NGD: GIBSON CUSTOM BB KING LUCILLE LIMITED

[toomanycats]

What's could possibly be better than being the new owner of this stunning guitar?

Knowing that I'm going to be playing it tonight in stereo through two cranked tube amps, blasting through tunes by Mountain, ZZ Top, Santana, Cream, The Allmans, Aerosmith, The Stones, the Beatles, etc., at the debut performance of my new band . . . BOURBON ARCADE. Exiting stuff going on at le casa de los gatos!

Funny, but now that I think about it we're actually not doing a single B.B. King tune! lol

This is one of the best guitars I've ever played. Surprisingly, it has a slightly more modern feel than some might expect from a B.B. King signature instrument. For instance, the pickups are 490-T and 490-R, which are slightly hotter than vintage. With these pups and the absence of f holes it sounds halfway between a semi-hollow and a Les Paul. This guitar can handily cover all kinds of jazz, blues, even hard rock territory. The Varitone switch can conjure up what are almost single coil like tones.

[toomanycats]

[Sinster]

I'm glad you posted a picture of you playing or I would have thought it was an April fools. Congrats!

[toomanycats]

I'm glad you posted a picture of you playing or I would have thought it was an April fools. Congrats!

Nope, no April Fools, I bought it for real on Monday. Got the black eye from the lady of the house to prove it. Just kidding, just kidding. I do, however, ahem, owe someone a new pair of expensive shoes. That's how this game is played.

[tonebender]

Congrats on the new Gibson. I sold my vintage 1981 BB King Standard Lucille when I retired from the band business. It was a fun guitar to play. Mine did not have the varitone switch but it did have stereo inputs. It had little fold out handle tuner spinner handles that were way cool. I I loved playing it but I always worried about it when I took it to gigs. As a result I only gigged with it a few times including a Sunday afternoon gig the week BB died.

[toomanycats]

Congrats on the new Gibson. I sold my vintage 1981 BB King Standard Lucille when I retired from the band business. It was a fun guitar to play. Mine did not have the varitone switch but it did have stereo inputs. It had little fold out handle tuner spinner handles that were way cool. I I loved playing it but I always worried about it when I took it to gigs. As a result I only gigged with it a few times including a Sunday afternoon gig the week BB died.

I've read that some people bypass the Varitone Switch because they feel that it dulls the tone. This would be based on the theory that you want as few things between the pickups and the amp as possible. The Varitone is a cluster of tone capacitors. I'd describe is from a functional point of view as something like a bass cut. It can also do a cocked wah type thing.

I never had a guitar with stereo outputs before and I'm really digging the incredible wide sound I can get. For those who don't know, Lucille can send the output of the bridge pickup to one amp, and the output of the neck pickup to a second amp. In the four days I've owned this guitar I've realized that my preferred way to run it is in stereo with one amp full on dirty and one on the verge of break up. I then use the independent volume controls to blend in how much of each pickup I want. I roll back the volume(s) for clean tone, and turn them up for solos. It's staggering the amount of different tones this guitar can produce when run in stereo, with two different amps, and combinations of the volume/tone controls and Varitone. Every one of them is a killer blues or rock voice too.

[dabbler]

I'm glad you posted a picture of you playing or I would have thought it was an April fools. Congrats!

TMC knows the rules. PICs or it didn't happen!

Congrats TMC! Looks like you're havin' a good time with it!

[mickey]

You know TMC, Gretsch has done stereo guitars with the E-A-D strings on one output and G-B-E on the other.
I think I would prefer that system as opposed to having one pickup per output.
But then, I've never actually tried either.

[Partscaster]

Congrats on the new band.
To which side of you does the new guy who is supposed to turn down your 2 amps stand?
Thats got to get worked out and be smooth, ... from sounding great, to, why cant I hear my @#$$# stereo guitar?
The BB looks great.

[toomanycats]

Congrats on the new band.
To which side of you does the new guy who is supposed to turn down your 2 amps stand?
Thats got to get worked out and be smooth, ... from sounding great, to, why cant I hear my @#$$# stereo guitar?
The BB looks great.

