Ace Frehley, the Kiss guitar legend whose fiery playing and pyro-laden guitar tricks influenced and enraptured generations of players, died Thursday in Morristown, New Jersey, following complications from a fall in his home studio last month. He was 74.
“We are completely devastated and heartbroken,” Frehley’s family said in a statement. “In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth. We cherish all of his finest memories, his laughter and celebrate his strengths and kindness that he bestowed upon others. The magnitude of his passing is of epic proportions, and beyond comprehension. Reflecting on all of his incredible life achievements, Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!”
Frehley's former Kiss bandmates, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, released a joint statement, writing: “We are devastated by the passing of Ace Frehley. He was an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier during some of the most formative foundational chapters of the band and its history. He is and will always be a part of Kiss’s legacy. Our thoughts are with Jeanette, Monique and all those who loved him, including our fans around the world.”
Over the course of five decades, Frehley's Les Paul-fueled riffs and solos helped to define not just Kiss’ music, but the very sound of arena rock guitar. His influence stretched far beyond the makeup, from Tom Morello calling him his “first guitar hero” to Dimebag Darrell having Frehley's face tattooed on his chest.
Born April 7, 1951, in the Bronx, Paul Daniel “Ace” Frehley got his first electric guitar as a Christmas gift in 1964. A self-taught player, he drew early inspiration from Hendrix, Beck, and the Stones—and in particular the Who’s Pete Townshend. As he told Premier Guitar in 2010, “I used to sit next to the record player and figure out every Who song. Playing a lot of Who music really helped develop my right hand, which helped with not only my rhythm technique but my leads, too.”
In 1973, Frehley auditioned for a band seeking a “hard rock guitarist with balls and flash.” After hauling his 50-watt Marshall up a flight of stairs and jamming on “Deuce,” he landed the gig, forging Kiss alongside Simmons, Stanley and Peter Criss.
As Kiss’ lead guitarist from 1973 to 1982, Frehley’s smoking, rocket-shooting, levitating Les Pauls became as iconic as the music itself. These stunts also carried genuine risks. As he told me in 2014, “One night [my flying guitar] hit something and slipped off, just grazing my shoulder. Imagine [a Les Paul] with a battery pack and a box to protect it from the heat of a smoke bomb.”
Frehley's unique picking technique, where his loosely-held pick and thumb simultaneously struck the string, created what he described on Shred with Shifty as “a sound just shy of a pinched squeal, but more spunky.” This approach, combined with the fact that he ripped his solos through a “dimed Marshall stack,” powered the licks in Frehley-composed songs like “Cold Gin” and “Shock Me,” as well as “Rock and Roll All Nite,” Love Gun” and other Kiss classics.
Frehley's 1978 self-titled solo album went platinum, with his cover of “New York Groove” reaching No. 13 on Billboard's Hot 100—the highest-charting single from any Kiss member's solo effort. His recording philosophy, as he explained to Premier Guitar, involved tracking basics with Les Pauls, then “doubl[ing] stuff up with Fenders because they have a different sound.” He'd layer acoustics underneath electrics, he said, because it “adds a fullness that you don't really hear until you take it away.”
After forming Frehley's Comet in the mid-'80s, Ace returned to Kiss for their massively successful 1996 reunion tour, remaining until 2002. His late-career solo work demonstrated continued vitality. From 2009's Anomaly through 2024’s 10,000 Volts, Frehley’s output was well-received by fans, and he toured steadily behind the records. His 2016 effort, Origins, Vol. 1, and 2018’s Spaceman, featured collaborations, respectively, with former bandmates Stanley and Simmons. Despite public animosity over the years (Frehley was not involved in the band’s 2019-2023 End of the Road farewell tour) he recounted to me that working together again, at least at that time, was simple: “We all have the other's cell phone numbers and we just call each other!”
As a player, Frehley opted for feel over technical dexterity. But never stopped learning. When I asked him in that same interview if he was still discovering things at 67, he laughed: “All the time. Half the stuff I do, I don't know what it's called. But you know, if it sounds good, I do it.”
