Guitar-Forum.com

Without question, the first guitar hero was Chuck Berry. Without him, the music of today and the “guitar hero” may have never existed.  By the mid Fifties, he had practically invented rock and roll, or to quote John Lennon, “If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry’ “.  Berry not only mastered his guitar playing, he did it with style; showing all future guitarists how to be as visually entertaining as they are sonically.  The most well known of Chuck Berry’s moves is the “duck walk”, which is emulated by Marty McFly in the classic film Back to the Future and made equally as famous by Angus Young of AC/DC.

Berry’s #1 guitar was the semi-hollow body Gibson ES-335, which has a solid wooden block running through its center and was the first semi-hollow guitar commercially available.  The ES-335 has a more “woody”, mellow sound than a solid guitar providing his trademark sound on songs such as Roll Over Beethoven,  Rock and Roll Music,  Johnny B. Goode and Maybelline (which was named after a mascara case in his dressing room).  Influencing bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry’s songs, style and sound have been copied, stolen and covered but never duplicated.

Since Chuck, nearly every famous guitarists has at least once used the Gibson ES-335 making it arguably the most popular semi-hollow guitar on the market. Included on this list is jazz musician Larry Carlton, Roy Orbison, Joe Perry (Aerosmith) and Tom Delonge of Blink 182 has his own signature ES-335 (even the endangered Panda has been seen with this beautiful instrument).  Legendary blues player B.B. King has used the ES-335, but is more famous for using his custom made Lucille, which is a modified ES-355, the top model thin-semi-hollow guitar made by Gibson.  Modifications include a maple rather than mahogany neck, lack of upper F-hole and has the word “Lucille” in its headstock. While Lucille may be the most famous hollow body of all time, it was Chuck Berry and his ES-335 that made Rock and Roll and the guitar hero what they are today.