B.B. King — £500 · Sweet Spot Rig

• No tremolo bar — all vibrato comes from a fast, narrow shake of the fretting finger
• Neck pickup only; guitar tone at 6–7, amp completely clean
• BB's vibrato is fast and narrow — pivot from the wrist, not the whole forearm
• Leave wide gaps between phrases — the silence is as musical as the notes
• Bend upward into the note, hold, then add vibrato; never release early
• Play fewer notes with total intention — BB avoided runs, every note was deliberate
• Mid-forward amp EQ (boost 500Hz–1kHz) reproduces the semi-hollow body warmth
• Volume swells with the guitar knob add dynamics without a pedal

• ✗Running high-gain settings on a semi-hollow — the resonant body cavity feeds back uncontrollably at high gain levels. These guitars require lower gain and benefit from the natural resonance.
• ✗Setting bass too high on a Fender spring reverb amp — at high bass settings the reverb tank produces a "booming" quality that muddies the tone. Start with bass at 4-5.
• ✗Adding compression to fix flat clean tone — a flat, lifeless clean tone usually means the amp gain or presence is wrong, not that compression is needed. Compression on a flat tone just makes it louder.
• ✗Using a large amp at low volume — the character of this style comes from a small amp working hard. A 100W amp at 2 doesn't give the same result as a 15W amp at 8.
• ✗Adding reverb heavily — early Chicago electric blues was relatively dry. Excessive reverb washes out the rawness that defines the genre.

Gibson Lucille (ES-355 with blocked tremolo, no f-holes) into a clean solid-state Lab Series or Polytone amp. Warm, mid-forward and completely unprocessed — no overdrive, no reverb, no delay. King's hand vibrato and phrasing do all the expressive work.