“I burned my leg real bad once back in the ‘70s, man. A smoke bomb ignited too early inside the cavity of the guitar”: Ace Frehley’s ‘Smoker’ Les Pauls were spectacular but dangerous – now one from his final Kiss tour heads to auction

The custom Les Paul that the late Ace Frehley played on his last-ever tour with Kiss is headed to auction, and when we say “custom” we mean this is one of the Spaceman’s electric guitars that modded with an onboard smoke machine.

Forget coil-taps, top-wrapping the strings, swapping out the tuners… Adding a Floyd Rose tremolo! Frehley’s preferences for the Les Paul leaned were altogether more spectacular.

Some of them, such as his 1957 Black Beauty Les Paul Custom, were retrofitted with rocket launchers. Others, such as this custom build, being auctioned via Gotta Have Rock And Roll, were all about the smoke – and preferably no fire.

But that’s not to say the so-called ‘Smoker’ guitars would pass a health and safety audit.

Speaking to MusicRadar, Frehley detailed some of his misadventures with the ‘Smoker’ guitars over the years.

“I burned my leg real bad once back in the ‘70s, man,” he recalled. “A smoke bomb ignited too early inside the cavity of the guitar, and it melted the asbestos – which our f**king costumes were made from – to my thigh.”

That’s got to hurt. But at least he wasn’t a danger to his bandmates. Firing rockets from his guitar, Frehley nearly took Gene Simmons out, live onstage. “It flew right by his head,” said Frehley. “It would have burned him pretty bad.”

Simmons knew what he was getting into. They all did. What’s a little danger when you’re putting on a show.

This Frehley ‘Smoker’ is a real beauty. It has the lightning bolt inlays, the ‘Ace of Spades’ truss rod cover and Ace’s portrait illustrated on the headstock facing (if you thought the split-diamond inlay was the coolest Gibson headstock, you have to see this), while the back of the instrument has been fitted with what looks like a blast shield. There’s more than a little sci-fi to how this instrument is put together.

It has been well-played. Frehley had this with him on the Psycho Circus World Tour of 1998/99, and then on The Farewell Tour, billed as Kiss’s last hurrah – except it wasn’t. It was for Frehley, who left in late 2001 to focus on his solo career. The back of the headstock has been signed.

The minimum bid for this ‘Smoker’ Les Paul is set at $100,000. What price your home insurance if that those onboard smoke bombs are still full functional. When Gotta Have Rock And Roll last hosted an auction of Frehley’s pyro-equipped Les Pauls, they at least shipped with some instructions from the man himself.

“We are warning you now, do NOT push or tinker with the control knobs on the guitar until you read the enclosed letter Ace wrote,” read the listing. “You might cause serious damage to your home or office if you accidentally set off the mechanism.”

Or, as Frehley did, to your thigh. You can check out the listing over at Gotta Have Rock And Roll.