Detroit Rock City Bass Cover

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/TJH3113 Twas the night before the night before Christmas and all through the house… I recently got this bass. It’s a 1976 Guild B301. What does that have to do with a Kiss cover? I may have said once or twice before that Gene Simmons was the reason I took up the bass. I think I was more interested in the bat wings, blood-spitting, fire-breathing and overall horror imagery than the bass, but that’s what he played, so that’s what I was going to play. Of course, I also wanted to play the same bass that he did - that cool Gibson he had on the cover of Kiss Alive. Of course, even though Grabbers were made as affordable/entry level basses, they were far out of my price range which, at that time, was around $0 and .75 cents. Then, something dawned on me. What made that bass so special had to have something to do with the fact that the tuners were set up two-to-a-side on the headstock. Two on top and two on the bottom... “That” had to be the sign of a really cool bass. Rickenbacker had two-on-a-side tuners and they were really cool…and expensive too. Remember that back in the late 70’s, there was really only the Big 3 bass makers to choose from - Fender, Rickenbacker and Gibson (that's how I remember it anyhow). Most everything else was a copy of one of those instruments and not very good copies either. Then I spotted an ad for a Guild B302 bass in a magazine. It was “cool” because the tuners were two-to-a-side, but, since I’d never seen nor heard of one before, I assumed its cost must have been a great deal closer to my price range. My local store didn’t carry them but, “Could order one if you (me) left a deposit.” That wasn’t going to happen, so that was the end of that story. And, for the record, they weren’t any less expensive either. It is for this reason, I’ve always associated the Guild B301 and 302 with Gene Simmons and Kiss. I just always had a sense that they’d be a really good sounding bass and, having now played one, I think they are. To me, it sounds like something between a Precision and a Ric. The song is “Detroit Rock City” and is, in my opinion, the best bass line Gene Simmons ever played and was off their 1976 album, “Destroyer.” It’s got more “whooms” than you can shake a stick at. Nobody “whooms” like Gene. Thanks to my buddy, Jim Trice, for bringing the song up to concert pitch for me. Was Kiss the first band to tune down a half step? I really hate tuning my basses down. Jim’s a good guitarist, guitar teacher and all around nice guy. Check his channel out if you like.    / @jimmyjames714   Jim also threw a couple of other Kiss songs in the package so there may be some more coming down the pike.