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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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.
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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golem
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As someone who has a multiscale headless Vader I got in trade for approximately $1K a year or two back, they are killer guitars. Multiscale was a curiosity for me. I don't hate it, but I don't feel like it's a must-have on future guitars, especially as Kiesel only offers them in a wider radius than I'd typically go for.

Headless is nice for the weight drop. @slowhand84 if you ever find a good deal on a headless gig bag that fits these well let me know. Mine only came with a full sized case and headless are the ideal travel guitar.
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slowhand84
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golem wrote: Sat Apr 19, 2025 2:20 pm As someone who has a multiscale headless Vader I got in trade for approximately $1K a year or two back, they are killer guitars. Multiscale was a curiosity for me. I don't hate it, but I don't feel like it's a must-have on future guitars, especially as Kiesel only offers them in a wider radius than I'd typically go for.

Headless is nice for the weight drop. @slowhand84 if you ever find a good deal on a headless gig bag that fits these well let me know. Mine only came with a full sized case and headless are the ideal travel guitar.
Kiesel's standard case for them is definitely much smaller than the one they use for non headless models, and they sell them direct (I want to say $200?). It's not on the website but you can call 'em and they'll sell you one. Sometimes they pop up used on Reverb but not very often. I also am not a multiscale guy, I tried a multiscale Vader but it just wasn't for me (something about it really cramped my hand up a LOT).

Also as an update to things, I finally went ahead with the pickup swap on this latest grab and I'm super happy with it - not only do the zebras look MUCH better in this than the white pickups did before, these Dimarzios are also a perfect match for the guitar and got me everything I wanted tone-wise. Went with a 36th Anniversary PAF in the neck and an AT1 in the bridge, and I also added a matching swamp ash backplate so now it's exactly how I wanted it to be.
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Tonray's Ghost
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Nice ..it actually looks like it belongs in a Star Wars sequel
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slowhand84
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Tonray's Ghost wrote: Wed May 07, 2025 7:39 am Nice ..it actually looks like it belongs in a Star Wars sequel
Certainly does, haha. One more photo to do the top a lil justice, looks much nicer with the zebras than those white pickups (and sounds much better too).
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Narsh
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Location: Parkland Florida
Gearlist: Main Guitars: Kiesel Aries 7, Kiesel SCB6H,
Main Bass: Yamaha TRBX305
Main Amps: Kemper Profiler, AxeFX II XL+, Neural DSP Parallaxe
Recording: MAC,Reaper, Focusrite 8i8 Gen3, JBL LSR308
And much, much, more...
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So jelly….. love that Vader congrats!
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slowhand84
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Narsh wrote: Sun May 11, 2025 1:03 pm So jelly….. love that Vader congrats!
Thanks man! Really glad I grabbed this one, it is a rarity for me to find a used one that hits all the marks for me. My next one will be one of the bolt-on Vaders they recently started making...hoping they'll allow a 24.75 scale since they recently started doing it for the Osiris models.
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