What is the consensus on Kiesel Guitars? And just general help on selecting a guitar.

ItsRote

ItsRote

New member
So what's up with Kiesel Guitars now? I know there was some drama with a customer and Jeff Kiesel and he did apologize, but if the quality is good I can look past that. I built my own guitar on the custom shop and its pretty nice, how is the quality standard on these guitars?
Also looked at some Suhr, Jackson, ESP, Ibanez, Schecter and Mayones Guitars, and just haven't found one I really like. I created a guitar in the Mayones custom shop but I'm just not sure about their necks, some people think they're quite thick and C shaped. Even saw someone even say their neck is like holding a box with sharp edges, which doesn't sound great.
The Suhr legacy standard with the EMG 85/SA/SA I looked at was pretty nice they just don't seem overly shreddy, not sure the pickups have enough output.
Anyone able to help?
Only issue with ESP and Jackson is I have not found a standard model with the specs and color scheme I would like, and their custom shop is likely $6000+ at least.
 
I had an issue with a Kiesel and they would not correct it. I wound up returning the guitar which is a shame because aesthetically it came out exactly how I envisioned. Functionally the guitar was a turd. Jeff himself made a video and posted it on social media basically saying I photo shopped the pics I posted on forums and that I said things that weren't true just to make his company look bad. Guy is about a big a douche bag as there is in my book.

Edit:

Here is my post if you're bored:
https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/kiesels-customer-service-sucks.187387/
 
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They are great at some stuff, meh at other stuff. They're a great value for the headless and ultra modern type stuff, and theres tons of optionif youre looking for certain specs.

For a high quality super strat i would go elsewhere though - Suhr, TA, Mayones, ESP, i would all say are just better at those types of guitars. Jacksons custom shop I would steer Far, FAR away from until they get their QC sorted.
 
I have a Kiesel custom I inherited.
I love it !
Great quality plays great and sounds great as well as looks sweet !
It was setup by Mike Lull before he passed so that helps it play great as well.
 
DanTravis62 said:
They are great at some stuff, meh at other stuff. They're a great value for the headless and ultra modern type stuff, and theres tons of optionif youre looking for certain specs.

For a high quality super strat i would go elsewhere though - Suhr, TA, Mayones, ESP, i would all say are just better at those types of guitars. Jacksons custom shop I would steer Far, FAR away from until they get their QC sorted.
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Do the EMG 85/SA/SA on the Suhr have enough output? See some people also complain about the ESP E-II series having flaws, also are the Mayones necks as bad as some say? And what is TA?
 
ItsRote said:
Do the EMG 85/SA/SA on the Suhr have enough output? See some people also complain about the ESP E-II series having flaws, also are the Mayones necks as bad as some say? And what is TA?
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The 85 SA SA probably does, the Suhr depends on which suhr set, theres different ones.

TA is tom anderson

The e-ii series does have flaws sometimes, but their QC is WAY better than kiesels, thats for sure.

The Mayones necks I think are great; they certainly arent "sharp" - I have large hands though, so take that with a grain of salt.
 
I ordered one. Did what you did and did the website builder. Later, I called so that I could tell them the options i wanted that weren't available on the website. The guy told me i should have called from the beginning. I was like, ok, just cancel it. They won't. If you want to get a guitar, call them. I think the guitar was beautiul, but it wasn't at all what i wanted, because i just was excited and wanted to get my deposit in. I didn't know they were going to fuck me like that. I played it for a few months, but i ended up selling it. Was a beautiful guitar, so I made a profit on it. Very reasonably priced and they have some beautiful work. If I were getting a new guitar, I would probably go KXK. I had one that wasn't really the features i want, and I still miss that guitar. ESP I hear is great to go through, also. I have a custom jackson I love, but they didn't really pay attention to the features that i initially asked for. But the guitar came out so good, i couldn't get rid of it.
 
DanTravis62 said:
The 85 SA SA probably does, the Suhr depends on which suhr set, theres different ones.

TA is tom anderson

The e-ii series does have flaws sometimes, but their QC is WAY better than kiesels, thats for sure.

The Mayones necks I think are great; they certainly arent "sharp" - I have large hands though, so take that with a grain of salt.
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Cheers for that.
 
MetalHeadMike said:
I had an issue with a Kiesel and they would not correct it. I wound up returning the guitar which is a shame because aesthetically it came out exactly how I envisioned. Functionally the guitar was a turd. Jeff himself made a video and posted it on social media basically saying I photo shopped the pics I posted on forums and that I said things that weren't true just to make his company look bad. Guy is about a big a douche bag as there is in my book.

Edit:

Here is my post if you're bored:
https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/kiesels-customer-service-sucks.187387/
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, seems like a lot of mixed opinions reading through the comments, probably is not worth flipping a $4000 coin on if the guitar is gonna arrive in good condition or not.
 
