Grandcase Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 Back in 1995, I bought a used BB King "Lucille" in mint condition. At the time I was living on St Martin FWI. The guitar was playing good, except I didn't like the Varitone all that much, but the neck was great, all big and large to fit the King's huge hands. Anyway, couple of months later a big hurricane hit the island while me and my family were back in Europe. Not knowing what was going to happen, I had left everything as it was usually, and my guitar leaning upon a wall in my bedroom. Well ... the hurricane came in with 180 mph winds blowing and litteraly tore open the roof of our house, exposing my bedroom to rains and gallons of salty water brought directly from the ocean by furious winds. To cut a long story short, Lucille went flying all over the place, bouncing from wall to wall I don't know how many times. When I got back home10 days later, the whole house was a disaster and Lucille was on the floor, kind of dipping in some sort of salty mud that had dried from the sun pouring from the open roof ... pretty disgusting. I picked up my guitar, cleaned it and plugged it. Believe it or not it was still playing ! The sound was weak because the pickups had been soaked in rain and sea water (!) but apart from that, not much to mention : nothing broken, the neck was still pretty accurate ... just unbelievable ! I played it like this for a while, then the black paint started to peel off, so I stripped it completely to its natural wood color and kept it like this. I sold it a few months later in Italy. I suppose the guy must have changed the pickups afterwards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littlekenny Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 wow, sorry to hear that. Shows how well gibbys are built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandcase Posted April 13, 2008 Author Share Posted April 13, 2008 Shows how well gibbys are built. 'zackly just a detail though : I did not trick the italian guy. The guitar he bought (for cheap) had no paint, no finish, the Varitone wasn't working anymore and the sound was definitely odd and very weak. No way he could have mistaken it for a new one ... I know this comment is off topic, but I just didn't want to start off on this forum giving the wrong impression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibis Posted April 13, 2008 Share Posted April 13, 2008 Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear of your tough times on St Martin. I'm sure your Lucille was the least of your worries back then! Still, an insprinig story. Let's hope its been lovingly restored by the Italian guy and put out to grass in some dingy blues bar! Just thinking, I wonder how many people lost their guitars (and more) in Katrina? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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