Gene Simmons Used Fenders in the studio

[Bionic-Joe]

I heard this from a VERY well informed Kiss fan who i know personally has done tech work for them...Gene used Fender Precision basses and jazz basses in the studio while using Gibson basses live....anybody know about this??

[godofthunder]

 Who knows? The first album certainly has very non Fender tone, I was under the impression the Labue was used. I know he did have a Black/Maple 70's P bass as a back up in the early days.

[Big_Stu]

I wouldn't be surprised; I doubt on a normal day he'd be able to play for laughing if he was in a studio, in jeans and a T, no make-up, no pyros and he had an "axe" with "blood" dripping off it round his neck.
The only Punisher I ever saw had a P/J layout - but I dunno how much of a Fender tone that would deliver - and gig levels with one would be indecisive.

[patman]

No Kiss fan here, but some of the stuff has a Gibson tone to my ears, and others I could hear as Fender

[godofthunder]

 Stu you trying to wind me up?

I wouldn't be surprised; I doubt on a normal day he'd be able to play for laughing if he was in a studio, in jeans and a T, no make-up, no pyros and he had an "axe" with "blood" dripping off it round his neck.
The only Punisher I ever saw had a P/J layout - but I dunno how much of a Fender tone that would deliver - and gig levels with one would be indecisive.

[Hörnisse]

I remember his interview in Guitar Player (Ace on the cover) from early '79 where he basically slammed P basses.  Kind of funny to hear that he may have used them in the studio.  Detroit Rock City has me stumped though.  That could be a Ripper as Uwe suggested.

[Dave W]

Uwe has a Punisher, IIRC it has an EMG P/J setup but it's also a neck-through and the wings may even be mahogany, so it wouldn't be a traditional Fender sound.

[lowend1]

I remember his interview in Guitar Player (Ace on the cover) from early '79 where he basically slammed P basses.  Kind of funny to hear that he may have used them in the studio.  Detroit Rock City has me stumped though.  That could be a Ripper as Uwe suggested.

I still have that issue. IIRC, he said something along the lines of "I can't understand using a Precision Bass in a baseball stadium". I think his point was that he felt that a certain edge was needed to cut through in a large venue. For all its universal appeal, the P-Bass is clearly not the ideal bass for his style of playing with Kiss in a live context. He also mentioned that he would sometimes bring in Marshall guitar heads in for certain gigs to augment the SVTs he was using, specifically to get that grind. I mentioned recently in another thread that Rock and Roll Over was rumored to have been - at least in part - recorded with a rented Rickenbacker, and indeed there are moments when his tone on that album carries that McCartney / Glenn Hughes "hollow" Rick sound (as opposed to the Geddy / Squire top end whack).

[Big_Stu]

Stu you trying to wind me up?

You mean your user name DOES have a Kiss connection?    Ooops! 

[godofthunder]

 LMAO Well He ain't no Jim Lea

You mean your user name DOES have a Kiss connection?    Ooops! 

[stiles72]

I had read in different interviews over the years that he tended to use "whatever was available" to record with in the studio. Basically, whatever the studio provided. In one interview from around the Revenge era, he went into detail about using what he called a "piece of s#it red yamaha that probably didn't cost more than $200", but yet he dug the tone for what he was doing - so he used it. 

[Big_Stu]

LMAO Well He ain't no Jim Lea

I watched a vid of Gene's solo spot from 2010 last night, and it actually was an improvement, a hell of a lot of effects on it with minimal playing, but it matched the theatrics well, better than I've seen previously.

[weekend warrior]

labue.precision early.Then,thunderbird,ripper grabber.Before Alive1 That is.

[NOT]

I forgot where I read this, but Gene said in the very early days, he used a Precision bass with a replacement Gibson humbucker.

[uwe]

The Punisher sounds like an active TBird, imagine an active Nikki Sixx Blackbird. And a sound engineer would probably tell you that, especially in a stadium, making a P Bass get heard is pretty much fool-proof. Just listen to Steve Harris.  

Simmons has never made a secret of the fact that he plays what sounds good in the studio, brand plays no role (nor would it to me). Revenge was recoreded with a non-descript P'ish ho he liked the sound of even though he described the bass as a "cheap piece of shit". But it recorded well. So well that he asked his technician to get a few more, but none of them sounded like the first.

I've seen pics of the Monster sessions where he plays a vintage Ripper into the mixing desk. Certainly the sound on the CD sounds ripperish, but that is essentially a Fenderesque sound anyway.

The Punisher is a beast born under the comsiderations of a Kiss live scenario. Gene likes:

- basses with a symetric body, "two horns, not one like Fender, animlas have two horns too",  

- a double-octave neck,

- with easy upper register access, the Punisher is perfect in that regard,

- he is obsessive about a bass balancing out: "when I raise both my arms live, and I do that often, I don't want the bass to tip down hangimng from my shoulder",

- he has no issues with the split coil look or sound which is why the Punisher has one, the Jazz Bass pup was only added as an afterthought and for commercial considerations ("people want some variety"), hence nearly all of Gene's own Punishers only feature the split-coil.

The Punisher is a reasonable flexible bass that makes good sense under many of its construction aspects, quite contrary to Gene's sales bla that "it is not a bass for everyone". Take off his autograph and it is quite an elegant, well-balanced double octave-bass with which you could no doubt play jazz rock. Not too far away from a Yamaha Attitude in fact, even though I find that the more idiosyncratic signature model.