I love Gibson guitars. I really do. I’m fortunate enough to own a couple. I also enjoy window shopping cyber style by going to their website and looking at all the different models, more than a few of which I’d dearly love to include in my collection.
That all said, some of the special limited editions they come out with are a bit, shall we say, peculiar. Case in point, with text taken straight from their website plus a few comments by yours truly:
Ace Frehley “Budokan” Les Paul Custom
See? I'm not joking.
When KISS hit the stage at Nippon Budokan in Japan in 1977 with guitarist Ace Frehley behind a Cherry Sunburst, three-pickup Les Paul Custom, the entire package—band, guitarist, guitar—embodied the height of glam-rock excess and success for the ’70s. This was the ultimate marriage of pop and heavy rock, driven to meteoric heights by the record industry marketing machine, and ultimately attaining that otherworldly presence that great stadium rock should achieve: unbridled fantasy and party-hard reality rolled into one glorious explosion.
And I thought I had a problem with run-on sentences.
In celebration of Ace Frehley’s unquestionable status as a rock icon, and the epitome of glam-rock stardom that KISS represented at this crystalline moment in time in 1977,
“Crystalline” moment? Really? Is this anything like Crystal Bowersox?
Gibson Custom proudly announces the release of the Ace Frehley “Budokan” Les Paul Custom, produced in a strictly Limited Edition of 50 hand-aged guitars signed by the artist, with a further 100 hand-aged guitars, and 150 guitars treated in Gibson Custom’s VOS process.
And when you see the price, you’ll know why they’re so limited.
Offering everything you’ve come to expect from Gibson Custom’s artist replica guitars, the Ace Frehley “Budokan” Les Paul Custom is a painstaking recreation of Frehley’s modified Les Paul Custom, based on intimate examination of the instrument’s current condition.
Which somehow I doubt is pristine. Or even Christine Sixteen.
The Ace Frehley “Budokan” Les Paul Custom has been created with close cooperation between Gibson Custom, Ace Frehley and the guitar’s current owner, Matt Swanson. Digital scanning technology was used to capture every minute detail of the actual guitar.
Let’s see… strings, check; frets, check; razor blade scrapes on the back from when it was used as a table for snorting cocaine because there wasn’t a mirror handy, check…
In the image of the original Les Paul Custom, the guitar has a four-piece maple top glued to a mid-’70s “sandwich” body made from a middle and back section of solid mahogany joined by a thin maple veneer, with no chambering.
The technical term for this is “plywood.” Very, very heavy plywood, as anyone who’s ever picked up a ’70s Les Paul can attest.
The top is hand-sprayed in nitrocellulose to give it the same Heritage Cherry Sunburst finish as the original, with 150 hand-aged to match the wear of the existing guitar.
Because who wants a guitar that doesn’t look like it’s been the victim of being too close to Gene Simmons during his spitting fire routine?
The three-piece mahogany neck has been made made to match the original’s thin profile.
How nice how nice it’s been made made… or is that just talk talk… oops, wrong band.
Decorative elements include mother-of-pearl block fingerboard inlays, multi-ply body and headstock binding, mother-of-pearl Gibson headstock logo and split-diamond inlay, and a cream pickguard.
But Eric Clapton played a SG when he was in Cream!
To match Ace’s original guitar, the Ace Frehley “Budokan” Les Paul Custom is loaded
Just like Ace!
with three period-correct double-cream DiMarzio humbucking pickups—two PAF models in the neck and middle positions, and a Super Distortion in the bridge.
Translation: It has three pickups…
And just like on Ace’s guitar, the traditional 3-way toggle switch has been modified to only allow the use of the bridge pickup,
… only one of which works. The other two are there for high-priced decoration.
allowing you to be able to accomplish one of Ace’s most noted effects.
What, not being able to figure out how to use a toggle switch to select more than one pickup? Or the ol’ stick a smoke bomb underneath one of the pickups trick for which Ace was famous and is currently being used in worship bands across the land?
The DiMarzio Super Distortion pickup offers searing lead tones and fat, chunky rhythm for the ultimate hard-rock performance.
It’d better; it’s the only pickup that works.
Hardware includes the classic pairing of chrome ABR-1 bridge and stopbar tailpiece, with Ace’s choice of Grover tuners with pearloid “banjo” buttons and Dunlop straplocks to keep the guitar securely strapped on through the wildest on-stage antics.
At his age, getting on stage without a walker is as wild an antic as Ace can muster.
In short, the Ace Frehley “Budokan” Les Paul Custom is the ultimate embodiment of mid-’70s arena-rock balls and bluster, and it’s available in strictly limited numbers. Check it out today at your authorized Gibson Custom dealer.
Please.
All guitars include a Gibson Custom hardshell case silkscreened with Ace’s signature. Aged/signed guitars (limited to 50 worldwide) are all played by the artist during final approval, and include a leather-bound Certificate of Authenticity; aged guitars (100) include a leather-bound CoA, and VOS guitars (150) include a standard CoA.
Oh, well, that makes it all better then. A genuine Certificate of Authenticity!
And how much is this timeless brand new relic?
If you want the beat-up… er, aged one, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price is… drumroll, please…
$12,235.
The not beat-up one is a steal at $7,529.
Somehow I’m not seeing one of these ending up in my possession.
ROTFL
And I thought the four grand that Fender wanted for the fretless-conversion jazz bass that they made look like it had been abused by Jaco and run over by the tour bus at every stop was high.
I guess compared to a guitar with only one working pickup, it’s a steal!!!
How much is it for one that doesn’t include a painstaking recreation of Matt Swanson’s spit?
They make a 2250.00 one now also. Check Gibson website and Musicians Friend
Thanks for the tip. Most tempting!