This isn’t the post I was in the process of writing but as always inspiration strikes when one least expects it. There have been some recent rumblings about trying to figure out the pedigree of the black 3-pickup Les Paul Deluxe that Ace poses with on the cover of Alive!. I doubt that there will appear any new information any time soon but one never knows. Anyway, since I last looked at one aspect of this on my Instagram about 2-and-a-half years ago methinks it’s time to do it ”right” here and present just about every photo relevant to the story that’s available to me. Since we will be looking at four different versions of at least two different guitars, all of which are the same model, the reader will be forced to read stuff like ”Les Paul Deluxe” or blonde/natural Deluxe” a lot in this post. I tried to figure out some short-hand for the various versions/guitars but ultimately that seemed harder to follow.
I’ll start by presenting a slightly updated and, as far as it is possible, date-by-date version of the most prevalent theory regarding this guitar and support it with a large number of photos. Then I’ll look at the timeline regarding a few other guitars and how they fit in with the theory presented. Lastly we’ll see what possible alternative theories we can come up with. There will be a lot of educated guess-work and assumptions here, brace yourselves. So, analytical glasses on, here we go.
The Tate Theory
John Tate of acefrehleylespaul.com is probably the person who has looked most closely at Ace’s various Deluxes over the years. Personally I think that the way he structures the information on his site is a little hard to follow at times but here is my understanding of the Tate Theory regarding the black 3-pickup Les Paul Deluxe on the cover of Alive!. This will be a little more detailed than what’s available on John’s site due to the fact that I have a better collection of photos for some parts of this story, but since this is just a re-telling of John’s theory I’ve retained the basic outline and just fleshed it out with more information.
- On October 17, 1974 KISS played a small club in Comstock Park, Michigan called the Thunder Chicken. All of the photos from that night that include Ace show him playing a poorly finished Les Paul Deluxe that is probably black. I say probably because the lighting give all the photos a reddish hue that makes it hard to see what color this is really supposed to be. (The best we could have hoped for is to compare it to the only instrument on stage which we know was a true black finish: Gene’s backup Fender Precision. Alas, there are no good photos showing that bass except when J.R. Smalling is handling it in the background where it’s not hit by the stage lights in the same way as the Deluxe is.) The photos below show this supposedly black Les Paul Deluxe which looks, for lack of a better word, crappy. Comparing the headstock to the color of the body—and I think the headstock really does look black—I’m not convinced that this guitar is black (at this point anyway).
- John’s argument that the guitar in Comstock Park is actually black probably rests on the fact that there is a black Les Paul with white (or creme) pickup rings standing on Ace’s side of the stage the next night in Hammond, Indiana. The guitar seen below is assumed to be the same guitar as seen in the photo above. From a timeline perspective this makes sense. Not much time to find a second dark-colored Les Paul Deluxe with white/creme pickup rings in one day while also traveling from Michigan to Indiana.
- The black Deluxe then disappears as quickly as it appeared. In its stead comes a blonde/natural Les Paul Deluxe. In the timeline put forth by John Tate he only states that ”By early-November, this black Les Paul was gone and seemed to be replaced by a plain-top, natural finish, Les Paul with black pickups and black plastics”. That might be true but I also have the photo below. There’s no way anyone can confidently state that the apparition I’ve circled here is a anything specific, it’s just a guitar with a Gibson Les Paul shape. It’s light enough to show through this poor, dark photo so it obviously had a light finish. This could be the first sighting of the blonde/natural Deluxe but it doesn’t really matter. This slightly accelerated timeline doesn’t significantly alter the basic tenets of the Tate Theory.
- The first actual sighting of the blonde/natural Deluxe in November, the date that John Tate has based his timeline on, is when it’s standing backup on Ace’s side of the stage on November 7, 1974 in St. Louis, Missouri. (You might have to tilt the screen to see the circled guitar in these photos, they’re kind of dark.) It also shows up in Chicago, Illinois (not shown here) and on November 10, 1974 in Saginaw, Michigan.
- After that brief period in November 1974 the blonde/natural Deluxe disappears for about a month. And then what might be the blonde/natural Deluxe shows up again in Detroit, Michigan in late December. Again, kind of hard to tell but it’s a light-colored, dual-pickup guitar.
