9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Gibson - Lucille ES355 Stereo
Date of Review: Feb 21, 2002
The Bottom Line: Versitile, beautiful construction, well engineered , electronics well thought out, A joy to own!
I have owned my Lucille for about two years now and continue to discover wonderful tonal combinations made possiable by the Varatone mixing selector. I own twelve guitars two Les Pauls, three Stratocasters, one PRS solid body, one Telecaster and one Laravee Acoustic D03-E and one ES125S Gibson and of coarse the Lucille.
The two most versatile guitars I own are the Gibson Lucille and the PRS 22, and out of these two the Lucille is the most versatile because of the hollow cavity underneath the pickups, which is an active element and does affect the toneal characteristics even thought the Lucille has no F holes. I have found that the difference between a traditional thinline acoustic electric guitar with F holes like the ES335 and one like the Lucille ES355s is that closed body guitars do not produce excessive uncontrolable feedback during high stage volume levels.
The Lucille is of coarse a very cosmetically beautiful instrument and looks wonderful on stage and shows very well. But the beauty goes much more that skin deep, the Gibson quality especially comes through on this model much like it has on my older Les Pauls.
I play all my instruments through a Marshall JCM2000/DSL50 with the 1960A 4x12 cabinet. The Lucille interacts with the Marshall very well and is a classic rock sound much like when the Les Pauls are used through the same Marshall stack.
Playability on the Lucille is comfortable and the action is very low on mine, for players who choose to have higher action the adjustments are very easily done. This instrument is built to last a life time and more. it is rugged in construction and beautiful in appearance. A player can play this guitar all night at a gig, throw it in its beautiful case and go gig again at an after hours thing and still not have his fingers or wrists fatigued!
To sum up a bit, I would recommend this guitar to anyone, no matter what style of music they play. It is a pleasure to play the instrument and it is a wonderful example of the kind of quality craftsmanship and close attention to detail that can come out of the Gibson factory these days!
