For more than 20 years, Tommy Thayer has been damaging eardrums with a high-volume attack as the lead guitarist for Kiss – so why would he choose as his favourite guitar an acoustic with a lovely sweet tone?
The reason is very simple, as Thayer explains to MusicRadar.
Asked to name a few of his most beloved instruments, Thayer says: “I have an Epiphone Texan acoustic, probably around a ’63, that’s gorgeous, super weather-checked, and has this beautifully sweet tone. It’s got that classic thin Epiphone neck, too.
“It’s the exact same model Paul McCartney played on Yesterday during the Beatles’ ‘65 Ed Sullivan TV appearance. And it’s the same model Peter Frampton played live on All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side), Wind Of Change, Penny For Your Thoughts… all that classic stuff.”
Thayer explains how he came to own this special acoustic guitar.
“When I graduated from high school in 1978, my mom talked to a good friend of mine who played guitar back in Beaverton, where we grew up. He recommended this particular guitar, which at that time was already a vintage, used instrument.
“My parents bought it at a guitar shop in downtown Portland and gave it to me as a graduation present. It’s incredibly sentimental to me, and I’ll always treasure that guitar more than anything.”
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Thayer also tells MusicRadar about a couple of electric guitars that mean the world to him.
First, there is the Les Paul he used in his early career with the band Black ’N Blue.
“You’re talking about my black Les Paul Custom,” he says, “the one I bought out of the classified ads in The Oregonian around 1976.
“I think it’s a ’75 or ’76. I used the hell out of that guitar during all the Black ’N Blue days and even after, although I really haven’t played it much since joining Kiss.
“I had it refinished at one point. Paul [Stanley, Kiss frontman] had a guy up in Vancouver, British Columbia, who restored guitar finishes. But I’m still not completely happy with it.
"I might redo it again, maybe have someone else take a crack at it. That guitar is one I used, abused, modified, experimented on… always changing parts and pickups.
“There’s not much original left on it anymore, but it’s still a treasured, sentimental guitar for me. It mostly sits at home in its case these days. I don’t pull it out very often.”
Thayer also has great fondness for another Les Paul he used when he first joined Kiss as the replacement for founding member Ace Frehley.
“I still have it,” he says. “The honeyburst Les Paul I used at the very beginning of my Kiss tenure, in 2002 and 2003. In fact, in recent years it’s been my dressing-room guitar, the one I warm up on and practice with on tour.
“It’s pretty beat up now, too. Interestingly, it’s not even a Custom Shop Les Paul – it’s a Les Paul Classic. But it’s an important, sentimental guitar to me, too. People have offered to buy it, but I’m hanging on to it.”
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