- Even though the blonde/natural Deluxe had to ”wait its turn”, it eventually got on stage. Below we see photos from South Bend, Indiana. On the left we see the blone/natural Deluxe standing ”at the ready” on Ace’s side of the stage. On the right we see the tobacco sunburst 1973 Les Paul Deluxe on the side of the stage which, even though the photo is far from conclusive, should mean that Ace is probably playing the blonde/natural Deluxe in that photo.
- Once we move into 1975 I’ve first spotted it on January 10, 1975 in Portland, Oregon where, again, Ace actually played it (not shown here), and the photo below which is from January 18, 1975 in San Bernadino, California. The blonde/natural Deluxe is also in the video from January 31, 1975 in San Fransisco, California. (I assume everyone has that one so I won’t link to any YouTube versions. Just check out Let Me Go, Rock ‘N Roll.) This month-long period from December 29 to January 31 is really the only time we get to see the blonde/natural Deluxe used on stage.
- The blonde/natural story then ends here, on February 20, 1975 in St. Louis, Missouri. These photos of the guitar standing on Ace’s side of the stage are the last ones I’m aware of, after this we only see other guitars on the side of the stage. (Or, if the theory holds, the modified version of this guitar). After this the band played relatively few shows—two more in February and then there were only 4 shows total in March (!)—so there is a long hiatus where any modifications could have gotten done. More of which later.
- After a long hiatus and the newly created black 3-pickup Deluxe shows up on April 6, 1975 in Washington, D.C. The modifications are a new poorly applied black finish, an added middle pickup, and white/creme pickup rings. This one date is the only time I’ve spotted Ace actually using this guitar on stage but there could be more. I’m also sure these are available in better quality in some circles since they’re Costello shots.
- Before we get to the iconic cover of Alive!, here’s a quick rundown of the photos of this iconic guitar that are available to me as of this writing.
- And then, finally, we end up at the photo shoot for Alive! on May 15, 1975. There were plenty of posed photos using the black 3-pickup Les Paul Deluxe but as I mentioned in a previous post that touched on the Alive! cover, there are a lot of outtakes in various constellations and for a lot of them Ace has his no. 1 tobacco sunburst 1973 Les Paul Deluxe.
On this date the band also shot the ”promo videos” for C’mon And Love Me and Rock And Roll All Nite and for both of those Ace wielded this iconic guitar.
So that’s the basic story. Poorly finished black Deluxe gets sanded down to blonde/natural and then gets re-finished black (again, poorly) and a third pickup is added. From a timeline perspective this looks reasonable. The black 2-pickup Deluxe and the blonde/natural Deluxe are never seen at the same time, they don’t seem to overlap at all. Same for the blonde/natural and the black 3-pickup Deluxe. The latter also appears after a long hiatus which coincides with Paul having his Firebird I re-finished black (and fitted with a full-size humbucker). It makes sense. So, with that out of the way let’s look at some additional info that seems to support this theory and some details that might suggest an alternate theory.
The Dan Armstrong
If we assume that the Tate Theory is correct then the period between the last photo of the ”black” Deluxe on October 18, 1974, and the appearance of the blonde/natural Deluxe on November 7, 1974 is where the guitar was sanded down and got new pickup rings. (I’ll ignore then possible October 25 photo here.) I’m going to make a sweeping declaration here and say that even though I don’t really have any really good photos of the blonde/natural Deluxe I think that the top looks a little too good to suggest that Ace or any of the road crew were the one who sanded it down. Any decently applied guitar finish will take some work to remove and even if Ace was prone to take matters into his own hands (see his re-shaping of the heel on his tobacco sunburst 1973 Les Paul Deluxe) it seems unlikely that the crew carried the necessary tools. That said, considering the craptacular look of the ”black” Deluxe in Comstock Park on October 17, 1974, that finish was obviously not original and it could be that the streaky and indescribable finish was Ace’s first attempt at applying a new finish. (Up until this time the Deluxe was only available in gold top or cherry sunburst.)
So let’s assume that the removal of the ”black” finish was left to professionals. Then we end up with a a fairly long period to be without a backup guitar. Fortunately there was a workable option available: Paul’s Dan Armstrong. This guitar—which seems to have been brought in to replace Paul’s custom LoBue V which got stolen during the Hotter Than Hell sessions—can be seen in a couple of photos dating from the period of this ”gap” in the black-to-blonde transition. It’s most obvious on October 27, 1974, in Youngstown, Ohio when Ace actually plays it.
