The Guitar Plugged · Guitarist Index
Ace Frehley
KISS / Frehley's Comet
1964–2025
Rock
The Spaceman who made a guitar solo something a listener could hum back.
Main guitar
Gibson Les Paul (including his smoking, light-firing stage models)
Signature sound
Thick Les Paul humbucker crunch with vocal bends and long, singing sustain
Era
1964–2025
Influence
88 / 100
Genre
Rock
Why they matter
The Spaceman who made a guitar solo something a listener could hum back.
Ace Frehley was KISS's original lead guitarist and a founding member alongside Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Peter Criss. He died on October 16, 2025, aged 74.
His strength was memorability. The solos on the classic KISS records are built from short, singable phrases, deliberate bends and sustained notes rather than dense technical runs.
His self-titled 1978 solo album, powered by 'New York Groove', showed his appeal reached beyond the band, and he continued releasing music for decades — Space Invader reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200 in 2014.
The sound
Thick Les Paul humbucker crunch with vocal bends and long, singing sustain
Shock Me
Mid-forward Les Paul crunch with plenty of sustain behind a relaxed vocal.
New York Groove
Tight, rhythmic guitar built around groove rather than lead display.
Detroit Rock City
Layered hard rock rhythm tone with a lead voice that cuts without thinning out.
Recreate the sound
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Style & technique
How you recognise the playing
Singable phrasing
Solos shaped like vocal melodies, easy to remember away from the guitar.
Bend-first vocabulary
Expression carried by the accuracy and pacing of bends rather than speed.
Repetition as tension
Short motifs repeated until the release lands.
Stage theatre
Smoking and light-emitting Les Pauls built into the performance.
The rig
Instruments, amplification and effects
- Gibson Les Paul Custom
- Gibson Les Paul Deluxe
- Custom smoking Les Paul
- Marshall stacks
- Echo/delay
- Wah
- Minimal pedal chains
- Humbuckers
Essential listening
Where to start
- 011977
Shock Me
KISS · Love Gun
- 021976
Detroit Rock City
KISS · Destroyer
- 031978
New York Groove
Ace Frehley · Ace Frehley
- 041978
Rip It Out
Ace Frehley · Ace Frehley
Career landmarks
The moments that mattered
1978
Ace Frehley (1978)
His solo album proved his appeal stood on its own.
2014
Space Invader (2014)
Reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200, decades into his solo career.
The legacy
Lineage
Influenced by
Influenced
Adjacent players
More from the archive
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The restless technician who kept reinventing what an electric guitar could be.
The master of the long note — space, sustain and perfect note choice.