Koa Kiesel Vader Has Landed!

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slowhand84
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I will NEVER stop being blown away by these instruments, holy cow. This is my 4th headless Kiesel (and 2nd Vader), and it's just an absolute stunner. We have a swamp ash body, lovely koa top, 3 pc laminate body option, 5 pc maple/walnut neck, birdseye maple fretboard with jumbo stainless frets, and it only weighs 5.8 lbs (despite not being chambered). As I mentioned in an earlier thread this thing specs out to nearly $3,500 on the builder and I managed to grab it for just over $1500 shipped.

Plays amazing as these always do with really low action, and since this is the same exact neck profile as my favorite Vader I already feel totally at home on it. The pickups (Lithiums) sound good, but the white isn't doing it for me so I'll probably be swapping them for a zebra or cream set of Dimarzio/Suhr/Bareknuckles, depending on what I dig up.

For some reason adding pics my usual way here isn't working (it's giving me an "HTTP Error"?), so here's a link with all of 'em:

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slowhand84
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And one more, to try and do the top some justice:
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Rollin Hand
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darth-vader.gif
Nice.
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Elbows up.
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slowhand84
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Rollin Hand wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 4:53 pm darth-vader.gif

Nice.
Yep yep, definitely another winner! Been trying to get a pic that does the top some freakin' justice, this has been the closest so far:
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Spike
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Location: Northern Indiana

Beautiful guitar! I never noticed the high fret access those things have.
To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift
Steve Prefontaine
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slowhand84
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Spike wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2025 3:37 pm Beautiful guitar! I never noticed the high fret access those things have.
Thanks! Yep the upper fret access on all of my headless Kiesels is fantastic (and because they balance perfectly they're just flat out more comfortable to play than all my other guitars in general).

They actually just recently redesigned the heels on these models (like a few weeks ago) to make the fret access even better. I'm not about to drop a ton of money on a new build to see just how much of a difference it is, but its great that they're constantly striving to improve things.
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dante001x
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Gearlist: Yamaha FS800

Man, that guitar is an absolute stunner. It’s a killer setup, and getting it at that price is wild.
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slowhand84
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dante001x wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2025 6:15 pm Man, that guitar is an absolute stunner. It’s a killer setup, and getting it at that price is wild.
Thanks, and welcome to the forum!! They really make some incredible stuff. Here are the rest of my Kiesels, all just as amazing as this one. The other Vader I custom ordered myself back in 2018, and the others I bought used from a close friend for deals that were just as killer (or more) than this latest grab:
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