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Ace Frehley's iconic 1975 Gibson Les Paul guitar sold at auction for $512,000 at Julien's Auction House's recent Music Icons sale.
Nicknamed the "Budokan" after Kiss' four concerts at Tokyo's legendary Budokan in 1977, which broke the attendance record set by The Beatles, this triple-humbucker, Cherry Sunburst-finished model was Frehley's constant companion during his time with the band.
«"Ace used it to record the Kiss album. «Love Gun» in May 1977 and continued to use it as his main guitar on tour until 1979, when it became a backup,» the description specifies.
Source: Julien's
Between the 1980 Unmasked tour and Frehley's tenure with the band in late 1982, the guitar saw less stage use. However, he continued to use it after leaving Kiss, even modifying it: replacing the bridge pickup with a black humbucker and installing a chrome Washburn Wonderbar vibrato system with a matching string stop at the nut.
Ultimately, the guitar was restored to its original specifications, and even inspired a series of high-end signature models created in collaboration with Gibson.
In 2011, Gibson introduced a limited edition Custom Shop replica of this guitar, available in Aged and VOS versions, as well as a release for Gibson USA.
Other Frehley guitars were also sold at auction, with prices even exceeding initial estimates.
Among them were his modified 1996 Gibson Les Paul Junior “Flasher” guitar with a light show feature, custom-built by Sammy Sanchez, which sold for $57,600; the prototype 1997 Gibson Signature Les Paul Custom that Frehley played during the Super Bowl XXXIII pregame show, which sold for $76,800; and his 1995 Epiphone PR 7E/RS acoustic guitar, released for MTV Unplugged , which sold for $28,800.
A full list of items sold, including guitars owned and played on stage by Eddie Van Halen and Johnny Cash, can be found at Julien's.