This intuitive approach defined his career. As he told Premier Guitar in 2010, “I pride myself on thinking outside the box, and I'm probably like that because I'm not a schooled musician. To me, there are no rules, and there never were.”
Do you feel like your solos lack focus or that there isn’t any underlying structure to your lines? Does it seem that you are wandering around the neck, hoping that what you are playing “looks like it sounds cool”? Would pushing peas around a dinner plate with a knife be more riveting than the last lick you played? If any of these statements are true, then you need some guide tones, my friend.
Guide tones, also known as target notes, are commonly used in jazz improvisation and usually refer to only the 3rd and 7th of a chord. But, for our purposes, we’re going to apply a more generous definition where all notes of a chord can be used. There are two benefits to using guide tones: They create a predetermined melodic structure that serves as a framework for your solo, and they provide an inner melody to your lines that carry the sound of the chord changes.
The first two examples show a couple of possibilities when building a guide tone melody over a ii-V-I chord progression in the key of C major. The only requirement is that the guide tones should be played on the strong beats of the measure (beats 1 and 3). Next, spell each chord to see what notes you have to work with. For our progression, our choices will come from Dm7 (D-F-A-C), G7 (G-B-D-F), and Cmaj7 (C-E-G-B). Since these examples have one chord per measure, I have chosen to use only one guide tone in each measure. But, I could have used two guide tones in a measure, one on beat 1 and the other on the beat 3. Other than what has already been discussed, there is no right or wrong way to do this. Basically, pick some chord tones, put them on the strong beat(s), and see how it sounds. Change or edit as you see fit!
Take a listen to Ex. 1. The guide tones create a descending melody that leaps up at the end. Using one note per measure, the line starts with C (the 7th of Dm7), then to B (the 3rd of G7), to G (the 5th of Cmaj7) and finally E (the 3rd of Cmaj7). Ex. 2 has a guide tone line similar to the first example, descending for the first three measures and a leap up at the end. It begins with F (the 3rd of Dm7), to D (the 5th of G7), to B (the 7th of Cmaj7), and then to E (the 7th of Cmaj7).
Ex. 3 is an eight measure progression, similar in structure to a popular jazz standard. Harmonically, the first half is a ii-V-I-IV in C major and the second half is a ii-V-i in the key of A minor. In the first six bars, there is one guide tone per measure, and then concludes with two guide tones in each of the last two bars.
Once you have decided on a framework for your solo, use scales and arpeggios to add notes before each guide tone. By doing so, you create motion in your line that sounds musical, and not like you’re choosing notes at random. Listen to Ex. 4 where each guide tone is approached from above by a scale step. Since all the chords are in the key of C, my approach notes are from the C major scale. I can also think in modal terms, where I would use D Dorian in bar 1 to approach the G7 in bar 2. Then, I can use G Mixolydian in bar 2 to approach the Cmaj7 in bar 3, and C Ionian to approach the next Cmaj7 in bar 4. Ex. 5 is the same scalar concept, this time approaching the guide tones from below.
Ex. 6 and Ex. 7 use arpeggios to approach the guide tones from above and below, respectively. I prefer to do this by using the arpeggio of the chord I am going to, not the one I am playing over. So, when I am playing over the Dm7 in the first measure, I will use the G7 arpeggio to approach the guide tone in bar 2. Then, when playing over G7 in the second measure, use the Cmaj7 arpeggio to approach the guide tone in bar 3. This concept is a little easier to see in Ex.7. Dm7 is the chord in bar 1. You approach the guide tone in bar 2 with a G, which is not in a Dm7 chord, but it is in G7.
To get longer lines, use two, three, or more notes from the scale or arpeggio when approaching the guide tones. Ex. 8 approaches the guide tone from above and below, using two and three notes from the scale. Ex. 9 shows the same approach methods, but with notes from the arpeggio.
After you get a handle on the guide tone concepts, experiment with rhythms, rests, and an ever-increasing number of approach notes. Check out Ex. 10 as an example of what is possible. It’s the guide tone line from Ex. 2 fleshed out with a mixture of scale and arpeggio approach notes of various lengths. Ex. 11 is an expansion of the guide tone line from Ex. 3. I used an increasing number of approach notes in the first half of the line. The second half is more rhythmically complex, ending with the triplet figures in the last two measures.
