Ace Frehley Les Paul - Ace Without A Les Paul

Here's some pictures of some of Ace's other guitars, from over the years. There weren't too many of these oddities but they obviously weren't Les Pauls ! It's probably a good thing Ace didn't gravitate to some of these over the Les Paul, or Gibson might be building some really wierd stuff today !

1973 - An early '60's

Epiphone Coronet

1973 - Ovation Breadwinner

1975 - Travis Bean Aluminum Neck

1975 - Another early '60's

Epiphone Coronet

1975 - All aluminum

Veleno Traveler

There is a lot of debate about the make of the Explorers that Ace used in the '70's. Were they Gibson or Ibanez ? Here's your answer ... Both !!

In the 1970's, Ibanez was building guitars that were exact duplicates, in every way possible, to the higher-end Gibson and Fender guitars. Today, these are most commonly referred to as the Ibanez "Lawsuit" guitars. Ibanez was sued by Gibson and Fender and had to stop producing the guitar models in question.

Ace confirmed his main Explorer, in the mid-1970's, to be an Ibanez that he liked because of the grain of the wood. He stated that he covered the name on the head of the guitar with a small piece of electrical tape and installed DiMarzio pickups. Covering the manufacturer's name was a common practice for Paul and Gene with all their guitars, for many, many years, although Ace never did that with his Gibsons.

As I mentioned in the "History 1976 to 1977" chapter, the Explorer that Ace used on the Paul Lynde Show's Halloween Special, in October 1976, was a Gibson that they provided for the show, giving Gibson some very extensive (and expensive) TV exposure, at very little cost.

1973 - An early '70's

Ovation Breadwinner guitar