Re: BB King Lucille...anybody got one or know about them?
I must be the only person that likes the varitone circuit, anyway, there are better ways to use that ... but on to the main theme ... I played one that wasn't custom shop, so it came from the line, although I'm sure they offer it in custom shop version... I also played the epi version, can't say that it stayed in tune very well (at least the one I played). The Gibson one had some tuning problems also, but they kinda got worked in, the craftsmanship from what I could tell was pretty much flawless, a lot better than what I had seen in some of their other *line instruments*, especially the fret dressing ... very smooth and meticulous,the stereo outputs were a nice feature, and very useful for two amps (hey Lew ... you play with two amps set differently don't you ... :cool3
, the overall response was very nice and even ... to me the pups could have had a bit more bass to them, but the stock pups very even across the mids, not tremendously vocal sounding, but they did sing nice with mild overdrive, the highs were just enough to give clarity and cut thru ... especially with chords ... and there wasn't any harshness of upper mids (whether that was the pups, the body, or both I can't say). I general after getting the tuning problems taken care of (bending), it was very nice ... the flexibilty of the stereo outs was real nice. I didn't find it to have a lot of punchiness, but it seemed to speak it's dynamics with a rather (cliche' term coming up ) *smoothness*. It had a very balanced response for finger style picking as well as plectrum. I didn't find the volume knobs to have the greatest taper or response, or whatever ... but they were useful, it would be nicer I think if they put some kind of balance control on it rather than individual volumes. It struck me as being one of the few guiatrs that sounded both focused and open at the same time, more so that a 335 (not that I'm a 335 guy, I've only dealt with semis a few times here and there ) ....
It sounded really nice clean thru a compressor also (cs-3), those pups seemed to respond very well with it. I tried it thru a peavey classic 30, a peavey studio 112 (a transtube, but an older one), a marshall VS 100, and a
johnson millenium (on a few of thier vintagey settings ... black face, ac-30, matchless, etc.). Straight in except for the compressor, and a little reverb.
The nut looked to be cut perfectly, but that tuning thing was still an issue, I've seen three on a side Gibsons that do that, and ones that don't ... I really think if they changed that nut to a graphite or other low friction material, and maybe cut th e nut slots with a corresponding angle on the back side it would alleviate that stuff. This was about four years ago, I was working for a Gibson dealer at the time, and it was a floor model, hence no custom shop.
) werent too impressed with the varitone knobs and said they didnt really use them.
Bikers are interesting folks. I've lived next door to a few in my early days of renting places. One group were total Aholes and fairly volitile. The next guy was a Hells Angel who was booted out of California. He was a nice guy (giant of a man) but nice. Then again I didn;t live next door to him long enough to find out how stable he was (or wasn't).
fftopic:
