List of Gibson Players - B

B

• Martin Barre (Jethro Tull) has used numerous Gibson models over the course of his career including: a sunburst ES-330, a 1958 Les Paul Special and a 1959 Les Paul Standard.
• Jeff Beck (The Yardbirds/solo) purchased his first Les Paul, a 1959 model, for £150 while still a member of The Yardbirds. Beck's fascination with the guitar sprang as much from his interest in Les Paul, the man, as from his love of the guitar itself. Beck told an interviewer: "It had a deep powerful sound and you could use it to imitate just about anything - violin, sax, cello, even a sitar." Beck also used an "oxblood" coloured 1954 Les Paul Standard, with PAF pickups, from 1972 to 1976 and is pictured with the guitar on the cover artwork of his Blow by Blow album.

• Franny Beecher played a black 1956 Les Paul Custom throughout his career with Bill Haley and the Comets in the 1950s and early 1960s.
• Anthony Duster Bennett (British blues singer, harmonica player and musician) played a 1952 Les Paul Goldtop throughout his career that had been given to him in 1968 by Peter Green. After Bennett's death the guitar was given to musician Anthony Top Topham.
• Wayne Bennett (Bobby Bland) used a white Byrdland
• George Benson (Gibson L5) Great Jazz player
• Chuck Berry used an ES-350T early in his career, later switching to ES-345s and ES-355s.
• Dickey Betts (The Allman Brothers Band) uses a variety of Gibson models including a 1961 SG and a 1957 Les Paul.
• Mike Bloomfield (The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, The Electric Flag) During his tenure with the Butterfield Blues Band he used a 1954 Gibson Les Paul, which he used for some of the East-West sessions. In due course, according to biographers Jan Mark Wolkin and Bill Keenom, Bloomfield swapped that guitar for a 1959 Les Paul Standard and $100. This was the guitar Bloomfield used as a member of the Electric Flag, and on the Super Session album and concerts. He later veered between the Les Paul and the Fender Telecaster, but Bloomfield's use of the Les Paul, as did Keith Richards' with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton's with John Mayall influenced many others to use the model. Bloomfield eventually lost the guitar in Canada; Wolkin and Keenom's biography revealed a club owner kept the guitar as partial compensation after Bloomfield cut short a round of appearances. Its whereabouts today are unknown.
• Marc Bolan (T.Rex) used Les Paul Standards, Customs and Flying Vs and a Japanese Hummingbird copy. His main Les Paul model was refinished in an opaque orange to resemble the Gretsch guitars played by his hero Eddie Cochran.
• Mick Box (Uriah Heep) uses a Les Paul Custom. Also used a 1958 double-cutaway Les Paul Junior, a Flying V and a 1968 SG with a Maestro tailpiece.
• Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown used various Gibsons including ES-335s and L5s. His main guitar was a late-60s non-reverse Firebird.
• Jack Bruce (Cream/solo) used several EB-3 basses during the late 1960s and early 1970s; during the 2005 Cream reunion concerts he used a 1950s EB bass.
• Buckethead (real name: Brian Carroll) uses several Les Pauls custom-made by Gibson which feature oversized bodies, 24-fret necks, dimarzio pickups and his trademark kill switch. They are usually all white. He is also known to own a modified Les Paul custom in alpine white with gold hardware.
• Sam Bush, a highly respected mandolin player, has been a mainstay on the Bluegrass circuit for over 35 years. Gibson produces a Sam Bush Signature model mandolin.