(Note: I have put this page together with information from a Gene Simmons fan site called Radioactive. Mick from Radioactive has been very helpful. I would not have been able to get all the info I did if it wasn’t for Mick. Thanks Mick)
Around the time of Wicked Lester Gene owned an old Epiphone bass. At some point in the studio it was stolen.
The bass that would take the place of Epiphone would be a Fender P bass. He had gotten it for just $150 and sold it for $300 to a man named Steven Stills. He took $150 of the $300 and had Charlie Lobue make him a custom bass. This bass would be Gene’s #1 bass for as long as he owned it. It was with him from the early days of KISS all the way to Love Gun. (Charlie also made 2 custom guitars for Paul one of them being a flying V around the same time and both of them would be stolen) You can see the odd shaped neck joint on this bass. The first prototypes of the Punisher would be very similar to this one
Gene plays with his hand resting on the bridge and had a bridge cover put on this bass and ALL of his basses to come. I have seen very FEW pictures of him playing (live and not in a video) without a bridge cover. Picking the string by the bridge gives off a higher sound that picking in front of the pick up. He was also using 1 hum bucking pickup in this bass and use hum bucking pickups for the next few years . Gene used this bass up to Love Gun when it was more or less stolen.
This bass was the main if not the only bass used on KISS and Hotter Than Hell then it was used along side the 2 Gibson Grabbers and the 1 Ripper for Dressed To Kill. This bass also was originally a natural wood color but was painted black around Hotter Than Hell and a year later white binding was added on the top of the guitar. Later on he had the fingerboard replaced.
I also don’t know when this video was shot but if you do please E-Mail me. Gibson gave KISS many free guitars and basses around this time. Gibson gave Gene 3 free basses. This is one part that a lot of people have gotten confused with over the years by saying he received a "Ripper" or a "Grabber". Gene was given both of them. He was given 2 Grabbers and 1 Ripper. Both of them were very heavy bodied bass but had a good solid design. They had a shorter neck than normal and had bolt on necks with pointy headstocks. One of them was black the other was a dark red. One of the coolest features the Grabber had was a movable pickup.
(This is a Gibson Grabber)
(Now here is a interesting thing, I was looking over the Gibson web site for more information on the Grabber and Ripper and here is what I found out. After looking around for a few minutes I saw a link saying Ripper, I click it and what do I see but a picture of what looks like a Grabber with only 1 pickup.
Now the Ripper bass was a different matter. The Ripper was totally different beast than a Ripper. The Ripper was black and had a set neck and a normal Gibson headstock. It also had a ebony finger board. The big difference from a Grabber was that the Ripper had 2 humbucking pickups and not one. The pickups on the Ripper where not movable
This is a rare photo of Gene playing the Ripper
Click the picture below to see the page dedicated to just the Grabber and Ripper.
