My first article for Musicians Hotline was with the legendary Les Paul, now this month, unless you have been living under a rock your whole life, you should know who BB King is. When you think of Blues, the first name that comes to everyone's mind is BB King. In the days where everyone talks about how fast they can play, BB King shows that you don't have to be fast to be a great guitar player. He shows what phrasing and bending notes and a vibrato can do. He is probably the only person who can play an entire show on one note. No one can bend notes or use the vibrato like he can. You can study his playing and use the exact same equipment as he does, but no one can sound like him. Many of the young players should look at his playing and see that it isn't quantity, but the quality of the notes. He says more with one note than most players can with 100 notes. BB King is one of the most modest gentlemen you will ever meet. I don't think he realizes what he has done for music and guitar players. When you listen to BB King play, you get to have music your way. This interview took place in Rahway, NJ and it was set up through Sherman Darby.

BG: You have been playing the Lucille for years, are there modifications between yours and the one that Gibson makes for the public?
BB: No, not the one that they have right now. I'm playing the ES-355 and all of the qualifications on the ES-355 are practically the same. The necks, everyone that I have picked up are practically the same.

BG: What is the main thing that you look for on the guitar?
BB: I like for it to be true to itself. For example if I hit a G on the third fret, I want to be able to hear that same sound an octave up. On each string when I am looking for a G, I want to hear the G. I do not want it to be sharp or flat and a lot of times they get like that. That's what I am really looking for because when I am playing I want to enjoy myself. If I hear that something that I know is supposed to be there and it's not, I think it's like a ball team. You throw a ball to one of the players and he drops it (Laughs) you're kind of angry you know. I think it's the same thing with playing an instrument. You know it's supposed to be there. You practiced enough to know where it's at. When I hear that something and it isn't there, then I'm really let down.

BG: So the intonation has to be perfect?
BB: I want it to be perfect and I like the guitar to be comfortable. I'm a pretty big guy. I weigh 265 pounds so I want it to lay down on this big old tummy and I don't like for the neck to be large. That is one of the reasons I don't play acoustic guitars that much because the necks seem to be wider than the Lucille's are and they seem to make my fingers sore.

BG: Do you think that might be the heavier gauge strings?
BB: I'm not sure. I have two or three acoustic guitars at home and every time I pick one up and play it a long time, my fingers get sore. When I play my regular Lucille, if I don't practice for three or four days, then it gets tender and if it is longer than that, they get sore. I've played some times and my fingers would bleed and I don't like that. That forces me to practice when I don't want to.

BG: What type of strings do you use?
BB: When I first started playing, where I lived in Mississippi, we only had one place where we could buy strings and that was at the drug store. They had huge strings and when I first started playing, I never heard of a wound third string. I don't like using a wound third string and I never did.

BG: For bending the strings?
BB: Well I bend all of them, but I just don't get the sound that I like out of the third string. On my guitar, I now have a .10 on the E string, .13 on the second. I've got what I call a light top and a heavy bottom. My E bass is a .54, so it's pretty heavy. When I first started playing, the E string was probably a .12 or .13 and those were the only strings that I knew about and they were the only kind that I could get. I still like a kind of heavy string. I'm a little bit of jazz influenced through the early years. I guess that's one of the reasons I still like to hear, I'm not very good on chords, but when I do try to make one, I want to hear it. I want it to sound.

 

Look for Part II of this interview with B.B. King next month.



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