(The number of replicas that have turned up over the years is a clear indication of the bass' truly iconic status.) During one interview, the rockstar was asked if he admired anyone else more than himself. Just because Gene was a part of the scene doesnt mean that he took part in everything that came his way. Overview. Cause & Effects: Are vintage effects pedals always the best examples of their type. Talking with legendary rock 'n' roll musician, Gene Simmons, one thing becomes clear pretty quickhe likes a good thrill. The LoBue worked tirelessly night in and night out and didn't go through any changes except the wear and tear of heavy use. The bass(es) were high-gloss black with white trim and a very distinct "point" on the back where the body finish met the unfinished neck (see further down). And don't worry - Kiss isn't gonna pull a Mtley Cre on you and . As far as video evidence goes it first appears in the opening credits of KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (see below). Now, depending on the pic and the angle the new pickup doesn't look quite like itself: at times it looks grayish and with barely discernible pole pieces, and other times it looks black with large and obvious pole pieces. Why? Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). We get an excellent close-up of it in the instrument line-up pic from Knoxville but live shots seem to be lacking. Bath Once the band starts making personell changes at the turn of the decade Gene moves to Spector #2 as his main bass. In the early-early years of KISS, he favored a Charlie LoBue bass ( photos ); this was a custom bass guitar made by Charlie. Name: Frank Benpensata From: Staten Island, NY USA First Backstage Bass Experience: Wizard World Comic Convention What I remember most: Getting a private meet and greet with Gene's at his hotel in New York City.This was the night before the NYC Vault Experience in 2018. The result? The jury is out on that one. 2023 Guitar.com is part of NME Networks. If there is one thing that many of us have learned, its that Gene Simmons knows a good business opportunity when he sees one. The pair have been together since 1983, with Gene telling People that theyve been happily unmarried most of that time. Pictures showing the back of the LoBue are very few but over the course of 1976 there were a few. There was little change as the band headed into 1974 and started on what would turn out to be a lifetime of heavy touring. Okay, its not always simple to figure out how much someone is worth, especially when their name is tied to a well-known company or, in this case, a band. (My guess is that the P-bass pickup was added when it was painted black.) It looked cool on a piece of paper so I thought it would look cool as a bass., The Axe has become such an integral part to not only KISS, and Genes Demon character, but Gene Simmons himself. Lets face it; its no secret that some of our favorite celebrities have worked through some pretty mundane jobs before making their way to the top. Since neither of the Gibson basses worked out, even though Gene certainly tried to honor the endorsement for the better part of 1975, I think it's safe to assume that long-scale basses (only the EB-0 and the Triumph were short scale) weren't to Gene's liking at the time. Apart from those changes it appears identical to the Jackson right down to the black tuning pegs. We now know that Gene Simmons doesnt always have the most popular opinions on people who use illegal substances. It seems its something Genes kept up ever since. The pickup becomes a Gibson EB-0 style, something that Gene had experimented with before (the Fender he used during the Wicked Lester days) and it would be the last pickup change for the LoBue. Whatever the case, it wasnt long before Gene Simmons had something to say about it all. It might be no surprise that he doesnt always have nice things to say about fallen stars, including Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain. There are people that want to leave a legacy and are concerned with what is said about them after theyre gone. [*] Much later Gene would remember it a little differently: "So he made me a one of a kind natural wood custom made bass, no name, no nothing." It looked as though he was all set to reach the big time as it wasnt long before his work gained plenty of fans worldwide. . Now, 46 years later, he and Gibson are teaming up for G2, a new line of basses and guitars announced this past week during the NAMM conference. Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; Hebrew: , [aim vits]; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician.Also known by his stage persona the Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss in the early 1970s. Ice Cubes group, N.W.A., was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It looks as though Gene Simmons has plenty of opinions that he wants to share with the world, but not all of them have landed. According to Gene "the original one was made by Valdez here in Los Angeles, and I still have it around here somewhere". Add in a healthy dose of compression or overdrive, as well as some heavily repeating delays, andits hard not to picture a possessed Simmons spitting out blood infront of you, screaming Oh yeah! before attacking that open low note in God Of Thunder. Switching to just the bridge pickup, theres a huge shift in the midrange and a noticeable drop in the low-end thats perfect for chords or riffs that need less sonic boom and more snarl, such as Simmons opening lines to Love Gun and Shout It Out Loud, played higher up the neck on the first string. Since this all-black Spector shows up with both sets of replacement knobs it was re-finished early on. Heading to a Kiss concert is about more than listening to some of your favorite tunes. The passing of time has proved fruitful for Kiss' 1982 . This is one of first Gene Simmons (KISS) signed Axe Basses made available to the public. I don't often have a lot of good things to say about . The bassist will bring back the Gene Simmons' Axe MasterClass for fans . One person in particular had plenty to say as Ice Cube took to social media, which started a pretty heated feud between the two. Or maybe the rather strange decision to use the Axe for a song like Reason to live during the Crazy Nights tour drove home the point that the Axe was a somewhat odd fit for the image at the time. It's only got one pickup with one dial for volume, one for tone; you can either turn it up or down. The earliest known date for this is from Uniondale 79.09.01. Though he speaks measuredly . The bass icon on bass rigs, riches and 50 years of music. Perhaps youve found yourself wondering how Gene could have landed himself in such hot water when talking about immigration as he and his family immigrated to the US when he was a child? This one-of-a-kind instrument recently (Oct 2005) sold on Ebay for $29, 995. It seems thats what some people think, especially when looking at old footage of The Demon of Kiss. Kiss's always-colorful bassist reflects on how he and Paul Stanley wrestled with the band's identity - and Vinnie Vincent's unorthodox, fleet-fingered ideas - on Creatures of the Night, 40 years on. The Les Paul Triumph bass, actually designed by Les Paul himself, had been introduced in 1971 as a successor to the Les Paul bass. Long believed to be a prototype for a possible Gibson Gene Simmons signature guitar, this bass is actually a heavily modified 60's Gibson EB-0. My bass is the only musical instrument that is an invention., Jokes abound about the level of KISS merchandise available, but the reality is that Simmons was ahead of his time in terms of understanding how to monetise and control his image and legacy, and trademark ownership has played a big part of that. In contrast, Spector #2 takes a serious beating throughout (the pics below span the entire tour). Find out more about how we test. However, it wasnt long before people learned that he was talking about the hand gesture he was pulling at the time. 1980. Perhaps the black blade wasn't quite "axe-like" enough because it was summarily refinished a matte silver by 79.06.20 when the promo videos were shot in Savannah. In Atlanta 76.08.29 it's still mk VI but for the start of the Winter Tour in Savannah 76.11.24 the new bridge is in place. The SB-1 had a mini switch, something that none of Gene's Spectors have and it would be easy to assume that his instruments were simply built without one. The Serial Number for this Gene Simmons KISS: PUNISHER Bass Guitar is: #00896. There is no evidence of the Thunderbird actually being used on stage during the Love Gun tour but for the Alive II tour it shows up in a limited number of pictures. If one is to believe the quote from Gene above it may just be locked away in storage since it didn't surface for the auction. All in all, this first offering from G2 delivers on virtually every front, from the dazzling black diamond aesthetic through to playability and versatility. The bass touts a mahogany body with a bolt on C shaped maple neck and rosewood fretboard with a 15 radius. Gene Simmons VaultCast Episode 1. Its one thing to be in a band. Gene tapped Valdez Guitars to build the first one, then Steve Carr built a few, as did Kramer, Jackson, and Cort. It even has the original pickup right up to the end of 1980. All the latest gene simmons celebrity news, videos, and more. For the better part of the Spirit Tour '76 the LoBue retains the mk VI look. Watch Marty Friedman play with Megadeth again, Journey and Steve Lukather play Black Magic Woman. The technical info on the EB-0 is taken from the January 2007 issue of Vintage Guitar (also avilable online). which run through July of 2022 at present. The most high-profile appearance during 1984-1986 is in Animalize Live Uncensored where it gets taken for a spin for Gene's solo spot. My theory is that all of these (with the exception of the already heavily modified EB-0) were endorsement instruments that were either pure backups or ones that Gene tried to make into his kind of bass. There is a bass resembling the Grabber, based on the headstock, standing offstage in a pic from 