(http://globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/gene_simmons_shoving_a_bass_guitar_into_his_mouth.jpg)
Apparently, his Grabbers were good enough to eat. :mrgreen:
Without a Gibson truss rod wrench at hand, some people can get quite desperate!
Either that or maple syrup - is that kosher? - addiction can be a lifelong affliction. :mrgreen:
Gee, that Grabber can't be all that heavy...
I've got a picture of him eating a Les Paul Triumph somewhere too - just like beer, olives, and some of the other best things in life, Gibson basses are an aquired taste
Quote from: uwe on May 31, 2009, 07:32:23 PM
Without a Gibson truss rod wrench at hand, some people can get quite desperate!
But Uwe, that is the original Grabber with the rare one piece maple neck and skunk stripe on back.(note the straight as an arrow headstock) He would just need a phillips screwdriver as on a F*ender bass! 8)
Ouch, you just downed like you did with those lumbering, night raiding Lancasters in the bad old days. Unforgiveable!!!
it's for sale... (http://cgi.ebay.com/KISS-Gene-Simmons-owned-Gibson-Bass-Stage-Used-1975_W0QQitemZ120449838065QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item1c0b5eabf1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C72%3A1205%7C293%3A2%7C294%3A50#ht_500wt_1182)
Hmmm, no one piece maple neck on that one. I only recall Gene having a black one and a burgundy one and both were one piece neck basses. It may have had the neck replaced? I guess Mendoza was not an original member of Twisted Sister then? I have a 1973 issue of Rock Scene magazine that has a "up and coming bands" section on the back pages of all of their magazines. The issue I have has both Kiss and Twisted Sister as "up and coming bands."
The seller forgot to put this photo up on his auction. 8)
(http://i30.tinypic.com/2zegk76.jpg)
The body may be legit. Not sure about the neck though.
Mendoza was in the Dictators in '75 (partly associated with Blue Oyster Cult through some link or other, I think it was Sandy Pearlman) and with Twisted Sister post that point...
Looks a wreck...
No bids... I'm not surprised...
I was just listening to Agents Of Fortune the other day too!
His black one had a skunk stripe on the neck, didn't it?
What a great band The Dictators were. And while Twisted Sister were always good fun and Dee Snider is a loveable motormouth, their music had none of the street cool and general New York'ness of The Dictators. Still, Mendoza (not to be mistaken with the Nugent/Whitesnake guy) could have had a much worse fate and gone on like Ross the Boss to the loincloth wops of Il Manowarro, si!
And yes, Sandy Pearlman was the connecting factor between BÖC and The Dictators. He tried to turn them into BÖC II when the punk thing hit America which was strangely anticyclical (and failed). What he should have done is sell them as thinking man's Ramones. At the end of the day, The Dictators were too punk to be heavy and too heavy to be punk though they considerably roughened up their sound after the Pearlman produced Manifest Destiny (a great album in my book) for the follow-up Bloodbrothers.
If you search for "The Dictators Search and Destroy" on youtube you get a nice clip of Mendoza playing his Grabber.
Gotta agree, Uwe... they produced some great stuff but not got any at present on CD...
Anyone for another BOC link... Pavlov's Dog... 8)
Quote from: Hornisse on July 19, 2009, 04:40:53 PM
I was just listening to Agents Of Fortune the other day too!
Me too, its been in my car for the last 2 weeks
in the late 90's or so my old band used to practice in the room next door to the Dictators.
are the skunk stripe Grabbers the ones that have a 3 screw truss rod cover?
If you're going to buy this bass, you'd better pick up this too.
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/msg/1278058112.html (http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/msg/1278058112.html)
Quote from: SKATE RAT on July 19, 2009, 10:38:22 PM
are the skunk stripe Grabbers the ones that have a 3 screw truss rod cover?
The one skunk I've seen had the 3 screw TRC.
Uwe's Edit: Non-skunks had three screw TRCs too, only very late Grabbers and G-3s featured the trad 2 screw bell TRC. What makes the skunk TRCs different is that they are not plane, but shaped to follow the descending curve of the neck into the headstock (which lies quite a bit lower than the neck on the skunks).
Quote from: Kenny Five-O on July 19, 2009, 06:02:09 PM
Gotta agree, Uwe... they produced some great stuff but not got any at present on CD...
Anyone for another BOC link... Pavlov's Dog... 8)
Both Manifest Destiny and Bloodbrothers were re-released on CD a few years ago. It was about time too.
This is the vid I was talking about, some nice busy Grabber playing there. It could be the Grabber from the auction actually. Good shots at 1.16 and 1.22.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ruUm-TGMXg&feature=related
Nice hot pants there with Top Ten! And stunning 'fros.
And the pre-ownership of a Dictators member would make that bass more appealing to me than the Kiss connection.
It does look like the same bass Uwe. Looks like some sort of chrome cover over the sliding pickup too, or am I imagining that?
Uwe is correct about the one piece Grabber truss rod covers. They are curved to go with the slope from the fingerboard to the straight as an arrow headstock. The nut is very 7enderish too.
(http://i44.tinypic.com/2r7lvty.jpg)
Quote from: Hornisse on July 20, 2009, 11:53:53 AM
It does look like the same bass Uwe. Looks like some sort of chrome cover over the sliding pickup too, or am I imagining that?
I wouldn't call it "imagining", maybe mind-expanding drug use is more apt?!!! :mrgreen:
Initially I thought as much too, but go to 3.01 of the clip and you see that the grey is underneath the strings, possibly something he stuck in there so the sliding pup wouldn't move as he constantly rests his thumb on it.
Uwe
Ta for the tip re the Dictators CD's, Uwe...
Don't know if this is still available, but it would be a great neck for a project Grabber.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7451910 (http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?p=7451910)
i'm sorry but i could never picture simmons as an actual musician. more of a pt barnum combined with equal parts used car salesman and pawn broker. :P
Quote from: uwe on July 20, 2009, 03:35:29 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ruUm-TGMXg&feature=related
(http://www.guitargear.net.au/discussion/Smileys/default/cool_fro.gif)
Quote from: nofi on July 21, 2009, 06:22:21 AM
i'm sorry but i could never picture simmons as an actual musician. more of a pt barnum combined with equal parts used car salesman and pawn broker. :P
Gene is certainly a musician, albeit one who figured out early on that he needed to do more than just
play to achieve his vision of fame. Looking back, I think he knew exactly what he was doing - but the bass lines on alot of the old Kiss stuff are among the most fun to play, IMHO.
This won't win the "most inventive crowd pleasing bass solo ever"-award, but I've heard worse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6vdZ_b0l_U&feature=PlayList&p=7589504037669E5E&index=0
When he can be bothered and all the fire-breathing and blood-spitting doesn't get in the way, Simmons has both the technique and the choice of notes to play something meaningful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxw6BScN7dU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2uslqysYH0&feature=related
(good old Garth, for all his qualities and maybe intimidated by the presence of hard rock icons, tries a bit too hard to give his vocal a tough edge on this performance; but the Ronnie Lane/Ron Wood inspired bass is nice)