I have not played anything since Kiesel took over but I have owned several Carvin DC727's (still have one) and I love them
I cannot order another 7 from them because they no longer offer any type of Floyd on any of the 7 string models, so I will make do with the DC727 I currently own. I don't think I've ever played a 6 string Carvin /Kiesel, so unfortunately I cannot help you out there.
In the past they were kind of hit or miss playability wise. on another forum I used to frequent quite a bit years ago members used to say that Cavin makes the best looking unplayable guitars for the money. I never had that experience , all 3 of mine ripped and sounded great once I dropped in BK's
 
Great guitars , features. Playability. I've had a few that were meh , and a few that were keepers that I will never sell. In particular my dc127 and a cs624.

As far as the company , I've had my issues. The last guitar I ordered from them was an scb6 and they sprayed the back gloss instead of satin and were like yea we can rebuild it but you gotta wait another 12 weeks or so. I ended up taking the guitar anyway , it was beautiful.

It also came with the pickup dangling out of the cavity , and the input jack totally loose, and when I got the guitar I realized it had the wrong fret markers on it as well.

In addition. I could not fit my normal string gauge setup through the low e tuning peg (.54 gauge) because of how thick the veneer was on the headstock.

Shit happens I get it , but it sort of came off like the company doesn't really give a crap quite frankly, Your just a number, and this is coming from me who ordered at least 5 or 6 really nice guitars from them over the years.

I'm pretty sure they lost me a customer forever, it's a shame because they do build some nice stuff. I'll always keep my dc127 and cs624
 
I’ve not tried any Kiesel’s or Luxxtone’s, but have had tons of high end super strats over the years and the only keepers for me have in that category have been just my Charvels and vintage Schecters. For Superstrats a good custom shop or vintage Charvel is very hard to beat imo in both tone and playability. The vintage Schecters are also very cool and have unique woods they use (one of mine is an all rosewood body and the other is all Paduak body with 5 pickups)

FWIW I’ve had in the past for superstrats: 3 Mayones (tried tons others), 2 Vik’s, Skervesen, Barlow, McNaught, ESP Custom Shops (one of them original series made for Madonna’s guitarist), James Tyler, Suhr’s, Bernie Rico Jr, Aristides, 3 Carvin’s, Jackson SL2H, and Ibanez. Besides that I’ve tried quite a few SS’s by Tom Anderson, Siggi Braun, Custom Shop Dean’s, Framus and Schecter. I have no desire to own another of any of those anymore. The only SS’s still on my radar would be just a GNG and Marchione (still gotta try those 2) and maybe another vintage Schecter or Charvel with cool enough specs

Of all those SS’s I crossed off my list, many of them looked beautiful, played very nicely, but most sounded quite sterile compared to my keeper guitars and I found the Charvels to still play better for my taste. If there’s any advice I could give, it would be to avoid poly or oil finish and go for nitro if you value your guitar’s tone. Problem is too many makers today don’t care much about how they sound. They’ll be meticulous about most things, but tone. Very backwards way of doing things imo
 
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I am not into Kiesel's stuff and definitely and have no interest based upon the stories about them over the years. Jerry at Luxxtone is awesome to me and his service is great. I am waiting for a Chubtone build right now that is late but it is understandable to me. I am not upset about it. Curious about how it will be since it is first one I ever ordered from him. Suhr's and Charvel Custom shop guitars are great and I have had many of them but their prices now are not worth it to me anymore.
 
I had one made. Mahog body with ebony board and lithium pickups. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. It was neck heavy, and had I known that, I wouldn’t have ordered it.

I didnt play it much, and when i put it on craigslist to sell it, i was cleaning it up to go meet a buyer, And i noticed that there was a long crack in the fretboard spanning several frets. Hoping for good karma, I told the guy about the crack. I took a haircut on the sale and even more because of the crack. Is an ebony fretboard crack unique to Kiesel? No, but i have other ebony boards that didn’t crack when moving around various climates. F me
 
Was addicted to them at one point and owned 7.
Great bargain for a USA made guitar but not what I'd consider small luthier quality.

This one was pretty all-around amazing and if not for Strandberg I'd still have it.

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A friend in college back in the late 2000’s ordered one of the dc727’s back when it was Carvin. It was a fantastic looking and fantastic playing guitar but it was kind of a plank… just didn’t really sound good no matter what pickups were in it. After googling it seemed a common complaint.

I haven’t heard about them sounding dead since the switch over to kiesel though so maybe they fixed whatever the issue was. That being said jeff’s persona put me off ever ordering anything from them, so I haven’t paid that much attention.
 
Their stuff is great value and consistent, but I’d stick with buying used rather than buying custom, as they have a track record of bad customer service if an issue was to come up.
 
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