Ace Frehley had simple tastes in gear. A Gibson Les Paul plugged into a dimed Marshall amp and that was enough to get his rockets blasting – metaphorically, yes, but also quite literally, because the late Spaceman was also a player who liked, who needed, guitars less ordinary.
Here we celebrate five of them, some of which are the most dangerous electric guitars we have seen. And what is rock ’n’ roll without a little danger?
1973 Tobacco Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Deluxe
It's long been rumored that Frehley auditioned for Kiss with a late-Sixties Gibson Firebird in nasty condition. And once he'd entered the fold, he reportedly recorded the band’s debut record with an Ovation Breadwinner.
Whatever. By February 1974, the Spaceman had found a gorgeous Tobacco Sunburst ’73 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe at Manny's Music in NYC. Frehley's first single-cut had mini humbuckers when he bought it, but Frehley quickly swapped them for a combination of full-sized DiMarzio Super Distortion/Dual Sound pickups.
The ’73 LP had Kluson double-bar tuners, a pancake body composed of four-ply maple and mahogany, and a three-piece maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard.
At some point, Frehley contoured the heel with a screwdriver, making it extra comfy, until he all but retired the guitar in 1976.
1976 Cherry Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Custom, AKA “The Budokan Guitar”
While it's been rumored that Frehley's ’73 Deluxe had been stolen, the truth is he painted it black, didn't like it, and then turned it into a double-cut. The result? It was time for a new guitar.
Ace went back to Manny's and nabbed a ’76 Les Paul Custom with a distinctive two-pickup look; Frehley added a “dead” middle pickup because he “liked the look of it.”
Again, the stock humbuckers were discarded, with Frehley opting for DiMarzio Super Distortions as he felt they gave him a “hotter sound.”
Now brandishing the guitar that’d become synonymous with the Kiss sound/aesthetic, Frehley hit the road for some of the largest shows of the band’s career, sporting it in Japan (where it was dubbed his “Budokan Guitar”), Europe, and the U.S. Frehley would use guitars modeled after his ’76 Les Paul well into Kiss’s Reunion era and beyond.
1977 Black Les Paul Custom, AKA “The Smoker”
Frehley first developed the idea for what became known as “The Smoker” in 1976 and reportedly used a Black ’76 Les Paul Custom. Ever the mad scientist, Frehley is said to have modified the guitar himself. While the guitar initially acted as intended, the homemade electronics eventually proved faulty.
The Spaceman gave it a second go in ’77 using another Black Les Paul Custom. This time, the guitar and its hot-wired innards held up, seeing that the ’77 version stuck around through the Seventies and into the early Eighties.
So yeah, it held up, but that didn't mean “The Smoker” was safe. To keep himself from being burned by the gobs of smoke spewing from the guitar's middle dummy pickup during the Shock Me solo, Frehley installed a cardboard shield. It's worth noting that his smoking guitar returned during the Reunion era, along with another insane guitar – a ’57 Gibson Black Beauty that shot rockets – which we’ll get to later.
Late-Fifties Les Paul Special (TV Yellow), AKA “The New York Groove Guitar”
As far as we can tell, the exact year of Ace Frehley's infamous “New York Groove” light-up guitar is unknown. But we know Frehley took what would now be considered a sacred guitar – a late-Fifties TV Yellow Les Paul Special – and had the face routed to hold upwards of 1,000 incandescent lights. This was before the advent of LEDs, so Frehley went with bulbs powered by a Ni-Clad battery pack, leading to a mostly reliable unit.
To be sure, the guitar was the brainchild of Frehley, but instead of doing it himself, this time he solicited the services of Milton Bradley toy designer John Elder Robinson. The guitar first surfaced in 1979 while on the Dynasty tour and was exclusively used by Frehley when playing New York Groove from his ’78 solo record.
While generally reliable and certainly cool looking, the guitar wasn't always user-friendly, and the old-school lights often became red hot, leading to burns. In recent years, Frehley played an updated version of the guitar; it was decked out with battery-powered LEDs.
1957 Les Paul Black Beauty, AKA “The Rocket-Shooting Guitar”
It’s a bit unsettling to think that a 1957 Black Beauty was used in this way, but, hey, it’s legendary all the same. In Frehley’s early rocket-shooting days, he’d shoot bottle rockets from his headstock while tufts of smoke spewed from “The Smoker.”
Eventually, that wasn't enough, leading him to push the proverbial envelope. The most famous of his rocket-shooting Gibson Les Pauls would be the ’57 Black Beauty, which can be seen in Reunion-era videos on YouTube; examples include Tiger Stadium in 1996 and Madison Square Garden in 1997.
“The Rocket-Shooting Guitar” featured classic Grover kidney-bean tuners and Ace’s typical dummy middle pickup surrounded by DiMarzio Super Distortions. But this time, Frehley had Steve Carr design a double-barreled contraption that shot rockets at the ceiling of whatever venue he was playing at. Crazy, indeed – but effective.
- This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
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