Albert King

Albert King played guitar upside down and left-handed on a right-handed instrument — never restrung — and produced a string-bending style so physically brutal and tonally unique that it influenced Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix in ways they freely acknowledged. His primary guitar was a Gibson Flying V he called Lucy. His tone through a Acoustic 361 amplifier was massive and warm, and his slow, deliberate vibrato became the most copied technique in blues guitar. Stax Records recordings from the late 1960s — particularly Born Under a Bad Sign — are the definitive document.