Much less obvious, some would say not obvious at all, is this photo from Columbus, Ohio a few days later. However, there are very few guitars from the early 70s that have such a distinct headstock and a completely indistinguishable body. (Which is because it was clear lucite.) So for a brief period of time we see the Dan Armsgtrong but not any Deluxe as a backup. However, it’s important to realize that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the ”black” or blonde/natural Deluxe wasn’t part of the ”entourage”, it could only mean that it wasn’t caught by a camera during this time. In 1974 and ’75 KISS played a lot of small places where there simply wasn’t room to put the backup guitars on stage. And even if this Deluxe was standing on Ace’s side of the stage during this time, somebody still had to take a photo at the right angle to capture it. Simply put, a lot of things had to ”be right” for any backup guitar to end up in a photo. That said, the fact that the Dan Armstrong all of a sudden show up in photos just a few days apart could be taken as an indication that the band weren’t in possession of another working backup at the time because the ”black” Deluxe was having work done. Again, it fits.
The Gold Top Deluxe
Bet you didn’t see that one coming! I’ve played devil’s advocate with this before but truth be told, this particular guitar can be seen as a weak proof that the blonde/natural Deluxe was turned into the black 3-pickup. But first, this is a Gold Top Les Paul Deluxe that was standing on Ace’s side of the stage during the triumphant homecoming shows at the Beacon Theatre. Note that this particular Deluxe still has the original mini-humbuckers. I’m going to pile it on with photos of this guitar to make a point (well, two actually) so here are no less than five (!) photos of a guitar that most people have probably never even considered.
As an interesting added bonus the different position of the guitar in these photos might allow us to differentiate between the two different shows. We still won’t know which one is which, but it’s a nice little possibility. (Since neither Ace nor Paul were photographed with this particular guitar over the course of two sets, it doesn’t make much sense to re-position the guitar during one of the shows. Unless J.R. Smalling, who can be seen in some photos standing right next to the huge side monitors in a very dapper suit, moved it to get a better view.) Anyway, during the Beacon show Paul doesn’t play his beloved Firebird I so it’s generally assumed that it was away for its new paint job and getting a full-size humbucker during this time. (He played it in it’s original guise just two days earlier in Northampton, Pennsylvania.) Since we see a completely new backup guitar, the Gold Top Les Paul Deluxe, it makes sense to think that the blonde/natural Deluxe was also sidelined due to modifications that would turn it into the black 3-pickup Les Paul Deluxe. Or does it?
The reflector knobs
Go back and look at the run of photos from April 6 to May 6, 1975, above again. See that? When the black 3-pickup Deluxe showed up it had some very conspicuous knobs, nothing like the black speed knobs we see in the posed photos for Alive!. (Look at the photos of this guitar and you’ll see that the change to black speed knobs seems to have occured some time during the latter half of April.) The quality of the photos available to me from this period aren’t good enough to say this with confidence but my best guess is that the knobs on the black 3-pickup deluxe during April were gold reflector knobs. (They seem to have a distincly lighter top part which, for instance, the gold top hat knobs didn’t.)
As best as I can tell the blonde/natural Deluxe had black speed knobs but no matter what knobs they were, they sure weren’t gold reflector knobs. The last thing we saw that had that kind of knobs? The Gold Top Deluxe standing backup at the Beacon. True, that doesn’t really mean anything. Knobs can be changed at the drop of a hat—which did happen to the black 3-pickup Deluxe in early May—and, if we’re getting really nerdy and detailed, the ”black” Deluxe from October 17, 1974, also seems to have had gold reflector knobs. But adding gold reflector knobs when the blonde/natural Deluxe was aklready sporting black speed knobs? What do I know, it could have been to match the newly added creme pickup rings.
But what about the binding, you ask. Nice catch. I feel like a broken record but I really don’t have any good photos of the blonde/natural Deluxe. This one from Portland, Oregon and the one from San Bernadino, California shown above are really the only ones. If pressed I would say that both of them show a guitar with creme binding. This is obviously the same as on the black 3-pickup Deluxe but also the same as on the Gold Top Deluxe from the Beacon.
