Who designed, built and purchased a Kiesel?

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rsm

rsm

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I've designed dozens with the builder, never purchased.

Who here designed and purchased a new Kiesel?

Thoughts on the process and the results?

Getting sooo close on doing it.
 
dave74 said:
I did back when they were Carvin. Those were worker guitars though, not the showboats of the modern Kiesel world.
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Yeh; not looking for fancy showboat. Thinking a chambered Holdsworth, with trem, solid color, gloss, painted neck (body color).

Still prices out at $2,499.
 
Built a Carvin in 2010-11...great guitar...great experience. Built a Kiesel in 2014-15...horrible guitar....horrible experience. Just my 2 of course, but I'd never so much as look at Kiesel again personally.
 
Never ordered one but got close to pulling the trigger…the only thing that held me back was reading about qc issues and subsequent mishandling by the customer service team
 
Leveraged Sellout said:
Never ordered one but got close to pulling the trigger…the only thing that held me back was reading about qc issues and subsequent mishandling by the customer service team
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yeh, hearing good and bad things about the experience. Why I asked here. I've been happy with my $1K and less guitars, so spending more these days, other than my new PS10, is a hard sell for me. Again, I'm not into fancy woods and dinning room furniture pieces.
 
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Most of the negative stories you hear are years in the past at this point (queue a post of someone that had a bad experience last week).

I've ordered five Kiesels (two prior to the new online builder) and every experience has been rock solid. The guitars came in perfect, set up and dead in tune. Delivery dates within 2 weeks of quoted time at the latest. Only thing I would say is this: once your order is placed it's locked. This is not a three person shop that is going to be cool with changing specs/sending you progress pics/chatting on the phone. Kiesel is a high volume custom shop. Do all of your research beforehand, call with questions, etc. and you're going to have a great experience.

If you call in to ask questions or place an order ask for Chris Hong. I wanted to try something a little unorthodox and he took the time to find a guitar he sold years prior that was similar and send me a picture of it.

The sheer amount of control you have in designing your own guitar out of a true custom shop is unmatched IMO (and you're not waiting a year for it unless you go crazy with K series or something). They're well designed and well built. Go for it man
 
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rsm said:
I've designed dozens with the builder, never purchased.

Who here designed and purchased a new Kiesel?

Thoughts on the process and the results?

Getting sooo close on doing it.
Click to expand...
I have. Do yourself a favor and call them first. The work is good. The wood is beautiful. But if you order, it is done. No changes can be made. I did the online order and then called when they opened to tell them a single pickup and they couldnt change it.

That said, im not a tonewood guy on electrics, but that guitar sounded dead. Beautiful though. Easy to sell. Was 1500 new and it sold for more on reverb
 
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I ordered one right before they changed to Kiesel, so it still says Carvin on the headstock but has all the modern Kiesel stuff, like the treated birdseye maple board. Mine was part of a run and for the price it cost, there isn't a single guitar anywhere close to what I paid for it that's better. That said, the guitar would be like $4k now and it's definitely not a $4k guitar unless you're just comparing looks.

I've owned a lot of high end guitars over the years, including some of the most coveted brands, like Blackmachine, Oni, Hufschmid, Mayones, PRS Artists, Custom Shop/Vintage Gibsons, etc. The best guitars being made right now are coming from EBMM as far as I'm concerned. The fretwork rules, the hardware is killer and the guitars just feel super high quality, even their lower end pieces. Compared to the Blackmachine B2 I had, there's really no comparison. One guitar is all hype, the other is the real deal 🤷‍♂️
 
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tallcoolone said:
Do they have a variety of neck profile options?
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They have thinner and thicker profiles available for a small upcharge. Can't give you much detail because I always go with the standard neck, it's one of my favorites. They're pretty thin...not Ibanez Wizard thin, more like a Jackson.

Actually I take that back - on my 7 string I have the thinner neck profile with a 20 inch radius and it is stupid thin.
 
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Consensus Ive read is that your best bet is to just keep the specs reasonably simple and you'll be fine. QC issues seem to happen occasionally but at least recently they seem dealt with appropriately unless there were wild options that become problematic.
 
I really wanted a Jason Becker Numbers guitar from them, but the high pressure sales tactic BS started as soon as we got past the email stage and onto the phone. That and they were unwilling to do a simple reverse headstock. Some "custom shop".
 
paulyc said:
I really wanted a Jason Becker Numbers guitar from them, but the high pressure sales tactic BS started as soon as we got past the email stage and onto the phone. That and they were unwilling to do a simple reverse headstock. Some "custom shop".
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Not surprised to hear that, they often won't go off spec for the signature guitars. Reminds me that I really want a Numbers guitar though - $1,799 for a premium spec'd guitars (original Floyd Rose, Jason's Seymour Duncans, premium woods, quartersawn neck, etc.) is a stupid good deal.
 
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I had this built by Kiesel in 2016. It was absolutely flawless. It looked, felt and sounded excellent. It was on par with my custom built PRS Artist series at half of the cost at the time with more options. Only sold it because I didn’t get along with the multi scale and wish I had built it standard. Should have gone back and done just that but we were moving at the time and life got in the way.

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I have one my Step Father ordered and bought new.
It is very nice and plays and sounds excellent.
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MatrixClaw said:
I ordered one right before they changed to Kiesel, so it still says Carvin on the headstock but has all the modern Kiesel stuff, like the treated birdseye maple board. Mine was part of a run and for the price it cost, there isn't a single guitar anywhere close to what I paid for it that's better. That said, the guitar would be like $4k now and it's definitely not a $4k guitar unless you're just comparing looks.

I've owned a lot of high end guitars over the years, including some of the most coveted brands, like Blackmachine, Oni, Hufschmid, Mayones, PRS Artists, Custom Shop/Vintage Gibsons, etc. The best guitars being made right now are coming from EBMM as far as I'm concerned. The fretwork rules, the hardware is killer and the guitars just feel super high quality, even their lower end pieces. Compared to the Blackmachine B2 I had, there's really no comparison. One guitar is all hype, the other is the real deal 🤷‍♂️
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If only necks on EBMMs wouldn warp that frequently.
 
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