76.02.01, in. It seems Gene will live to spit blood another day. Though the marriage only lasted for a few years, Gene Simmons her only son was born in . (Also seen in Lund, Sweden. It usually means the artists miss out on the profits and can have some pretty huge effects. Before that, the beautiful acoustic instrument had . He decided years ago that she'd already been through enough having survived the horrors of the Holocaust, and he didn't want to break her heart by becoming a drug addict. Spector #2 was also a part of the traveling circus that was The Return of KISS but it doesn't seem to have gotten much action. As seen in the pictures below, all taken from the first month of the Love Gun tour, there is an "irregularity" in the finish below the volume knob that can't be explained by a reflection or a shadow. I have a very large ego, dont wonder about that! [*] The shape of the bass was indeed completely original in that it was custom shaped but it wasn't an original design. The one below from Cleveland 79.07.19 is the only one I've found that is actually from 1979. The two Gs have teamed to launch G - a whole range of electric guitar and bass . Sadly, Steve Carr passed away in 2006 which probably means that this part of the Axe story will forever be shrouded in mystery. The body of the instrument is shaped like the . Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. This mkV version stays unmolested for the remainder of 1979, the last photographic evidence being from 79.12.06. The imposing imagery the Axe inspires would lead many to believe that it is purely a stage instrument, but it was used extensively in the studio through the years as the tonal properties were always a priority. This version of the bass was Gene's #1 bass more or less from 1973 until the summer of 1975 when he started altering it. As Simmons explains, "because I owned the name and the design, it qualifies as an invention in the library of congress. Various production versions of the instrument often feature pickup configurations and tone controls that offer a wider tonal palate, but Gene doesnt want anything getting in the way, and so his personal versions feature just a volume control. Perhaps most importantly of all, its a bass thats tailor-made for conjuring this larger-than-life characters earth-conquering tones. The Kramer Axe was fine for playback but for one of very few live TV performances (the first one since 1974?) Although he has a huge net worth and plenty of income from his Kiss brand, Gene Simmons isnt in the top richest people in the world. 10 young bluesbreakers who are making the Blues fun again, Maybe Id move to Japan and try and be an English teacher! Mastodons Bill Kelliher on the future of the band, his love of Les Pauls and what hed do if he wasnt in the band. "Kiss was born on 23rd Street. Ever the savvy businessman, Simmons ended up trademarking the term "Axe" as it refers to a musical instrument, as well as the shape of the bass. Exact year is unknown but Gibson transitioned to this body type in 1961. Roland 555 space/echo (for solo) controlled by manipulating the intensity and . What one can argue is that it seems highly unlikely that a rear output jack would be placed on the upper part of the body, far away from the rest of the electronics.). All of his business-savvy moves and investing in several companies, such as a financial company, a restaurant chain, and a sports team, means hes earned quite the fortune over the years. And then we come to the "how many Spectors" issue. G, from Gene to Gibson, will introduce new collections of right and left-handed electric guitars and basses across . The following day, Fox News announced that Gene had been permanently banned from the studios, with some reports claiming there is a photo of Gene behind the security desk to ensure he never sneaks in. That one night he dropped it and the neck broke in half." It's not immedeately obvious but if one looks closely at the pics below there are pieces of tape that are there to hold it in place. Gene Simmons went through the folder compiled for him, containing approximately 100 pages. One of the many things that fans often cant wait to see is Gene Simmons performing his famous blood-spitting routine. That was until the wires got stuck and what was supposed to be a graceful rise into the air turned into something almost pretty dangerous. The neck has pearl diamond inlays just like Gene's, and the detail in the paint and set up is just like the Demons. Gene Simmons's new haircut. [**] In a 2013 interview at G-Club in Tokyo Gene threw another wrinkle to the story of the LoBue's demise, this time suggesting that he used the bass on stage in 1982 when he fell off the front of the stage, cracked the neck and promptly gave the pieces to a member of the audience. Whether or not the change to the new bridge occured earlier than Cobo Hall 76.01.25 is anybody's guess. Guitar World is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. It's still there in St- Louis 76.12.04 but by 76.12.11 in Pembroke Pines it's been reduced to, well, almost