This is my tribute to one of the most gifted and influential of all Blues guitarists, Mr Freddie King. He had an intuitive style that was achieved by blending together the open string sound associated with Texas Blues and the raw, screaming tones of West Side Chicago Blues. Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan, to name but a few, have tipped their hats to “The Texas Cannonball”. His best known work includes “Hide Away”, “Have You Ever Loved A Women”, “The Stumble” and “Going Down”, four songs that are still played today by Blues guitarists and bands the world over.

Having decided to pay tribute to Mr King, the first question I asked myself was what do I design? Freddie started out by playing a Gibson Gold Top Les Paul with P-90 pickups before changing to a Gibson ES-345. Having previously paid tribute to Gibson’s Gold Top with our 60th Anniversary “Boogie Chillun” project, I decided to take a stab at designing a guitar influenced by Freddie’s beloved cherry red ES-345. I approached the design as if I had been asked by Freddie himself to create a guitar that was in-keeping with his 345 in terms of looks and feel, yet at the same time, totally different and unique. What I finally came up with, after countless attempts; was “The Cannonball”.

I am really pleased at how Freddie’s guitar turned out. “The Cannonball” is obviously Gibson influenced but with Harmony, Kay and Silvertone overdubs. The design is what I would term, “Blues Americana”, this being reflective of my love of both Alternative Mainstream and Mainstream guitar design. I have enjoyed working on this concept immensely, and this experiment, yet again, illustrates my style of design and why I decided to put her on our website. As always, many thanks for your time. SR

“The Cannonball”

Inspired By The Music Of Mr Freddie King & His Cherry Red Gibson ES-345 Guitar.

(Bob G. Harrison\Raw Guitar Co. “Groucho” Single Coil Pickups)