As I mentioned on "The 300 Story" page, the Ace Frehley Signature Les Paul first hit Gibson's drawingboards in late 1996. Initially, it was uncertain which platform they would use to re-create Ace's signature model. This is evident in the form of one of the two prototypes that were built. Both of these prototype guitars were hand-built, by Gibson's master luthier, Phil Jones. These are some comments, directly from Phil, on the story ...
"I did make 2 by hand, for the engineers to back-engineer and produce for the Ace Frehley model. Of course, the neck and body blanks were produced by the custom shop, and I added the features on it - the fingerboard, with the hand made inlays ... the head veneer with the hand made inlays. They setup the CNC routers to subsequently rout and produce in quantity, replicas of the ones I made by hand and also other appointments Ace had in mind, for his signature model. The first 2 were indeed hand done, as were other signature models, or reissue models I did as the master luthier for Gibson, at the custom shop. I think perhaps Ace kept the first one, as it hasn't surfaced in the public sector, to my knowledge".
- Phil Jones former Master Luthier at Gibson and Gruhn's Guitars
* Note - Phil knew the second guitar, ACE 2, had made it's way through the public sector as it had been part of the inventory at Gruhn's Guitars, in Nashville, for a period of time in the late 1990's and early 2000's.
These two prototype guitars have inked on serial numbers as ACE 1 and ACE 2, respectively. ACE 1 is actually built on the Les Paul Custom platform and ACE 2 is built on the Les Paul Standard platform. These two guitars were rolled out at the winter NAMM show in January, 1997, to gauge response from the retailers and use that to finalize which platform to use. The Les Paul Custom platform was the overwhelming favorite and that's why we have the guitars we have today. Unlike "The 300" which immediately followed these guitars; the prototypes were built with chrome Grover tuning machines, with chrome buttons, a chrome Nashville Tune-o-matic bridge and a chrome stop bar tailpiece. They came with a DiMarzio Super Distortion (DP100) pickup in the bridge position and DiMarzio Dual Sound (DP101) pickups in the middle and neck positions.
"The first 20 production instruments were included in his deal with Gibson, so he could give them to his friends. The first 2 were indeed hand done, as other signature models, or reissue models I did as the master luthier for Gibson, at the custom shop".
- Phil Jones former Master Luthier at Gibson and Gruhn's Guitars
The one point Phil mentioned above, that is a little off the mark, is the number of guitars that were given to Ace, once the initial building process had begun. Excluding the prototype, ACE 1; there were actually only 13 guitars that went to Ace and not 20, as he thought.
This first group of guitars ... all 13 of which were given to Ace as part of his contract ... have a unique serial number sequence inked on, as AFS 001 through AFS 013. In reality, these guitars bare very little difference between themselves and any one of the "The 300". The only differences being the obvious, serial number sequence and the not-so-obvious, fretboard inlays. On the AFS guitars, they're done with sterling silver and not the plastic, pearloid, used on all the other Ace Frehley models. The cases are the typical, Gibson Custom Shop variety and they contained an uninstalled pickguard and a standard, Gibson, pre-pack checklist card.
By mid-2009, at least 4 of the AFS series of guitars had hit the public sector
(AFS 008, AFS 010, AFS 011 & AFS 013). An interesting point about the AFS series of guitars is that they had DiMarzio Super Distortion DP100 pickups, in all three positions. And the neck and middle pickups weren't even wired up. They look as though they were taken out of the DiMarzio box, set into the pickup ring and mounted into the body of the guitars.
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Prototype ACE 2 Details
Prototype - ACE 2
ACE 2 - Some of the close up details found on the first two prototype guitars
Above - AFS 008 owned by my good friend, Nathan Westergreen
AFS 011 - In early 2009, this guitar was for sale at Guitar Center,
in Manhattan.
Originally listed for $41,000.
Ace Frehley and AFS 010 backstage at The Viper Room, in Los Angeles, on 12Sep09. Slash used this guitar, a little later that night, during a live performance of "Cold Gin".
The day after the show, it was sent to join it's new owner, my good friend,
Jeff Donahoe.
AFS 010 Model Details
AFS 010 - Notice that only the bridge volume pot, in the lower left position is wired with a pickup wire (the black wire on the top of the the pot). The pickup and pot are both still wired to the toggle switch (the two silver wires, also wired to the top of the pot).
September 12, 2009 - Los Angeles, CA
"Cold Gin" & "Black Diamond" outtro - Ace Frehley
& Slash playing AFS 010
...
All the pickups are DiMarzio Super Distortion DP100s