nothing. On the other hand it was listed in the Butterfields auction without the name of the luthier and it was suggested that it dated from the 1983 Creatures tour (which there is no evidence for, the Axe used on that tour was a Kramer). In fact, his passion for comic books even helped to inspire The Demon that we see at Kiss shows as Biography reports Gene shaped his character on Marvels Black Bolt. The Axe is one of the most recognisable and distinctive signature instruments ever, but you wont get Simmons wasting time worrying about the enduring legacy of his favourite bass. With so little video evidence from this part of the tour it's hard to say whether these are two different pickups or just the trick of light and angles but considering the next (and later) developments I'm going to put my money on the light/angles hypothesis. It turned out the bass player wanted to trademark the devil horns sign. Right after the guitar was purchased, it was immediately packed in its hard case along with all of the items the guitar came with, which included: The Certificate of Authenticity, the original Gene Simmons hard . She wanted to make sure her music was on the hottest playlists at the time and wouldnt rest until she got the results. On the other hand, Gene seems to think hes a part of the One percent as he confessed to being one of the wealthiest people out there during an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune. His wife, Canadian actress and 1982 Playboy Playmate of the Year Shannon Tweed, just shelled out $5.8 million for a Malibu . It has a twin horn, small body, with one DiMarzio pickup." However, it was his time as an assistant at Vogue and Glamour magazines that could have led to a very different career. I originally thought that the natural satin finish, introduced in 1975 and seen in this well-known footage from San Fransisco 75.01.31, was Gene's first which was later re-finished but he actually had two Grabbers on the road with him and he used both during the Winterland show. It turned out that some people thought the reason Incarnate was doing so well was all because Nick allegedly stole ideas from other major mangas. The prior owner believed this to be a late '90s, and when comparing with other listings on Reverb that appears to hold true. As a subscriber enjoy big savings off the shop price! Thank you for reading 5 articles this month*, US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year, UK pricing 2.99 per month or 29.00 per year, Europe pricing 3.49 per month or 34.00 per year, *Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription. What we can say for sure is that it is black with a new pickguard by 75.11.07 and then emerges backstage in Toledo on 75.11.12 sporting a P-bass pickup. Jan 11, 2009. so I read an article years ago where it talked about gene simmons' live rig, but i couldn't find any info anywhere and the magazine is long gone, so I spoke with his tech Spike and he said basically this is it: 1 SVT-2 Pro. Sadly, the truth isnt quite so exciting as Gene apparently discovered he had an impressively long tongue when he was 13 years old and realized it was a hit with the ladies. Then came the aftermath. The luthier and Gene's fellow NYC resident (whom Gene describes as a consummate craftsman, something he feels is missing in today's world), would build Gene his first custom bass. Length: 42 in, Width: 14.5 in, Depth: 1.5 in. The offstage shot also gives us the first look at the tape coverup of the original bridge holes as discussed below, thus beginning Gene's long use of tape coverups. First off there is no Thunderbird logo visible in the few pics showing the white pickguard version which means that it's probably a replacement. Custom Charlie LoBue bass built for Gene Simmons of KISS. By Roy Kaddosh. It's akin to a Thunderbird bridge but appears to be slightly larger. Once you do, the ceramic magnets in the Rhythm and Lead T-Bird humbuckers pack a powerful and immediate response, with no shortage of punch and depth, making for a bass that sounds, much like the American groups landmark 1975 release, truly alive. Strings - Lutes - Guitars. Simmons estimates hes sold about 10,000 instruments over the past 10 years. The entrepreneurial bassist recently reaffirmed his belief that "rock is dead . and I am certainly no expert on any of those instruments. One can also see that the material under the studs is completely different from the rest of the bass. Below are pictures detailing the rather slight differences between them. Shannon Tweed - Now His. - Hard Shell Gene Simmons fitted bass case signed by Gene Simmons. Although he managed to get it back up and running, the group quickly took Gene down again to try and take away his voice on the matter. This is the first of many ways in which the G partnership will be paying tribute to Gene, his iconic status, and continue to inspire new generations of Gibson and Gene Simmons fans to play and create music.". And for the Valdez Axe that's all she wrote. Or why not treat yourself? 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