One of the iconic 'Smoker' Les Pauls that were played by the late Ace Frehley on his final tours with Kiss is up for auction.
The Spaceman passed away aged 74 last month. His former bandmates paid tribute to him during an unplugged set over the weekend, and now the first piece of history-laced gear that is tied to Frehley is set to be sold.
The Gibson Les Paul, which was modified to house a smoke bomb in the neck pickup, was one of the final showman electric guitars that Frehley was famed for playing. There were a number of other "smoker" Les Pauls over the years, as well as one that fired rockets from its headstock, which was auctioned off in 2022.
Frehley's first smoky Les Paul was debuted in 1975, but this model was used on the road with Kiss between 1999 and 2001 on the Psycho Circus and (premature) Farewell tours, which proved to be the guitarist's final tours with the group.
As reported by Rolling Stone, the sale is being handled by Gotta Have Rock and Roll, and the auction is due to go live today (November 19) with a minimum price of $100,000 set. The same auction house shifted Randy Rhoads' Quiet Riot Les Paul in July. It will run until December 5.
“I first came up with the idea of doing the smoking guitar on our very first tour; I used to light it with a cigarette lighter, but it ended up screwing up all the volume and tone controls,” Frehley previously told Cassius Morris. “So I got together with an engineer, and he made a fake pickup, and we used asbestos so the heat of the bomb wouldn't harm the wood.”
As Kiss’s budget grew, the mod got more sophisticated. Early on, a phantom-powered light bulb was placed in the neck pickup cavity, which plugged into his pedalboard and could be operated by a tech backstage. Later, guitars would be fairly extensively hollowed out to make space for a battery-powered device, which Ace could control by using the controls for that pickup.
Visit Gotta Have Rock and Roll to find out more.
Tributes to Frehley have been wide-reaching, with Tom Morello saying he owes the guitarist a “life debt” for his influence, while Justin Hawkins remembered a musician with a wicked sense of humor.
Guitar World correspondent Andrew Daly, who grew close with his idol over the years of interviews, also looked reflected on the guitar icon and his legacy.