Applying these concepts to something more familiar, Ex. 12 is one possible guide tone melody over an A minor blues. Give it a listen to hear how the first two phrases are relatively scalar, but the last phrase has more of a “sawtooth” vibe. Ex. 13 is the completed solo, using the ideas discussed previously. Throwing everything into the guide-tone blender yielded different types of approaches combined with a variety of rhythms and rests.
Once you get a foothold, substitute different modes, scales, arpeggios, chords, and time signatures to achieve some different sonic flavors. Remember that you are restricting yourself to these few concepts in order to get a more melodic and meaningful solo. If you practice it enough, your brain will start working this way on its own!
Universal Audio Inc. (UA), a worldwide leader in audio production tools, is proud to announce Volt 876 USB Recording Studio, a 24‑in / 28-out rackmount USB audio interface for Mac and Windows with eight Vintage preamps and classic 1176‑style compressors on every channel.
Delivering next‑generation 32-bit / 192 kHz audio quality, Volt 876 is designed for serious music producers and bands who want legendary UA analog sound, a curated suite of UAD plug‑ins, and powerful integration with UA's groundbreaking LUNA Digital Audio Workstation.
“Volt 876 is all about giving musicians and producers a classic UA analog studio sound, with more power to create together,” says Bill Putnam Jr., CEO of Universal Audio. "Beyond its fast, push-button tone shaping, it offers a level of digital integration with UAD plug‑ins and LUNA that we believe is the fastest path to creating great‑sounding music."
Volt 876 USB Recording Studio - $999 MAP USD
Built by the same team behind the award-winning Apollo interfaces, Volt 876 is a complete recording system with powerful hardware‑software integration, including instant session recall, AI‑powered tools in UA’s LUNA DAW, software remote control, and the premium UAD Producer Suite plug‑in bundle — giving musicians and creators everything they need to capture and shape music with authentic analog tone.
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Volt 876 USB Recording Studio is now available for purchase from retailers worldwide.
Reverend Guitars has launched a new generation of the company’s Kyle Shutt Signature solid body electric: the Reverend Kyle Shutt Mark 2 covers an extraordinarily broad range of sonic ground…just like its namesake artist.
Reverend Introduces New Kyle Shutt Mark 2 Signature Electric
As a founding member of The Sword – a band that has toured worldwide with acts such as Metallica, Lamb of God, Clutch, and Opeth – Shutt’s playing deftly shifts between heavy fuzz, classic crunch, and open cleans. Since the band’s 2003 inception in Austin, TX, The Sword has blown away audiences with their unique brand of stoner rock-meets-doom metal-meets-70s riff rock.
Shutt’s new Reverend model includes a pair of Railhammer Kyle Shutt Signature pickups that deliver a plethora of tones with ease. Outfitted with custom Diver Flag fret marker inlays and gold hardware, this guitar looks as good as it sounds.
It also includes a special Reverend feature for shaping your tone: the guitar’s Bass Contour control knob is a passive bass roll-off that’s perfect for tightening up the low end, or re-voicing the pickups. It can make a humbucker sound like a single-coil, or give a P-90 that classic twang. With this Bass Contour control you’ve got variable pickup voicing at your fingertips.
Other features include:
Solid Korina body available in Ice White or Midnight Black finish
Railhammer Kyle Shutt Signature bridge and neck pickups
Electronic controls for bridge pickup volume, neck pickup volume, tone, bass contour control, and 3-way pickup selector
Three-piece Korina neck with 22 frets, 24 3/4" scale length, medium oval neck profile and rosewood fingerboard with 12” radius
Hardware includes Reverend Pin-Lock tuners and a tune-o-matic style bridge with stop tail piece
The Reverend Kyle Shutt Mark 2 electric carries a street price of $1499 and is available through any Reverend authorized dealer. For more information visit reverendguitars.com.
Reverend Introduces New Kyle Shutt Mark 2 Signature Electric