The "turn down my amp guy" has left the band, in royal douchbag fashion I might add. His constant obnoxious and unprofessional onstage behavior just became too much. He was a lazy musician who would show up late for practice without having learned his parts. He began to increasingly forget lyrics and guitar parts onstage. He'd naysay and shoot down any good idea anyone suggested to help move the group forward. He was part OCD, part control freak, an egomaniac . . . just all kinds of nightmarish stuff. The rest of the group finally called him out on it and asked him to modify his behavior. His response was to quit. Right after this he messaged the group and told us, "I'm going to cause trouble." I started getting snarky comments on my YouTube channel. He corresponded with venues we are booked at and made veiled threats. I'm not on Facebook, but apparently he's been talking a lot of crap about us, telling people not to go to our shows. This guy's ego is so huge that can't reconcile in his mind that we can go on without him.

Anyways, here's the new band.

[Partscaster]

Congrats on the new band.
To which side of you does the new guy who is supposed to turn down your 2 amps stand?
Thats got to get worked out and be smooth, ... from sounding great, to, why cant I hear my @#$$# stereo guitar?
The BB looks great.

The "turn down my amp guy" has left the band, in royal douchbag fashion I might add. His constant obnoxious and unprofessional onstage behavior just became too much. He was a lazy musician who would show up late for practice without having learned his parts. He began to increasingly forget lyrics and guitar parts onstage. He'd naysay and shoot down any good idea anyone suggested to help move the group forward. He was part OCD, part control freak, an egomaniac . . . just all kinds of nightmarish stuff. The rest of the group finally called him out on it and asked him to modify his behavior. His response was to quit. Right after this he messaged the group and told us, "I'm going to cause trouble." I started getting snarky comments on my YouTube channel. He corresponded with venues we are booked at and made veiled threats. I'm not on Facebook, but apparently he's been talking a lot of crap about us, telling people not to go to our shows. This guy's ego is so huge that can't reconcile in his mind that we can go on without him.

Anyways, here's the new band.

bor18 copy.jpg

Holy Molly. Thats is an amazingly sad ego that dude has. Good riddence and, congrats.
The other guitar player in Bourbon Arcade looks like a Governor of some state out there.
Enjoy, as you cut loose the tones of groove.

[toomanycats]

Congrats on the new band.
To which side of you does the new guy who is supposed to turn down your 2 amps stand?
Thats got to get worked out and be smooth, ... from sounding great, to, why cant I hear my @#$$# stereo guitar?
The BB looks great.

The "turn down my amp guy" has left the band, in royal douchbag fashion I might add. His constant obnoxious and unprofessional onstage behavior just became too much. He was a lazy musician who would show up late for practice without having learned his parts. He began to increasingly forget lyrics and guitar parts onstage. He'd naysay and shoot down any good idea anyone suggested to help move the group forward. He was part OCD, part control freak, an egomaniac . . . just all kinds of nightmarish stuff. The rest of the group finally called him out on it and asked him to modify his behavior. His response was to quit. Right after this he messaged the group and told us, "I'm going to cause trouble." I started getting snarky comments on my YouTube channel. He corresponded with venues we are booked at and made veiled threats. I'm not on Facebook, but apparently he's been talking a lot of crap about us, telling people not to go to our shows. This guy's ego is so huge that can't reconcile in his mind that we can go on without him.

Anyways, here's the new band.

bor18 copy.jpg

The other guitar player in Bourbon Arcade looks like a Governor of some state out there.
Enjoy, as you cut loose the tones of groove.

Yeah, if we the "A-TEAM" he would definitely be "Faceman." Our drummer is the joker so he's be "Murdock." Our bass player doesn't smoke cigars, but he a serious guy like "Hannibal." That would leave me by default as "B.A.Baracus".

[Chocol8]

Congrats on the douchbag rage quitting!!! It’s always nice to get rid of the crazies! Bigger congrats on the guitar! That is one of the coolest signature guitars ever.

