B.B. King Lucille

Riley B. King (born September 16, 1925), known by the stage name B.B. King ("B.B." short for Blues Boy), is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter acclaimed for his expressive singing and fluid, complex guitar playing.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the "100 greatest guitarists of all time". According to Edward M. Komara, King "introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending and shimmering vibrato that would influence virtually every electric blues guitarist that followed." King has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Lucille, designed by the man himself, is a semi-hollowbody with no F-holes, and therefore a unique, unmistakable voice. It also features a TP-6 fine-tuning tailpiece, two Humbucker pickups, Vari-tone switch, and stereo outputs. Her name is inlaid on the headstock, just as B.B. King insists.

The Varitone control has 6 settings. Setting number 1 simply bypasses the Varitone completely. The Epiphone literature on the Varitone indicates that this control serves to reduce the harmonic frequencies, which in effect produces a greater loss of low frequency harmonics the higher up the 6-position dial you go.