Interestingly it doesn’t look like the ”black” Deluxe from October 1974 had creme binding. You’ll remember these photos from earlier. The reader is free to call this what they will but I would certainly not call it creme binding. If anything, in the left photo here it looks as if there is black binding contrasting nicely with the mahogany body. But if you know your Les Pauls from this period you’ll know that black binding on either the Standard or the Deluxe really wasn’t a thing. What looks like black binding here is either a part of that god-awful paint job or somebody went through the trouble to alter the binding only on the body. (You’ll note that the original creme binding is still on the neck.) My vote would be that it was part of the paint job. Otherwise the possibly creme binding on the blonde/natural Deluxe takes some additional explaining.
The Les Paul Jr.
Personally I think that this guitar makes the Tate Theory slightly less convincing. If we assume that the trusted backup that had been with the band since October got a new look and became something Ace coveted, a 3-pickup Les Paul, why was it discarded almost immediately? It was there as a backup for a while but whenever Ace actually reached for a backup in May he chose a Les Paul Jr instead.
Even more curious, Ace had spent the better part of the day May 15, 1975 handling the black 3-pickup Deluxe both for the photo shoots and the video performances. And we have photo evidence that he handled it backstage before the show in Detroit, Michigan on May 16, 1975. (Ace seemed to prefer to tune his own guitars. There are a number of photos of him tuning up backstage all the way up to 1976.) But when it came time to hit the stage and record the coming live album, the backup that ended up on stage was the Les Paul Jr. Did the trusted blonde/natural Deluxe turn into a complete dud just by getting a new paint job and an added (and fake) pickup? It sure seems like it. When there was a date for pickup recording for Alive! in Davenport, Iowa on July 20, 1975, there is the Jr again. (It’s present a few times before then as well.) Meanwhile the black 3-pickup Deluxe is gone and never seen again.
Closing Thoughts
What this comes down to is really why it would be more reasonable to modify a trusted backup than a recent acquisition. If the Tate Theory is correct then this particular Deluxe was a backup for a grand total of 8 months, a virtual eternity in KISS backup guitar time during 1974-76. During that time a lot of guitars came and went in the band but this one guitar stayed, presumably because Ace liked it. And then, when it got modified to a look that he loved it was suddenly guitar non grata. Just like that. So why does that particular theory make more sense than Ace getting a new Gold Top Deluxe in March 1975 and deciding to turn that one into a black 3-pickup? The only real reason to favor the Tate Theory is really that it was the first one. At this point it isn’t backed by more hard evidence than my admittedly ad hoc about the God Top Deluxe.
There is of course one thing that could settle this type of query and that is really good high-resolution photos of both the blonde/natural Deluxe and the black 3-pickup Deluxe. (I doubt we’ll ever get even passable photos of the horrible ”black” Deluxe.) One of the good things about mother of pearl inlays are that they are kind of like fingerprints, no two are exactly alike. So if there is a fret that has a very distinct pattern—call it a flaw or imperfection if you will—one can identify a guitar based on that even after it’s been re-finished. I’ve already made clear the limitations of my collection regarding the blonde/natural Deluxe. When it comes to the black 3-pickup Deluxe I have some very good resolution photos but, as is often the case, they’re not exactly in focus when it comes to fretboard. For those that do have great photos of both guitars (if they exist) I think that there might be a minor detail about the 17th fret inlay that could be interesting to look at. Right in the middle of that inlay there seems to be a distinct darker band.
One last wrinkle before we shut this down. If he could help it, Ace did not get rid of guitars in the 70s. He barely used the Veleno Original yet it was still in his possession when he moved to Wilton and built Ace In The Hole. Dito for the Ibanez Destroyer he got from Paul in 1976 and played a lot during that spring. He never really used it but it was hanging with his armada of Les Pauls when his collection was photographed in late 1980 or early 1981. And this propensity to hang on to guitars makes this Gold Top Deluxe interesting. It’s from a shot in Ace’s original home studio and it is obviously quite possible that this is the same guitar that was standing on Ace’s side of the stage at the Beacon.
(For completist purposes: the Gold Top Les Paul that was standing in the live room of Ace In The Hole when it was photographed for the planned sale in 1981 is not this guitar. That one was a low serial number vintage Les Paul Standard with P90 pickups.)
Axeology Extended 