Kiss Guitarist Tommy Thayer Releases Signature Epiphone

Kiss guitarist Tommy Thayer has released the ‘Electric Blue’ signature Epiphone, his third for the guitar giant.

The guitar dazzles with a custom-made sparkling blue paint and blue hardware. There is no doubt this guitar was made to hit the stage.

It is Thayer’s third signature guitar for Epiphone. The first was a “white lightning” Les Paul, then came the Explorer.

“It looks great on stage because, you know on a Kiss stage, something like this with the outfit and everything, it really projects,” Thayer said. “It’s a great Kiss guitar.”

“The great thing about being in Kiss and putting out signature guitars is that a lot of fans will buy them just to collect,” Thayer admitted. “They might build a shadow box around it because I’ll sign it, but they’ll just put it with their Kiss collection with their other Kiss guitars.”

But what if you’re not just a Kiss collector?

“I think it’s a good guitar for somebody who’s starting to play guitar,” he said. “They’re kinda taking it to the next step where they want a more professional instrument than whatever they started with. This is a good place to go because it is affordable, it’s not a super expensive guitar… how can you go wrong with all these great parts? It’s a great sounding guitar and it’s well put together.”

Get ready for some nerdy details.

The guitar features a classic Les Paul-shaped mahogany body with a maple cap and Les Paul Custom-style white and black binding. There is a 60s SlimTaper mahogany neck with an Indian Laurel fingerboard and Les Paul standard trapezoid inlays. You’ll find Tommy’s name engraved on the bell-shaped truss rod cover and his signature on the back of the “dovewing” headstock next to a “SpaceMan” logo. Hardware includes custom blue top-hat knobs with metal pointers and Grover Rotomatic tuners.

For those of you who want the really nerdy stuff, the neck has a 24.75″ scale, a 12″ radius, 22 medium frets and a 1.69″ Graph Tech nut. You’ll find Seymour Duncan JB Humbuckers, including the original hot-rod humbucker – one of Seymour Duncan’s earliest designs.

Tommy Thayer has been a permanent member of Kiss since 2002.

Check him demoing the guitar below.