Ordering A Kiesel Vader V6X

Took the plunge yesterday and put down a deposit for a Kiesel Vader V6X. 

Do I really need another guitar? Nope.

But do I need a headless guitar? Most definitely!

Before I get too excited, let me backtrack just a little bit.

I'm not sure why, but there was a spate of orders of Kiesel guitars by a few of my guitar playing friends recently. And everyone who bought one was raving about their build-quality, stunning wood tops, and all-round great tones and playability. 

I'm quite familar with the Carvin brand, now known as Kiesel, having pored over their advertisements in Guitar Player magazine back in the 80's where the ad copy guaranteed the action at the twelfth fret be 1/16th of an inch! Not too shabby, especially for a time when most guitars seemed to ship set up for slide playing.

I made several pilgrimages to Sunset Boulevard and the now-defunct Carvin store in the early 2000's. On my first visit, I remember trying out the very first few Allan Holdsworth models to be produced, marveling at how the Wilkinson tremolos were so well adjusted that they seemed to flutter unfettered for several seconds when you flicked the trem bar.  

And all this recent hubbub about Kiesel had me revisiting their website again after quite a number of years. It was nice to see Kiesel still producing the good old Carvin staples like the DC, Holdsworth and Bolt series, along with a bunch of new models I was completely unfamiliar with. 

But I must admit, one glance at the new Kiesel Vader immediately drew me in with its sleek profile and delicious curves. And all for a ridiculously low base price of $1199 for the 6-string model.

Essentially a neck-through instrument with body wings, the Vader is available in a myriad of wood and finish options. 'Myriad', in this case, is an understatement -- the options available are staggering. 

Did I mention that the Vader is also available in 7 and 8 string versions, in regular and fanned-fret 'multiscale' configurations? So if you're the OCD type and prone to option anxiety, it's best to browse the cool Guitar Builder tool with the supervision of another adult.

Ah, that Guitar Builder tool. What a slippery slope it is.

Kiesel Vader Guitar Builder -- hours of fun

After a couple of hours with Guitar Builder I actually hit the checkout button all set to pay for the Vader V6X. But when I clicked for shipping options, only a $27 Ground Shipping option was available. So off went that first email to Kiesel.

Strangely, I didn't hear back from them for almost two weeks. In the meantime, a near mint 2011 '61 Reissue Gibson SG floated past on Ishibashi's U-Box which I pulled the trigger on. But that's a story for another article.

When I did hear back from Keith at Kiesel, he informed me that the $27 covered shipping by FedEx Air to Singapore. Which is an amazingly good deal!

So off I went to the races again with the Guitar Builder tool, trying to envision in my mind what the different wood and finish options would not only look good together, but work well sonically, while keeping within a budget of around $1500. 

Here's what my initial specifications looked like:

Kiesel Vader V6X with Hipshot/Tremolo System

• Maple Neck/Alder Body 
• Clear Gloss Finish
• White/White
• Clear Gloss Finish Back Of Neck
• Rear Body/Neck Natural Clear
• Birdseye Maple Fingerboard
• Staggered Offset Dot Inlays
• Abalone Inlay Material
• Stainless Steel Jumbo Frets .055"H .110"W
• 20 Inch Fretboard Radius
• Kiesel K12B Passive Bridge Pickup
• Kiesel K12N Passive Neck Pickup
• White Coils With Black Bezels
• Black Hardware
• Black Logo
• Metal Knobs With Abalone Inlays
• Dunlop Straplocks
• Black Ultimate Soft Guitar Case

Browsing the web further, I came across a white Vader with a beautiful Kiesel-treated, baked maple fingerboard that showed off the grain of the birdseye very impressively. Jeff Kiesel apparently hand finishes each Kiesel-treated fingerboard personally, with, some say, an upgrade from a special wood stash with extra grain and figure. Beautiful indeed. Unfortunately the baked maple and Kiesel treatment would have put me over budget. 

It'll have to wait for my next build...

Instead, I decided that I was going to bling out the fretboard with nice blocks of abalone on a birdseye maple fingerboard.  But I had a feeling that the blue-green of the abalone wouldn't stand out as well on pale maple. At any rate, I already have several several guitars with maple fingerboards and only two guitars with ebony fretboards -- a Gibson ES347 and my trusty Ibanez Pat Metheny PM100. So ebony it was going to be, to contrast against and really make those abalone block markers pop! 

After a couple of days of sleeping on it, I came up with these fresh specs which I emailed to Keith at Kiesel:

Kiesel Vader V6X with Hipshot/Tremolo System

• Maple Neck/Mahogany Body 
• Clear Gloss Finish
• White/White
• Clear Gloss Finish Back Of Neck
• Rear Body/Neck Natural Clear
• Ebony Fingerboard
• Block Inlays
• Abalone Inlay Material
• Stainless Steel Jumbo Frets .055"H .110"W
• 20 Inch Fretboard Radius
• Kiesel K12B Passive Bridge Pickup
• Kiesel K12N Passive Neck Pickup
• White Coils With Black Bezels
• Black Hardware
• Black Logo
• Metal Knobs With Abalone Inlays
• Dunlop Straplocks
• Black Ultimate Soft Guitar Case

Kiesel's mahogany stock is of the Honduran variety, close-grained and with a beautiful reddish-brown hue. I figured it would be a shame not to take advantage of this option -- it would look really good in contrast with the neck-through maple neck, visible on the back of the Vader which will be finished in clear gloss. 

Maple and ebony are both really tight sounding woods so I'm hoping the mahogany body wings will temper the brightness a little.

This will also be my first guitar with a very flat 20" fingerboard radius. Definitely Holdsworth-approved. 

The stainless steel jumbo frets are also a first for me but I've always been fascinated by how smooth and slick stainless steel feels -- .010 to .046 string gauges play almost like a .009 to .042 set in terms of bendability. And the fact that fretwear over time will be next to imperceptible is a huge plus. The guitar will likely not need to be refretted -- ever.

Browsing the Kiesel Vader V6X picture library, I couldn't find another guitar with the exact same specs as what I have in mind so I cobbled up this picture composite -- just to have something to look at before the real thing comes in in a couple of months.

Kiesel Vader V6X