BB KING’S GUITAR SELLS FOR $280 000

The guitar that Gibson Guitars gave to B.B. King for his 80th birthday has sold at auction for two hundred and eighty thousand dollars, nearly three times its pre-sale estimate. Julien’s Auctions says King used the black Gibson E-S-345 prototype onstage, and it was one of many he called Lucille. The buyer wants to stay anonymous. Gibson’s 18-karat gold ring encrusted with 22 diamonds spelling out “B-B” sold for more than 16 thousand dollars. His 78 r-p-m blues records sold for more than 51 thousand dollars, after a pre-sale estimate of 500 to 700 dollars. King died in 2015 at the age of 89.