Travis Bean pickups on a 1975 TB1000S
When the band started making some money following the success of Alive! Ace indulged some of his fantasies and bought himself an expensive guitar: a black Travis Bean TB1000S. At a 1975 price of $595 it was probably the most expensive guitar Ace had owned up to that time. (Compared to the $710 that a brand-spanking-new Gibson Les Paul Custom would have set you back in 1975 it was still an OK price but far from inexpensive.) All of Ace's previous guitars seem to have been bought used but Travis Bean had only set up shop in 1974—the first price list is from March 1975—so chances are that the availability of the TB1000S on the used market was fairly low. We can identify the model based on the fret inlays which were dots on the TB1000S (for Standard) but block inlays on the higher-priced, but mainly aesthetically different, TB1000A (for Artist).
The TB1000S had an aluminum neck wtih an easily identified headstock with a cutout "T" shape that sported a rosewood fretboard. The neck was precision-rolled from a solid piece of Reynold 6061-T6 aircraft-grade aluminum, machined with narrow chambers running the length of the neck to help reduce weight. Some online mentions of the TB1000S claim that the body was made of Magnolia with the option of a Koa body available at an extra cost. However, technical information supplied by Bill Kaman in 2001 (and available on the Travis Bean Guitars Unofficial Guitar Resource) claims that all TB1000S's were made out of Koa until the reorganization of the company in 1977. The one piece of hard evidence available, a TB1000 brochure of indeterminate year, states that the body is Koa. The tuning pegs on Ace's TB1000S aren't easily identified I'm going to stick my neck out and say that they are Grovers, with their more rounded look, rather than Schallers. The pickups were designed by Travis Bean.
Although not quite as strange a beast as the all-aluminum Veleno, the Travis Bean was nevertheless a very interesting construction (and "a significant improvement over the current state of the art" if we are to believe the company). The neck was a single piece extending into the wood body, which eliminated the need for a heel to attach the neck to, and the bridge and the bridge and pickups were mounted directly onto the neck piece. According to the literature this "provides an ideal anchor for each end of the string, allowing it to vibrate absolutely as long as physics will allow". The rosewood fretboard was mounted on a slim aluminum plate that was then bonded to the hollowed-out neck. The neck unit slid into and was epoxied to the wood body. Hardware varied depending on availability and tuners could be either Schaller or Grover and the switches were whatever was around. Originally the knobs used were Gibson black speed knobs but Gibson eventually decided not to sell to a competitor and later TB1000's—roughly from 1976 onward—had clear knobs. Ace's TB1000S clearly had black speed knobs.
The TB1000S turns up some time in December of 1975, as seen below there are pics from December 30 and 31, and it seems to have been used mainly for encores. (The photo on the front of the first tour book from 1976 shows Ace with the Travis Bean and Paul with his Gibson Les Paul Custom.) Based on the photo and video evidence the TB1000S didn't last very long and Ace was very upfront about why: "I remember using my Travis Bean just once , in Seattle. For some reason I think I remember using it in the song Kissin' Time. […] The Travis Bean sounded like shit, it sounded like a metal guitar. Guitars should be made out of wood." (Metal Edge Presents Kiss Alive! 1996) I should note that we have no actual evidence that Kissin' Time was ever played live, nor do we have anything to indicate that Ace used the Travis Bean in Seattle.
The Travis Bean essentially just straddled the change from 1975 to 1976. It shows up in a few of the shows during January—most notably in the video or Rock And Roll All Nite from Cobo Hall on January 26—but then it disappears from the stage, never to return.
Despite his dislike of aluminum-neck guitars Ace held on to the Travis Bean and the Veleno after they were retired from use. Both can be seen in the photo of Ace's guitar collection in the first Music Life Special from 1977.
