Ace Frehley

Biography

Ace Frehley was the original lead guitarist and a founding member of KISS, the makeup and pyrotechnics juggernaut he helped launch in New York City in 1973. Performing as the Spaceman, he gave the band much of its hard rock muscle, writing and playing solos that were loose, melodic, and unmistakably his own. His smoking, light shooting Les Paul became one of the most famous stage props in rock, but the playing underneath the spectacle was the real draw, full of bluesy bends and big, singable hooks. His 1978 solo album, released the same day as solo records by all four KISS members, was the most successful of the set and produced the hit New York Groove. After leaving KISS in 1982 he led Frehley's Comet and built a long solo career, returning for the band's 1996 reunion before stepping out on his own again. He died on October 16, 2025, at age 74, remembered as the guitar hero who inspired countless players to pick up the instrument.

Legendary Performance

"Shock Me" Guitar Solo, Alive II

August 28, 1977 · The Forum, Inglewood, California

Shock Me was the first KISS song Ace Frehley sang lead on, written after he was jolted by a faulty stage rig, and it became the launching pad for the most jaw dropping guitar feature in the band's show. On the Love Gun tour, captured for the 1977 live album Alive II, the song broke open into an extended solo where his Gibson Les Paul appeared to catch fire, belching smoke from the body before rockets shot from the headstock toward the lighting rig.

Underneath the smoke, the solo showed everything that made Frehley special: a loose, vocal phrasing, generous vibrato, and a knack for melodic lines that fans could hum long after the lights came up. He played with a swagger that felt spontaneous rather than rehearsed, leaving space and letting notes ring. For a generation of future guitarists, watching the Spaceman make his guitar smoke and sing on Alive II was the moment they decided to start a band.

Gear

Gibson Les Paul (the "Smoking" Les Paul) (1970s)

Known for: KISS live shows, the smoking and rocket firing Les Paul

Ace Frehley was a lifelong Gibson Les Paul man, and the model became inseparable from his image. He favored cherry sunburst Les Pauls, and his most famous instrument was a modified Les Paul fitted with smoke bombs, blinking lights, and small rocket launchers in the body and headstock for his Shock Me solo. Beyond the gimmicks he loved the Les Paul for its thick, singing sustain, which suited his melodic, bluesy lead style. He often ran a three pickup Les Paul loud and hard, chasing the fat, midrange rich tone that cut through the band's wall of sound. His DiMarzio pickups and later Gibson and Epiphone Ace Frehley signature models grew directly out of those stage worn Les Pauls.

Marshall Super Lead 100-watt stacks

Known for: KISS arena rock tone

Frehley powered his Les Pauls through walls of Marshall 100 watt stacks, the standard arena rock rig of the era. The non master volume Super Leads, pushed loud, gave him the natural overdrive and feedback he leaned on during long sustained notes and the smoking guitar solo. He typically ran a relatively simple chain into the Marshalls, trusting volume and the Les Paul to do the heavy lifting. The result was a big, brawny tone that filled hockey arenas without losing the clarity that let his melodic phrasing speak.

Echo and delay, wah, and on-guitar pyrotechnics

Ace's signal path was mostly about volume and a few well chosen effects. He used echo and delay to thicken his leads and a wah for expression, but his most famous effect was not electronic at all: the smoke, lights, and rockets built into his Les Paul. Those stage effects turned his guitar into a character in the KISS show, while the actual tone stayed rooted in Les Paul into Marshall simplicity.

Signature Technique

Melodic, Vocal-Style Lead Phrasing

Ace Frehley's playing was built on feel rather than flash. He approached the guitar like a singer, favoring melodic lines, generous vibrato, and phrases that left room to breathe, so his solos were memorable in the way a vocal hook is memorable.

His vocabulary drew heavily on the blues and on the British rock players he admired, but he filtered it through a looser, more spontaneous sensibility. He bent notes with a wide, expressive vibrato, slid into phrases, and was never afraid to repeat a simple idea until it became a hook. The solos on songs like Shock Me, Cold Gin, and Love Gun are compact and singable, the kind younger players could learn note for note.

He also had a strong sense of tone and dynamics, riding his volume and pick attack to move from a sweet sustain to a biting lead within the same phrase. He let feedback bloom on long notes and used space as a tool, trusting that a few well placed bends could say more than a torrent of fast runs.

His influence is enormous and direct. Countless hard rock and metal guitarists, among them Dimebag Darrell, Tom Morello, and Slash, have cited Frehley as the reason they picked up the instrument. The Spaceman proved that a guitar hero could be melodic, theatrical, and approachable all at once.