Legendary Gibson guitars with a story to tell

Myths emerge when extraordinary people do extraordinary things. Before long, the tales of their exploits pass through the generations, and new legends arise. Special guitars, like the magic swords of heroes, also match this pattern.

The love between a player and a particular guitar is expressed when that instrument repeatedly shows up in sessions and on stages across the globe for a large swath of time. This gravitas is enhanced if memorable songs become associated with the guitar.

Guitarists have been known to snooze with their favorite instrument lying alongside them, customize guitars with stickers and paint to make them their own, and modify them in myriad ways toward a unique sonic voice through pickup and wiring changes. So, it’s hardly surprising that players often endow their go-to guitars with affectionate nicknames. Below are 10 “nicknamed” Gibson guitars whose historical significance is beyond contestation. They’re famous, iconic, and, dare we say it, “electric!”

“Lucille” (B.B. King)  

Virtually all of B.B. King’s guitars—whether it be an ES-335, a 345, or a 355—were christened “Lucille” by the late blues great. The moniker dates back to 1949 when King saved his beloved original $30 Gibson from an accidental fire ignited by two men fighting over a woman who bore that name. “I’ve had many guitars . . . and I always call them Lucille,” King said in the liner notes to his 1968 Lucille album. “She’s taken me a long way, even brought me some fame…most of all, she’s kept me alive, being able to eat . . . Lucille practically saved my life two or three times.”

“Lucy” (Albert King)  

This iconic 1958 Flying V—one of two guitars on our list bearing the name “Lucy”—was an ever-present companion of blues legend Albert King. A southpaw, King played his cherished original “Lucy” upside-down, achieving his distinctive bends and vibrato by pulling the strings downward. In later years, King switched to a custom-made left-handed Flying V. ‌He continued to reverse the strings to play in the manner he was most accustomed to.

“Old Faithful” (Bob Marley)  

This beautiful mahogany Les Paul Special was Bob Marley’s favorite guitar for the duration of the 70s. Mods included an aluminum pickguard and a football-shaped aluminum switch-washer fitted around the 3-way selector switch. Gibson produced a lovingly rendered limited edition replica of the instrument in 2002. In a 2009 interview with Gibson, Marley’s son, Stephen, revealed that his father affectionately christened the guitar Old Faithful.

“The Fool” (Eric Clapton/Todd Rundgren)  

This 1964 Gibson SG was painted for Eric Clapton by members of a Dutch design collective bearing the name assigned to the guitar. Clapton debuted the instrument in 1967 at Cream’s first show in the U.S. and then used it regularly on Cream’s subsequent recordings. A smitten Todd Rundgren acquired “The Fool” in the early 1970s and went on to play the guitar extensively before selling it at auction in 2002. “The Fool” remains a key symbol of the 60s psychedelic era.

Eric Clapton has rarely played Gibson SGs, but he did in Cream’s 18-month existence from mid-’66 to late-’68. His SG became a trippy-rock icon and helped birth Clapton’s fabled “woman tone.”

About the Artwork of “The Fool”  

“The Fool were . . . two Dutch artists, Simon and Marijke, who had come over to London from Amsterdam in 1966,” said Clapton, “and set up a studio designing clothes, posters, and album covers. They painted mystical themes in fantastic vibrant colors and had been taken up by The Beatles, for whom they had created a vast three-story mural on the wall of their Apple Boutique on Baker Street, London.”

When Cream left the U.K. for a ’67 tour of the U.S., all three members—bassist Jack Bruce, drummer Ginger Baker, and Clapton—had instruments with “Fool” finishes. The duo also designed clothes and album covers for The Hollies, Procol Harum, The Move, and The Incredible String Band around the same time.

Clapton’s SG was covered in white primer and then painted with oil-based enamel paint—not a recommended finish for any guitar. Marijke Koger described the overall theme of the design as “good versus evil, heaven versus hell, and the power of music in the universe to rise above it all as a force of good.”

The Fool’s graphic was as weird as it was wonderful. There’s that winged cherub with curls of fire sat astride a candy cloud: the big hair on the head of the cherub, the centerpiece of The Fool’s artwork, was inspired by Clapton’s hairstyle of the time. The cherub’s left hand is grasping a triangle, while his right holds a spoon-shaped beater. The arch of his right foot is balanced on top of the rear tone control. Six-sided yellow stars orbit around him. Swirling circles of blues, greens, and yellows adorn the rest of the body, with a sun and mountain range on the pickguard.

When Cream left the U.K. for a ’67 tour of the U.S., all three members—bassist Jack Bruce, drummer Ginger Baker, and Clapton—had instruments with “Fool” finishes.

“Lucy” (George Harrison)  

Comedienne Lucille Ball inspired George Harrison to name this 1957 Les Paul Goldtop “Lucy.” In the mid-60s, the instrument’s then-owner Rick Derringer asked Gibson to refinish the guitar in a bright red hue that was popular with SGs of that era. The guitar passed that same year to Eric Clapton, who in turn gave it to Harrison. Perhaps Lucy’s most famous moment came when Clapton used it for his guest spot on Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

“The Grail” (Zakk Wilde)  

Zakk Wylde picked up this ‘81 Les Paul Standard in 1987, shortly after teaming up with Ozzy Osbourne. The custom graphic was commissioned out of respect for Randy Rhoads, as Wylde felt the instrument’s original blonde/cream finish was too closely associated with the late guitarist. The “bull’s-eye” decals were done without Wylde’s request—he had asked for an Alfred Hitchcock “Vertigo” design—but in the end, Wylde was pleased with the results. “It’s an amazing guitar,” he told Premier Guitar in 2017.

When asked, “What inspired your now-famous Bullseye design?”, Zakk further explained: “Obviously, being a huge disciple of Rhoads, I had an Alpine White Les Paul when I started out . . . when I joined Ozzy, between the blonde hair and the white Les Paul, I thought, “Oh, it feels like this is a Randy Rhoads tribute band!” [Laughs] And obviously, Randy also had the polka-dots, and what I wanted originally was the Vertigo design for the Hitchcock movie, and my buddy Max, who built Slash’s original Gibson Appetite for Destruction guitar, he painted my guitar. I had a photo shoot, and I said, “Max, I want this spiral thing, and I’m doing a cover shoot for all these things, and can you get it done before Tuesday?” And when I opened the case, it was a bullseye. So I was like, that wasn’t what I wanted, but obviously, I did the photo shoot with the guitar, and the rest is history.”

“Greeny” (Peter Green, Gary Moore, Kirk Hammett)  

This 1959 Les Paul Standard was long thought to be endowed with mystical properties owing to its distinctively warm, trebly tone. The reality is that its unusual tonal properties stem from the fact that the polarity of the magnet in its neck pickup is reversed. Peter Green played the guitar during his tenure with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and subsequently used it throughout his period with Fleetwood Mac. Green then passed it on to Gary Moore, who played it for over three decades. 

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett is the lucky owner today. Recently, Gibson recreated it in a limited edition. You can read about it here.

“The Log” (Les Paul)  

The great Les Paul was a mere 26 years old when he fashioned this makeshift solidbody guitar in 1940. Frustrated with that era’s hollowbody guitars, which distorted when amplified, the legendary innovator first tried filling his guitar with plaster of Paris. That effort proved fruitless, but when Paul fitted a 4×4 block of pine with a tailpiece, two pickups, and a Gibson neck, he hit pay dirt. Today, The Log is widely considered to be ground zero for the instrument that came to bear its maker’s name.