Gibson Gene Simmons G2 Thunderbird: The web says This is a premium instrument for players who are serious about making fun music. MusicRadar verdict: The G2 Thunderbird is a beast of a bass guitar for unleashing your inner rock animal, and there are hidden depths in those tones, too. It’s not cheap, but then it is a US-made Gibson, and it is one solid and seaworthy instrument. Or, just push your bass amp to the point of furry break up, hit the lights, and get on with the business of rocking out. You can have hours of fun jamming Kiss standards.Īlternatively, you can start messing around with those individual pickup controls, using them to dial in a blend of rhythm and lead pickups, and finding some nice off-menu surprises, like Motown thump, jazzy woodiness, or even – if you set the EQ just right on your bass amp and ablate those mids – there’s borderline slap on the menu, which could be just the thing for the faux disco of I Was Made For Lovin’ You. Of course, a bass bearing Gene Simmons’ name would be expected to deal in his trademark tones, and while this is not the Grabber or Charlie LoBue model that those of us weaned on Alive! era Kiss would first associate Simmons with, it has all those classic sounds on tap. Many players will tell you that ebony helps with this snappy attack. The sounds are familiar and although it’s not suited to all musical genres or playing styles, the 4003 remains a classic. This is an understated bass in a cool, classic way, and much of its history and mystique is still in place. And as with the G2, you need not be a fan to get on board with its charms. This is a rare photo of Gene playing the RipperĬlick the picture below to see the page dedicated to just the Grabber and Ripper.The Rush frontman and bass legend's signature Jazz is one of the finest of the type you can buy. The pickups on the Ripper where not movable The big difference from a Grabber was that the Ripper had 2 humbucking pickups and not one. The Ripper was black and had a set neck and a normal Gibson headstock. The Ripper was totally different beast than a Ripper. Now the Ripper bass was a different matter. After looking around for a few minutes I saw a link saying Ripper, I click it and what do I see but a picture of what looks like a Grabber with only 1 pickup. (Now here is a interesting thing, I was looking over the Gibson web site for more information on the Grabber and Ripper and here is what I found out. One of the coolest features the Grabber had was a movable pickup. One of them was black the other was a dark red. They had a shorter neck than normal and had bolt on necks with pointy headstocks. Both of them were very heavy bodied bass but had a good solid design. This is one part that a lot of people have gotten confused with over the years by saying he received a "Ripper" or a "Grabber". Gibson gave KISS many free guitars and basses around this time. I also don’t know when this video was shot but if you do please E-Mail me. Later on he had the fingerboard replaced. This bass also was originally a natural wood color but was painted black around Hotter Than Hell and a year later white binding was added on the top of the guitar. This bass was the main if not the only bass used on KISS and Hotter Than Hell then it was used along side the 2 Gibson Grabbers and the 1 Ripper for Dressed To Kill. Gene used this bass up to Love Gun when it was more or less stolen. He was also using 1 hum bucking pickup in this bass and use hum bucking pickups for the next few years. Picking the string by the bridge gives off a higher sound that picking in front of the pick up. I have seen very FEW pictures of him playing (live and not in a video) without a bridge cover. Gene plays with his hand resting on the bridge and had a bridge cover put on this bass and ALL of his basses to come. The first prototypes of the Punisher would be very similar to this one (Charlie also made 2 custom guitars for Paul one of them being a flying V around the same time and both of them would be stolen) You can see the odd shaped neck joint on this bass. It was with him from the early days of KISS all the way to Love Gun. This bass would be Gene’s #1 bass for as long as he owned it. He took $150 of the $300 and had Charlie Lobue make him a custom bass. He had gotten it for just $150 and sold it for $300 to a man named Steven Stills. The bass that would take the place of Epiphone would be a Fender P bass. At some point in the studio it was stolen. Thanks Mick)Īround the time of Wicked Lester Gene owned an old Epiphone bass. I would not have been able to get all the info I did if it wasn’t for Mick. Mick from Radioactive has been very helpful. (Note: I have put this page together with information from a Gene Simmons fan site called Radioactive.
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