What Guitar(s) Did BB King Play?

For those who are fans of blues, BB King is a common name. BB King, whose real name is Riley B. King, was born on the 16th of September 1925. Notably, he adopted BB King as his stage name. He was a renowned American singer and songwriter until his death on 14th May 2015. He was a guitarist and record producer.

Riley B. King was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi, Indianola. During his youthful days, BB King always played on every street corner to earn a dime. He was so industrious to the extent that he could play in many towns in a single night. He started making records in the 1940s. Throughout his career in blues, he released over 50 albums.

His style of playing created fame for him in the world of blues. His special and unique style of soloing made him popular. A style that was based on fluid string bending coupled with a shimmering vibrato that could make anyone vibe to his music. Today, this unique style of playing guitar still has a great influence on many electric guitarists that play blues.

List of all the guitars that BB King played

In his entire career, BB King was privileged to play a lot of guitars. His major brand of the guitar was Gibson. Here is the full list of guitars that Riley B King played all through his music career;

Gibson L-30

This was the first guitar that BB King played in his music career. This guitar was referred to as the original Lucille. It was produced between 1935 and 1943. It was an acoustic guitar. This guitar was fitted with DeArmond pickup.

Gibson ES-5

This was the first kind of the series of the Electric Spanish guitar to first use a 3 pickup (P-90 pickup). BB King made use of this guitar. This guitar was produced between 1949 and 1955.

This guitar had 3 separate volume knobs. One knob for each of the separate pickup. It also had one master tone knob. These options gave him a better chance to control the tones.

Gibson ES-125

This was another great guitar in the Electric Spanish series. This guitar was produced in 1941 and 1942. The production of this guitar was stopped for a few years.

The production of this guitar started again and was available in the market between 1946 and 1950. This guitar had one P-90 pickup coupled with one volume and one tone control.

Gibson Byrdland

This was the first kind of Thinline series of the Gibson guitar. BB King made use of this guitar during his music career. This was majorly made available in the market in 1955-1975, 1977, 1978 and 1992.

Between 1955-1958, this guitar was stocked with a set of two alnico pickups. Within 1959 and later years, the guitar was stocked with Gibson Humbuckers. It had the same controls as that of Les Paul. It had a 1 3-way pickup selector switch. It also had two volume and two tone controls.

Gibson ES-175

Another beautiful guitar that BB King made use during his music career was Gibson ES-175. It was first produced in 1949 and it was made available in the market for many years. This guitar was one of the guitars that rocked the jazz world.

The guitar has only one single-coil pickup. An additional single-coil pickup was added to this guitar in 1953 and around 1957, the guitar was changed to two Humbuckers. The controls were just like Les Paul. It had two volumes, two tones, and one three-way switch at its top.

Gibson ES-335

This was another series of Electric Spanish guitar that BB King enjoyed playing. It was first sold out in 1958 and it has lasted for several years. This guitar has a  warmer tone. It is a semi-hollow guitar.

This guitar was made of wood. It has the same control as that of ES-175. The only major difference between ES-335 and ES-175 is that the former has a three-way switch at its bottom.

Gibson ES-345

This was another series of Electric Spanish (ES) guitar. It was made available in the market between 1958 and 1981. It has a multi-position varitone switch.

This is used for changing the frequencies of the pickups. This varitone was the major part of the sound of this guitar.

Gibson ES-355

Gibson produced ES-355 between 1958 and 1982. This is one of the best guitars in the series of Electric Spanish (ES) guitar. This guitar was not famous like the ES-335 and ES-344 because there are stereo limitations to the varitone. It had high-end aesthetics and also had ebony fretboard which made it sound smoother.

Gibson Lucille

This special guitar was produced in honor of BB King. Gibson added input from BB King to make this guitar. It looks like ES-355 but with some differences to make it unique.

As instructed by Riley B King, the F-holes were removed to take away the feedback. Its standard model has a maple neck, chrome hardware, and dot inlays. The other model which is the custom models has gold hardware and block inlays.

Gibson Lucille 80th Birthday

This guitar was specially designed for Lucille 80 years of production. It was produced in 2005. Only eighty pieces of this limited guitar were ever made. Nowadays, this guitar is referred to as a collector guitar.

Fender Esquire

In his music career, BB King made use of another brand of guitar apart from the Gibson. This guitar was first produced in 1950. It was produced again between 1951 and 1969.

It is the first set of the telecaster. Its models were available in single and dual pickups. Riley B King played a 1950’s Fender Esquire for his album titled  “The Modern Records”.

BB King Guitar Style

Riley B King was one of the renowned blues guitarists that had ever lived. Riley B King’s guitar style was unique among its contemporaries. Most fans of blues know BB King for his vibrato style of playing guitar.

It is believed that he always played in a box shape. Playing in box shape is simply used when a blues guitarist does not know the name of the notes which he is playing. This means omitting some steps from the full minor scale.

In conclusion, BB King is unarguably one of the greatest blues guitarists that ever lived. From the start of his career till the end of his career, he made use of several guitars.

Also, he created one of the unique styles of playing guitar and will be remembered for several years to come.