, and a 24.75” scale length.
The Lucille Legacy ships with a hard case and a certificate of authenticity, and is priced £6,099 / $6,999. If that price gives you the blues, then there is always the Epiphone Lucille, which assumes a more traditional gloss Ebony look.
For more details on the Lucille Legacy, head over to Gibson.
