A 2009 Epiphone B.B. King Lucille semi-hollow electric guitar, serial #09071506859, in black finish. Signed on the body by B.B. himself. Owned and played by Randy Bachman, who has sold 40 million records worldwide as a member of The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and as a solo artist.

The story of how B.B. King’s “Lucille” got its name is one of the most re-told tales in all of music history. Two men fought over a woman named Lucille during B.B.’s gig in an Arkansas dance hall in 1949. The men knocked over a kerosene barrel providing heat to the venue in the process, which set the dance hall ablaze and sent audience members off in a rush toward the exit. B.B. evacuated as well, but left behind his prized Gibson guitar, at that time an L-30 archtop model. He ran back into the inferno to rescue it, and christened the guitar “Lucille” as a reminder never to do “something so stupid as running into a burning building or fighting over a woman.”

Lucille wasn’t just one guitar, it was a name given to all of the guitars B.B. used onstage over the years, and the name would soon become synonymous with the upscale Gibson ES-355s that B.B. would favor in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1980, Gibson released the Lucille signature model guitar, based on the ES-355 platform but with a few personal touches: a TP-6 fine tuning tailpiece, updated Mono/Stereo wiring, no f-holes, and “Lucille” inlaid on the headstock.

The Epiphone version of the Gibson follows that blueprint in a more affordable package. Fully bound neck, body, and headstock, big block inlays on a rosewood fingerboard, gold hardware, an engraved B.B. King truss rod cover, a TP-6 tailpiece, two humbucker pickups with individual volume and tone controls for each, and a six-way Varitone filter circuit.

Includes hardshell case.

PROVENANCE From The Collection of Randy Bachman

Guitars & Instruments, Randy Bachman