The Delta Snake Review: Musical Gear Review & Article Archive: Review: 2007 Epiphone “B.B. King Lucille” Electric Guitar

Review: 2007 Epiphone “B.B. King Lucille” Electric Guitar

I recently bought a used Epiphone B.B. King Lucille to replace a couple of my jazzboxes. The recent availability of Gabor Szabo CDs at my local used record store brought on a buying frenzy and the result was that my jazz ear went haywire.

That is to say, hearing Szabo with his old pickup mounted Gibson acoustic made me realize again that jazz guitar didn't begin and end with Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. Also, my 20 year burnout with Blues was ending and I wanted a more versatile sound.

The Lucille seemed to be the right candidate. Even more so, as I found one for 400.00 at the local guitar supermart. Yes, another impulse purchase needing justification. In my case, I bought the guitar to upgrade and so my experience with the Lucille is different. When I tried the guitar in the store, the pickups were fine. What I especially liked was that you could get that distinctive B.B. King sound on bent notes.

I kept the bridge pickup, and installed a Gibson alnico II Burstbucker in the neck. This did change the sound. The output was noticably brighter and fuller. Not surprisingly, this changed the performance of the Varitone switch. While the bridge pickup responds well to the settings, the neck frequencies mostly cut out and is best on bypass. Swapping out the Epiphone Varitone for the Gibson version would change this, as the capacitors would be more of a match.

However, the neck pickup is going to be used pretty much in the same way as a jazz type, so changes in the basic tone will be done the old fashioned way; via tone control, pedals and of course, one's fingers. I'm not a big fan of multi-combination switchers anyway, you can do a lot more by just using more than one guitar and that tends to be cheaper than a custom shop electronics job.

In any case, the rear P/U works fine with the Varitone, so I have that capability where it's the most useful anyway. The reason is that most switching is at it's best when it can vary the range in terms of making a Gibson sound like a Fender and vice versa. The best pickup for that is always the bridge (for me, others may feel otherwise).

The guitar is a joy to play with a Gibson pickup installed (although I imagine a Seymour Duncan would be fine also). It's got a hot, fat tone that can be dialed in for jazz, rock or blues. The solid top (without F holes) does give the guitar more of a solid body sound. It's closer to being a chambered guitar than a semi-solid. Which is good. It would have been disappointing to have it sound too much like a Les Paul or ES. It's a bit disappointing that it weighs as much of a Les Paul.

It is a heavy guitar with an extremely angled headstock at the end of a longer than usual shallow neck. It's a feel that should be familiar to big box jazz players. It feels both solid and easy to play, yet the headstock seems more fragile. The tuners are above average, but can slip out of tune with hard playing. Upgrading is an option here.

It's a great looking axe. There's the cool “Lucille” on the headstock, the gold plated metal truss rod cover, and a nice, but easily scratched Ebony finish. The gold hardware looks good with Ebony, and on the whole it's a classy package.

The bridge is a special design and resembles a violin bridge with fine tuners and open hook type string holders. This will require the player to keep the string taut while restringing, but I accomplish that by pressing the string on the fretboard with a forearm while winding the end around the tuner post.

It's awkward at first, but once you get used to it, it's pretty easy, and handy. It's a trick I learned because most jazzboxes bridges are the same way, except upside down. You're frankly not going to use the fine tuners much unless you've played the violin and are used to that type of tuner. It's better to just get a higher ratio tuner set, so the tuning takes place in one location on the guitar.

The final reason I got it was the cool factor. Most artist series guitars look stock, but the Lucille is both distinctive and identified with a single artist. Own a Lucille, and there's no mistaking what you have. It's also one of the best guitars Epiphone has made, and you don't get the sense that you have pale imitation of a Gibson. Upgrade the pickup(s) and it'd be hard to justify the cost of getting the Gibson version. Get this guitar and you'll find that you've paid much less cost to be “the Boss.”

- Al Handa

2007

Note: This review first appeared on the ePinions.com site in 2007. This and other reviews were short takes that accompanied the link to a business that sold the guitar. As a rule, the guitar had to be at least examined and played by the reviewer (and ideally owned). In my case, a severe case of GAS made it possible to have at least owned the reviewed instrument for a short while. I'm reprinting these as having another source on a guitar never hurts, even if the reviews aren't definitive. Other than minor corrections, these short takes are unchanged from the original text. I figure that it might be helpful to keep the older perspective.

The Quitturz by Al Handa