First a little background info. When Gene Simmons decided in the early nineties to get his own model bass he listened carefully at what his fellow KISS members Paul Stanley and Bruce Kullick had to tell about a company called BC Rich with which KISS had a long standing business relationship. So with that in mind Simmons met up with the BC Rich management to talk about making a gene Simmons Signature model called "The Punisher"
Gene Simmons in 1992 with one of his Custom BC Rich Punisher basses.
The BC Rich Punisher as intended, should have featured a lone active EMG P-bass Pickup, a Leo Quann Badass bridge with a Fender style chromed brass cover, neck through body construction and would be autographed by Gene. Some of the Prototypes Simmons recieved were butt-ugly.
But the design was refined and Simmons played his BC Rich punishers on KISS' "Revenge" tour of the early nineties.
One of the Punishers Gene Used on tour. Another one had hot-rod flames and is apparentlly still in Simmons' possesion.
Around that time BC Rich also was working on a cost effective version which would have a bolt on neck and passive pickups. Before Simmons decided to pull the plug on the project and having a line of Punisher basses developed and built under his own name. Those Punishers basically are the same as the BC Rich model: Neck through body construction, badass bridge, EMG pickups. The difference being that the Gene Simmons branded Punisher had two pickups (although his personal basses have the J-bass pickup and the selector disconnected)
Anyway, the reason why I started this topic.
I found an auction of one of the prototypes of the cost effective version of the BC Rich Punisher.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350141117229 (edited to fix link -- Dave)
Let somebody please snap this one up, since I won't be able to get it myself.