Speaking of Boirbon, did that Boubon Street bar that got shutdown ever find a new location? Did the owners ever do anything with the old building?

[tonebender]

Wow what grade was that guy in? I thought bad-mouthing of fakebook was for teenagers. Shows you what I know. When I saw the video and read the story of the guy turning your amp down I knew the days for that version of the band was short. It is suppose to be fun and douche bags always suck the fun out.

[toomanycats]

Here's a pic of me playing Lucille at the gig last night. I'm running it in stereo using the 65 Amps London set dirty and the Blackstar Studio 15 set to a more Fender cleanish tone. I'm bringing Lucille to tonights gig too, but running it in mono, as it's a smaller venue with limited space to set up gear. This guitar may be my new #1.

[redman]

@toomanycats outstanding snag Lucille is a name as recognizable as the name Gibson itself and that is a beaut my friend. Congrats.
When I read this post I googled what happened to the original Lucille and it sold at auction for $280,000.00 in 2019.
Here's a link
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/ ... at-auction

[pdcorlis]

Tasty! HNGD.

[toomanycats]

Speaking of Boirbon, did that Boubon Street bar that got shutdown ever find a new location? Did the owners ever do anything with the old building?

Haven't heard any scuttlebutt about when and if there will be a new Bourbon Street at a different location in Hickory NC. I drive by the old building every Tuesday night after band practice and it looks unoccupied and unused as far as I can tell. In the meantime another local place called Mountain View Pub seems to have filled the gap as the focal point for music, with live bands six nights a week. A good friend of mine named Patty (a fellow yankee) is the administrator for a facebook page that covers the local scene down here.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/144510502 ... __tn__=C-R

[Chocol8]

What a shame to have a place shut down so a building can sit empty.

[Lacking Talent]

What's could possibly be better than being the new owner of this stunning guitar?

Knowing that I'm going to be playing it tonight in stereo through two cranked tube amps, blasting through tunes by Mountain, ZZ Top, Santana, Cream, The Allmans, Aerosmith, The Stones, the Beatles, etc., at the debut performance of my new band . . . BOURBON ARCADE. Exiting stuff going on at le casa de los gatos!

Funny, but now that I think about it we're actually not doing a single B.B. King tune! lol

This is one of the best guitars I've ever played. Surprisingly, it has a slightly more modern feel than some might expect from a B.B. King signature instrument. For instance, the pickups are 490-T and 490-R, which are slightly hotter than vintage. With these pups and the absence of f holes it sounds halfway between a semi-hollow and a Les Paul. This guitar can handily cover all kinds of jazz, blues, even hard rock territory. The Varitone switch can conjure up what are almost single coil like tones.





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No "f"-holes, I love it -- enjoy, sounds great!

[tlarson58]

1. That's one. sweet. guitar.
2. 'Love the video. I've played that song in open G. It makes the 3-and-4 beat augmented chords easier to play (I think). I'm not sure if they are "augmented" chords. I just called them that.
3. I really like the lick at 2:12.

Congratulations on the new guitar. Keep the vids coming.

[thepezident]

[toomanycats]

After gigging Lucille about a half dozen times I'm come to the conclusion that while the stereo output is an interesting feature, and it was B.B.'s preferred set up, it's not the best set up for me.

The main reason is that it makes things too complicated. I like being able to set my amp and pedals, forget about them, and then use my pickup selector switch, volume knobs, and tone knobs to get my sound. I can access most all the tones I need . . . clean, crunchy, scorching lead, nasal, the "Woman Tone" . . . using just my right hand and those controls. Having two outputs with each pickup assigned to a different amp complicates this. I much prefer going out of Lucille's mono jack, then splitting the signal at the end of my pedal chain and sending it to the two amps. This way both amps are getting the identical signal. This is exactly what I did at my gig last night. I still have that wide stereo sound whether I'm in the bridge, middle, or neck position, and the guitar controls operate the same as any normal Gibson with two humbuckers and a three way selector.

[Chocol8]

It’s good to have options, but better to find what works for you!