“At that point, they were making better Les Pauls than Gibson was”: Kiss’ Paul Stanley broke new ground by trading his Gibsons for Ibanez guitars – and by teaming up with the iconic Japanese brand for an early signature model

Stanley Eisen, who you may know as Kiss‘ Paul Stanley, may have wielded a Gibson guitar or two during the band’s game-changing Alive! era, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary.

“I grew up in a time where, on almost any weekend, I would go for three, four, and five dollars, and see Humble Pie, Led Zeppelin, the Yardbirds, or Derek and the Dominos. And most of the bands I saw were Gibson players,” he explains in an upcoming tête-à-tête with Guitar World.

However, it seems Stanley had a change of heart in the late ’70s, when he broke with tradition and opted to source his axes from the Japanese guitar behemoth Ibanez – a brand he still endorses to this day.

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