The Coventry January 30, 1973.
Photo by Lydia Criss.
When Ace joined up with KISS he wasn't the Les Paul man he would later become but this was out of necessity rather than choice—he simply couldn't afford a Les Paul. In Ace's own words he "used to use an old Epiphone with an old humbucker in it" during the early days in KISS. (Metal Edge presents: KISS Alive! 1996) Although I think he was wrong about the humbucker, he got the guitar right. (He simply mixed up two different Epiphones from two different "eras".) For KISS's first real club gig on January 30, 1973 Ace played an Epiphone Coronet.
The Epiphone Coronet, which was Gibson-made, was initially an alternative to the Gibson Les Paul Jr. It was a basic one-pickup solidbody guitar for a good price, no more and no less. It had a mahogany body and a mahogany neck with a rosewood fingerboard. The tuners were 3-on-plate Kluson Deluxe. The Coronet that Ace played during the early part of 1973 was probably a 1960 or '61 model: it has the "second generation" body style with rounded edges, earlier Coronets had a slab-style body; the symmetrical "batwing" pickguard; and a P-90 pickup with a black plastic cover.
The cherry finish, which was almost like a varnish and allowed the wood grain to show, was the only one available. (The 1961 and 1962 Gibson catalogues both showed the Coronet with an earlier mini-humbucker called the New York but most '61 or '62 Coronets on the used market have P-90 pickups just like the one Ace used.) The metal headstock logo plate, clearly visible in the January 30 pic above, was replaced by a pearl logo in 1961 but the remaining stock of the metal logo plates were used on guitars produced in early 1961. And the logo plate is somewhat of a conundrum.
In the photo below from April 14, 1973, the headstock logo plate has been removed and it appears as if the tuners changed. As noted the stock Coronet had 3-on-plate Kluson Deluxe tuners with oval white tuning pegs (which can be seen in one of the January 30 pic if you strain your eyes a bit) but here we see metal tuning pegs of indeterminate style. It's not a uncommon move to change the tuners on a guitar but removing the headstock logo plate is a little odd. Especielly since it is added back on for a later show.
The photo below is the last known appearance of this particular Epiphone Coronet. You can just see the headstock—now with the logo plate added back on—sticking out behind Paul. The date of this photo in Lydia's book Sealed With a KISS is June 1, 1973, but I think that's wrong. First, according to multiple accounts Paul had his LoBue Doublecut stolen on May 4. The guitar he got to replace it was a Gibson Les Paul Custom '54 Reissue and that guitar had binding on the front and back. The guitar Paul plays in the photo below only has binding on the front. Second, Ace's pants. In the backstage photos from June 1 Ace is wearing silver pants which he isn't in the photo below. That said, we have comparatively little information about the instruments from these early days so it really matters little which exact date Ace last played this Epiphone Coronet. It's simply amazing we know which guitar he played at all.
