In 1955, Gibson released the similar ES-350T and Byrdland, with slimmer bodies, better specs and a shorter scale length. T-Bone favored Gibson’s ES-250, a mid-range hollowbody with two P-90s. No video in 1951, of course, so here King is playing the hit song on a later “Lucille”…Įlectric blues pioneer T-Bone Walker was a big influence on B.B. “Three O’Clock Blues” was a slow-burning 12-bar that set the template for B.B.’s inimitable style. With a single P-90 pickup and no cutaway it featured a bound top and back, tortoiseshell pickguard, single-bound top and back and dot neck inlays. In 1951, King had his major hit with a cover of Lowell Fulson’s “Three O’Clock Blues.” By this time B.B. The ES-5 came in blonde and sunburst, but B.B.’s was a blonde, with a trio of volume pots and a black pickguard. King’s was the early version, without the complex switching of the 1955-60 updates. Launched in 1949, the ES-5 was then one of Gibson’s flashiest and sonically most versatile models – it had three P-90 pickups. The model was discontinued in 1943.Īs King’s career flourished, he got a fancier guitar. Early examples were finished in black, but later L-30s had dark mahogany sides, back and neck, with a dark sunburst top. The L-30 featured a simple trapeze tailpiece and pickguard, an adjustable bridge, single-binding (front and back) and dot fingerboard markers. The L-30 was small-bodied, non-cutaway and with a flat back. King’s first Lucille was a Gibson L-30, a budget model. So I named the guitar Lucille to remind me to never do a thing like that again.”Īnd so the Lucille legend was born. So the next morning, we found out that these two guys that were fighting were fighting about a lady that worked in the little dance hall. It started to collapse around me and I almost lost my life trying to save my guitar. The building was a wooden building and burning rapidly. “But when I got on the outside, I realized then that I had left my guitar on the inside. King told, “One night, two guys started to fighting and one knocked down one of them containers and it was already burning with kerosene and so when it spilled onto the floor, it looked like a river of fire and everybody started to run for the front door – including B.B. He rescued it from a nightclub fire in Twist, Arkansas, and named it after a woman in the club. And he’s played many other Gibsons that haven’t been blessed with “her” name.ī.B.’s first “Lucille” was a Gibson L-30. has had numerous Lucilles since he fell in love with his first one way back in 1949. King calls his Gibson guitars “Lucille.” The fact is, B.B.