The Thrill Is Gone
B.B. King · Completely Well · 1969
The record was cut in June 1969 at the Hit Factory in New York with B.B.'s stereo Gibson ES-355 "Lucille" into a Fender Twin Reverb, miked with an SM57 — no pedals anywhere in the chain. Aim for a loud clean Twin just starting to break up on the hardest picked notes, bass pulled back, treble and mids up, so single notes cut through the strings and Wurlitzer. The echo you hear is studio plate reverb on the mix, not the amp, so keep the amp's reverb around 2 and add a short plate or room after it.
Where these numbers come from: worked out from the documented rig and the sound of the record
Tuning
Standard tuning, no capo
Standard tuning at concert pitch, key of B minor; Hugh McCracken plays the separate rhythm guitar track, so King's part is lead only.
Guitar
- Gibson ES-355TD-SV "Lucille" · Gibson humbuckers with Varitone (stereo wiring) · bridge pickup (treble), Varitone engaged
Amp
Fender Twin Reverb
Mix's Classic Tracks piece with producer/engineer Bill Szymczyk confirms the guitar ran into a Fender Twin Reverb miked with a Shure SM57 at the Hit Factory; "gain" here is the Twin's Volume knob and there is no presence control. King described running his stereo 355 into both channels of one Twin, one set for bass and one for treble, mixing them with the guitar's own controls; note that Guitar World's teardown of this song uses his 1970 Cook County Jail live rig (Gibson LP-1 head into LP-2 cab), which is the stage setup, not the June 1969 session.
Pedals
- EMT 140 plate reverb · studio plate reverb (console, not a pedal) · Short plate, decay under one second; King used no pedals, so keep amp reverb low and add a short room/plate in the mix
Tone character
bright biting lead · clean with light breakup · forward upper mids · lean bass · short plate reverb · singing sustain, heavy vibrato
Slow tempo and a small B minor pentatonic box around the 7th to 10th frets, but the difficulty is all in the wide fast vibrato and bends that have to land dead in tune and sit behind the beat.
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