19 out of 19 people found this review helpful.
Epiphone B.B. King Lucille: The Thrill Isn't Gone
Date of Review: Aug 7, 2007
The Bottom Line: A rare artist series guitar that gives the player the feeling that he has something distinctive.
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 end 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 seeking a justification.
Seeing Dr. P's review here was fortunate. As usual, it's the most thorough review possible. In fact, I printed it out and use it as the user manual for the guitar. So, for the technical details, you won't find a better guide than his piece.
In my case, I bought the guitar to immediately 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 popping 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, and more like a Les Paul in tone.
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.
One thing to be aware of, you can't casually install any old pickup. If it has the vintage style hot wire surrounded by a woven metal ground, the length needs to be pretty close so that you don't have a lot of extra metal wire in the electronics area. It's not serious, but it can create more noise, albeit less than a Fender.
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. In fact, 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 already a bit disappointing that it weighs close a Les Paul as it is.
It is a heavy guitar, and the extreme angled headstock is at the end of a longer than usual shallow neck. It's a feel that will be familiar to ES and jazzbox players. It feels both solid and easy to play, yet seems more fragile. The tuners are above average, but can slip out of tune with hard playing. Upgrading is definitely 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. 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 clearly 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.
