visit to Kiesel

[Vin Diezel]

I had two Vaders and the headless design (I suppose) caused the dead spots to move to the 8th and 9th string of the G string; no sustain. Just Dead.
I had it rebuilt with different woods: same result. Not a smart or well-tested design. The Kiesel PUs also suck big time. Thin and sterile tone. No bass, lots of high mids.
A cheap yamaha strat sounds better. I do not know why the best electric guitar player plays Kiesel.
Workmanship (CNC) and fretjob is flawless.

 

[jsp]

I've always been curious, what's the point of the headstock-less design?

 

[MYLILSS]

you are definitely right about the Kiesel guitars and owners having their finishes talked about more than playability.

There have been lots of Carvin/Kiesel discussions here and I haven't noticed that at all.

Yeah, that's not true. My 2 Kiesels look, play and sound great.

not sure if y'all are referring to my comment or not, but my comment was aimed at the fact people generally seem to talk about how great the guitars look, but you rarely see anyone give an in depth description of the playability or the neck shape. it may have been taken the wrong way, but the general consensus I see across the net is how awesome the guitars look and how they have tons of different finish options, but you don't hear or see a lot of people discuss the details in the way they play. I am probably one of the biggest fans of kiesel guitars out there, and anymore I play nothing but this brand of guitars.

I love all aspects of the brand, hell I have the headstock of my main gigging guitar tattoo'd on my forearm as the start of a sleeve I am working on

 

[Tone Zone]

I had two Vaders and the headless design (I suppose) caused the dead spots to move to the 8th and 9th string of the G string; no sustain. Just Dead.
I had it rebuilt with different woods: same result. Not a smart or well-tested design. The Kiesel PUs also suck big time. Thin and sterile tone. No bass, lots of high mids.
A cheap yamaha strat sounds better. I do not know why the best electric guitar player plays Kiesel.
Workmanship (CNC) and fretjob is flawless.

I disagree about the Kiesel Lithium pickups. In my alder bodied Aries guitars, they sound good...especially in comparison to all the Carvin pickups I've played through in the past. As far as the Vader goes...I never even considered it. For one, I don't do neck throughs. And, the headless design...I'll pass. You put those together, and you've probably got a shitty-tonal design alright.

 

[Vin Diezel]

I do not want to talk anyone out of buying Kiesel guitars. I'm just sharing my experiences with the two I had. Compared to the other guitars I have, they were a huge disappointment. That's just how it is. There are also lots of shitty Gibsons and what not and people keep buying those...

 

[moltenmetalburn]

This place ain't what it used to be. Sad.

+1

Seriously, about to head out for greener pastures, past the prime and on the decline...

 

[Vin Diezel]

In what respect?

 

[mrcak]

In what respect?

"The place isn't what it used to be" in the respect that back then it was WELCOMED when you pointed out a shit Company. Now, PC fags can't take anything negative.
He's correct though. Back when Sgt Thump and the other guy were owners here, it was a better place.

 

[Vin Diezel]

Ah ok. I do not remember the good ole times because I haven't been posting so long.
I do not want to ramble on, but I have proof that Kiesel do not know what they are doing. As a paying customer I should not be a beta-tester that has to school the tech on basic stuff.
Programming a CNC machine is not guitar building. Guitars are not cupboards. Otherwise we would put strings and pickups on cupboards.
And I am not picky. Give me a Yamaha Pacifica and I'll play my 3 and a half licks.
End of story.

 

[LWD]

A zero fret developing grooves in it is pretty much unavoidable even with stainless frets. I can also guarantee that EVERY guitar builder no matter how heralded by the masses, Suhr, Tyler, Anderson, gets customers who cant be satisfied and complain. As an example My brother used to be a Vigier dealer. A customer bought a brand new Shawn Lane Master. Zero fret, totally flat fingerboard, ridiculous low action. The guitar played fine. The customer didn't agree. He was "Really bummed". Took it to "his tech" who said it needed $150.00 in set up. Total horse shit. He wanted my brother to pay for it. My brother told him to send the guitar back and he'd refund his money. Then he wanted to keep it. Some people think a new guitar is going to magically make them play better and when that doesn't happen they're pissed. Ive had a couple irritating flubs by a very well known builder but I didn't air it out and bash them online. I called them directly and talked to whoever I needed to too get it taken care of.

 

[Vin Diezel]

You're insinuating that we are just a bunch of those hypercritical customers who blame the builder for our inabilities.
In my case at least this is completely untrue. Everything I pointed out about the Kiesel headless guitars is factual and confirmed by the tech himself.

 

[messenger]

Why would being headless cause dead spots? Unless I mis read that

 

[Vin Diezel]

Because the weight of the headstock is missing. It's basically physics (resonance frequencies), bad luck and not testing your design properly.
(Playing palm mutes on the low E string might not be enough! )
The missing headstock seems to move the deadspots from other places to the middle of the G string, where you certainly do not want them to be.
If you have a dead spot on the 17th fret, the sustain is already not so good because of the shortness of the string. It's much less noticeable.
But if you design a guitar where you regularly have dead spots on the eighth and ninth fret of the G string and bad sustain in general, you cannot call yourself a good guitar builder.
Maybe heavier wood or whatever would have helped. Imho, it's not the customer's job to redesign a guitar in this price range.

 

[messenger]

Because the weight of the headstock is missing. It's basically physics (resonance frequencies), bad luck and not testing your design properly.
(Playing palm mutes on the low E string might not be enough! )
The missing headstock seems to move the deadspots from other places to the middle of the G string, where you certainly do not want them to be.
If you have a dead spot on the 17th fret, the sustain is already not so good because of the shortness of the string. It's much less noticeable.
But if you design a guitar where you regularly have dead spots on the eighth and ninth fret of the G string and bad sustain in general, you cannot call yourself a good guitar builder.
Maybe heavier wood or whatever would have helped. Imho, it's not the customer's job to redesign a guitar in this price range.

Sounds like a bunch of internet Mumbo Jumbo to me, but who knows

 

[Vin Diezel]

You need not believe me or the Kiesel tech, who basically said the same thing. Buy one and find out for yourself.

 

[Vrad]

You need not believe me or the Kiesel tech, who basically said the same thing. Buy one and find out for yourself.

I did and I have no idea what you're talking about...
I hang around that area on the neck a lot and there's no dead spots there or anywhere else.

 

[Vin Diezel]

I had two.

 

[kunos]

Sounds like a bunch of internet Mumbo Jumbo to me, but who knows

yup... sounds the same to me here.
Had a lot of headless guitars in my life, Steinbergers in the past and 3 Strandbergs now, never had any of these elusive dead spots he seem to attribute to headless design.
The zero fret notches thing is sadly real, it's the nature of the beast, it's just a matter of when more than a matter of if.

 

[Vin Diezel]

Never have I stated that all headless instruments must have dead spots in bad places. It all comes down to try it out or to measure where you are going with your design.
The long scale Vader and the 7 string version may work fine (heavier neck), I cannot comment on that because I had none of these. The sixstring Fender scale ones do not.

This what seems to be called internet mumbo jumbo here is actually science: https://www.unibw.de/lrt4/mechanik/mita ... adspots-en

But why bother...

 

[Blackbird]

Never have I stated that all headless instruments must have dead spots in bad places. It all comes down to try it out or to measure where you are going with your design.
The long scale Vader and the 7 string version may work fine (heavier neck), I cannot comment on that because I had none of these. The sixstring Fender scale ones do not.

This what seems to be called internet mumbo jumbo here is actually science: https://www.unibw.de/lrt4/mechanik/mita ... adspots-en

But why bother...

Sounds like you are making stuff up.