Pierre
Stratologist
Sooooo I accidentally another guitar.
I wanted a 'practice' guitar to play in front of the PC. It had to be compact, loud enough to hear over a movie by virtue of sounding loud and clear acoustically, and be lightweight.
I have a Reiver Kompact headless which is a SUPER cool guitar plugged in: plays fantastically well and sounds HUGE. But it's a quiet one without an amp, and it's my heaviest guitar by quite a wide margin. Nonetheless, I felt headless was where it's at. I had a US Strandberg which never quite got to play as well as I felt its price-tag implied, so I went looking for something else...
I speced a barebones Kiesel Vader: black, raw-tone finish over Swamp-Ash body and top, 5-pieces maple/Mahogany neck, chambered, med-jump stainless steel frets... and figured, well, there's a ton of those second-hands, it's better to get one of them than take a risk (I have an Aries 6 already and it's a cool axe, but she doesn't play as sleekly as I wished in spite of a ton of effort and time spent on it).
So I got this one for a good price. Aside from the aesthetics it's pretty close to what I'd have gotten: chambered, Swamp-Ash, same frets... only the finish, neck and inlays changed, so all good.
Plus she's blue
Most of my guitars are blue. That is unlikely to change.
First thing I did: yanked the bridge pickup and replaced it with a Bareknuckle I had laying about, a Juggernaut. Never heard or tried one before, I just grabbed the first pickup I found. I don't like those Lithiums...
The good:
* plays really, really damn well. Funny enough, I missed the 20" fingerboard radius and set-her up with 14" (it was night, I was tired
), and she's STILL easy as hell to play. Minimal buzz (and only because I lowered the strings AND There's virtually no relief on the neck) and my favored frets mean it's just super easy to pick-up
* Looks... cute! That was my first reaction when I opened the tiny soft-case she came in
* With the Juggernaut she sounds really, really good. Balanced, with a lot of body and power, but no overly harsh or present frequencies. Exactly how I like it
The bad (honestly not much):
* the frets have some tool marks/rough spots... nothing huge, but it's a missed opportunities for stainless-steel frets to not be mirror-sleek. This IS a second-hand axe, so maybe the previous owner put in A LOT of hours. None of these impact playability
* the Lithium pickups. This is the only guitar I own on which I will replace the neck pickup as well. I just don't enjoy them. Could barely tell you why... I just don't. The overall vibe of them doesn't jive with me
I don't consider the slightly different aesthetics (vs. what I'd have picked) a negative. If I reaaaally wanted MY Vader, I'd order one to my specs and sell this, treating as a trial. But for now I'm keeping it, she's just a great axe!
I'm far from a Kiesel fanboy. I have another one, and I'm not 100% happy with it, but it's super lightweight and sounds HUGE unplugged, which is why I went with this brand again. That Vader is a very, very good guitar (as far as I can tell in one day ) and it's making me very happy and excited to play her, which is what it's all about at the end (and the beginning) of the day.
The pictures:
I wanted a 'practice' guitar to play in front of the PC. It had to be compact, loud enough to hear over a movie by virtue of sounding loud and clear acoustically, and be lightweight.
I have a Reiver Kompact headless which is a SUPER cool guitar plugged in: plays fantastically well and sounds HUGE. But it's a quiet one without an amp, and it's my heaviest guitar by quite a wide margin. Nonetheless, I felt headless was where it's at. I had a US Strandberg which never quite got to play as well as I felt its price-tag implied, so I went looking for something else...
I speced a barebones Kiesel Vader: black, raw-tone finish over Swamp-Ash body and top, 5-pieces maple/Mahogany neck, chambered, med-jump stainless steel frets... and figured, well, there's a ton of those second-hands, it's better to get one of them than take a risk (I have an Aries 6 already and it's a cool axe, but she doesn't play as sleekly as I wished in spite of a ton of effort and time spent on it).
So I got this one for a good price. Aside from the aesthetics it's pretty close to what I'd have gotten: chambered, Swamp-Ash, same frets... only the finish, neck and inlays changed, so all good.
Plus she's blue
Most of my guitars are blue. That is unlikely to change.First thing I did: yanked the bridge pickup and replaced it with a Bareknuckle I had laying about, a Juggernaut. Never heard or tried one before, I just grabbed the first pickup I found. I don't like those Lithiums...
The good:
* plays really, really damn well. Funny enough, I missed the 20" fingerboard radius and set-her up with 14" (it was night, I was tired
), and she's STILL easy as hell to play. Minimal buzz (and only because I lowered the strings AND There's virtually no relief on the neck) and my favored frets mean it's just super easy to pick-up* Looks... cute! That was my first reaction when I opened the tiny soft-case she came in
* With the Juggernaut she sounds really, really good. Balanced, with a lot of body and power, but no overly harsh or present frequencies. Exactly how I like it
The bad (honestly not much):
* the frets have some tool marks/rough spots... nothing huge, but it's a missed opportunities for stainless-steel frets to not be mirror-sleek. This IS a second-hand axe, so maybe the previous owner put in A LOT of hours. None of these impact playability
* the Lithium pickups. This is the only guitar I own on which I will replace the neck pickup as well. I just don't enjoy them. Could barely tell you why... I just don't. The overall vibe of them doesn't jive with me
I don't consider the slightly different aesthetics (vs. what I'd have picked) a negative. If I reaaaally wanted MY Vader, I'd order one to my specs and sell this, treating as a trial. But for now I'm keeping it, she's just a great axe!
I'm far from a Kiesel fanboy. I have another one, and I'm not 100% happy with it, but it's super lightweight and sounds HUGE unplugged, which is why I went with this brand again. That Vader is a very, very good guitar (as far as I can tell in one day
) and it's making me very happy and excited to play her, which is what it's all about at the end (and the beginning) of the day.The pictures:
