Gene Simmons: KISS's Bassist, Decoded
Gene Simmons co-founded KISS in 1973 and has played bass, in full demon makeup, on every studio album since. His self-designed Axe and Punisher basses, sourced.
KISS · reviewed by the Change Your Strings editorial team ·
Gene Simmons, born Chaim Witz on August 25, 1949, in Haifa, Israel, co-founded KISS in 1973 and has played bass and shared lead vocals ever since. He's known for designing his own basses, the Axe (mid-1970s onward) and the Punisher (introduced 1992, later a Cort signature model), plus his fire-breathing, blood-spitting stage persona. Simmons also produced an early Van Halen demo tape in 1976 and tried, unsuccessfully, to get the band signed.
Who Gene Simmons is
Gene Simmons was born Chaim Witz on August 25, 1949, in Haifa, Israel, and moved to the United States with his mother at age 8. He co-founded KISS in New York in 1973 alongside Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss, taking on bass, co-lead vocals, and the band's fire-breathing, blood-spitting "Demon" persona. KISS's shock-rock live show, makeup, and merchandising built one of hard rock's most recognizable brands across five decades.
Away from KISS, Simmons produced an early demo tape for a young, then-unsigned Van Halen in 1976 and tried to get the band a record deal. It didn't work out. Warner Bros. signed Van Halen the following year after label executives caught the band live at Hollywood's Starwood club.
The self-designed basses: Axe and Punisher
Simmons has largely played instruments of his own design rather than off-the-shelf models. His signature stage bass since the mid-1970s has been the Axe Bass, built in the shape of a battle axe. In 1992 he introduced a second design, the spikier Punisher, which Korean manufacturer Cort turned into an official signature model, the GS Punisher-2, starting in 2011, per Premier Guitar's coverage of the launch.
Simmons' current personal string gauge isn't documented in a source CYS can verify. What's well established is his playing style: driven with a pick for maximum attack and cut, the kind of approach that typically favors a heavier nickel roundwound gauge.
Nickel Wound Bass EXL160 (.050-.105)
Why this one: Not a claim about Simmons's own current gauge, which isn't documented. A heavier nickel roundwound set built for the kind of aggressive, pick-driven attack his playing calls for.