The Unforgettable Stage Gimmicks of 6 Guitarists

The Unforgettable Stage Gimmicks of 6 Guitarists
Aaron Lefkove 05.12.2008
Stage gimmicks are a double-edged sword. You never want to be all show and no substance. Fortunately there are those axe-slingers on whom both serious chops and showmanship are not lost. Here’s a list of a half-dozen guitarists with rad gimmicks and the skills to back it all up.Billy Gibbons’ Fuzzy Explorer – ZZ Top are as synonymous for their whacked-out axes as they are for their Texas Lone Star beer-drenched boogie rock riffs. Gibbons’ passion for guitars is legendary—he’s even written a book about his collection: Rock’n’Roll Gearhead. Gibbons and bassist Dusty Hill have collections of guitars and basses that make even passive collectors sick with envy. But by far the most iconic—with the possible exception of “Pearly Gates,”
Gibbons’ legendary Les Paul—are the matching white furry Explorers that the band made legendary in the dawn of the video era. More than 20 years later, the shaggy axes still bring a crowd to its feet. Typically the duo will mount these to their belt buckles and spin them in sync with each other … all without missing a note. Here’s ZZ Top pulling out all the stops in the “Legs” video:




Ace Frehley’s Smokin’ Les Paul – Equal parts greasepaint, huge sing-along riffs, and pyro, KISS embody showmanship and on-stage bravado. Aside from the platform demon boots, elaborate costumes, and Kabuki-style makeup the band had a few other gimmicks for their rabid army of followers. Gene Simmons—ever the marketing over-achiever—is well known for his fire breathing, blood-spitting, and three-foot tongue, but by far the coolest stage trick of the band’s heyday was Ace Frehley’s smokin’ Les Paul. The guitar was a three-pickup model with a dummy middle humbucker. Inside the body of the guitar, the electronics were sealed off and the cavity was loaded with colored smoke bombs. At the push of a button, the Space Ace could trigger the bombs and mid-solo it would appear as if the fretboard was literally on fire from his smokin’ hot leads. Check out some vintage footage of Ace’s burnin’ fretwork:


Buckethead’s 12-Piece Headgear – Wearing a Michael Myers mask and a bucket of the Colonel’s finest on your head would, by all accounts, be a pretty silly move. That is unless you had the dipped-in-batter-then-fried-to-perfection-chops to back it all up. While Buckethead’s true identity is less known, his playing is becoming legendary. Collaborations with Iggy Pop, Bill Laswell, Primus, Guns N’ Roses, as well as 30 plus solo records under his bucket, er … belt, in styles that range from full-on 200 MPH shred to jazz to funk to sounds that only exist in the outer cosmos Buckethead has proven his worth and damn well earned the right to wear a 12-piece meal on his head.


Eddie Van Halen’s Power Drill – Eddie’s always been a hero to budding shredders not content to sit there and strum an open G-chord ad nauseum. His original contribution to the canon of guitar theatrics was a coveted and highly-protected finger tapping routine—he always played his solos with his back to the crowd. During the Van Hagar-era Eddie had the bright idea of taking a power drill to the strings during the intro to “Poundcake” off of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. We are by no means advocating giving the Black & Decker treatment to your ’59 Standard but the results were pretty sick. Here’s Ed brandishing a drill live at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Rick Nielsen’s 5 Necked Axe – 5 necks, 25 pounds, and 36 total strings: that’s the quintuple-necked behemoth of an instrument that Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen pulls out at every show. Anyone who has ever seen Cheap Trick live comes away raving about the virtual arsenal of axes that Nielsen plays but there’s always one that sticks in fans’ minds. This custom made guitar has four (yes, four!) 6 string necks of various scales and tunings and a 12 string on the very top. Nielsen currently has three of these in his rotation and every night, usually for “Surrender,” it’s a showstopper.



Jimmy Page’s Bowed Les Paul – The Led Zep guitarist was a king when it came to showmanship. Years of steady work as a session man in the vibrant 1960’s British rock scene gave Page ample time to hone his craft, perfect his chops, and make a few innovations of his own. The bowed guitar is perhaps the most unique. Although Page didn’t invent the move—that credit goes to Eddie Phillips of the Creation—under the tutelage of ace producer Shel Talmy he first discovered the trick and quickly incorporated it into his arsenal. The move inspired a legion of guitarists and was even lampooned by one Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap. And it indirectly inspired the invention of the Ebow! Here’s a video of Page demonstrating the endless sustain that you can only get from a horse-hair bow dragged across heavy gauge nickel wounds:




Honorable Mention! How could we possibly forget this chesnut…