I unknowingly bought a Kiesel that someone made a 22 page thread complaining about.

[M3CHK1LLA]

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I fucking love knock off brands and in my opinion they tend to be better most of the time. Maybe that's why I'm such a Kiesel Bro. For real tho anybody else have any love for Aldi (Midwest Grocery Store) in this bitch?

Aldi is a German grocery store chain with USA locations. The Aldi stores in Germany are wayyyyyy better (they have dirt cheap booze)

 

[slim231990]

Aldi is a German grocery store chain with USA locations. The Aldi stores in Germany are wayyyyyy better (they have dirt cheap booze)

I knew it was German owned, but wasn't sure if they have stores in every state lol. But yea I always use Aldi as an example for Kiesel. I try to suggest Aldi to people around here and they tell me only poor people go there lmao "they go to Walmarts not no Aldis". But yea I get the same thing from people looking at expensive gibsons and fenders when I suggest Kiesel. Oh well I guess lmao

 

[jaxadam]

I knew it was German owned, but wasn't sure if they have stores in every state lol. But yea I always use Aldi as an example for Kiesel. I try to suggest Aldi to people around here and they tell me only poor people go there lmao "they go to Walmarts not no Aldis". But yea I get the same thing from people looking at expensive gibsons and fenders when I suggest Kiesel. Oh well I guess lmao

My wife loves Aldi. It is very basic and utilitarian but they switch it up and we can get a lot of stuff there that fits into our lifestyle.

 

[TedEH]

It's generated over 30 forum pages of conversation.

If I've learned anything on this forum, it's that nuance and page counts are not correlated.

Getting more and more hyped for page number....

TWENTY TWOOOOOOOO

 

[slim231990]

One time I smashed the fuck outa my vaders neck tip (lmao I guess you'd call it that?) via ceiling fan on high setting. I'm 6'2 and I was taking my guitar with a strap off over my head and was a dingus. Anyways it took it like a champ and you guessed it...still in tune and not even a ding. Idk if one of my old Gibsons would take it that good lol. But like Kirk says you gotta break your headstock and have it glued back on for that dank tone.

Cmon guys I'm doing my part to appease the gods of SSO. 10 more!

(bump)

 

[SalsaWood]

This should paddle things along:

Does loosening neck bolts, tuning, then tightening neck bolts do a damn thing? Taking inventory of my absolutely atrocious "It's tighter than" jokes now.

Carvin > Kiesel. Fight me. I'm a lover.

Oblique comparisons to guitars costing two or three times as much, anyone? Pics of Onis or shens.

 

[M3CHK1LLA]

 

[nightsprinter]

Edit- Thought better of posting what I posted so it gone.

Consider this just another step to 22

 

[slim231990]

This should paddle things along:

Does loosening neck bolts, tuning, then tightening neck bolts do a damn thing? Taking inventory of my absolutely atrocious "It's tighter than" jokes now.

Carvin > Kiesel. Fight me. I'm a lover.

Oblique comparisons to guitars costing two or three times as much, anyone? Pics of Onis or shens.

Yea the whole neck loosening thing I've never heard of lol. I consider myself pretty handy guitar tech, but no expert, and tend to leave my bolt on necks alone and don't have any trouble. I can honestly say I've never taken apart a neck first thing.

And yea Carvin was fucking cool man. I always dreamed of a 7 with an ebony FB back in the day and they made that a reality for me. I'll always have a special place in my heart for them just for that reason. I also think that's why I give Kiesel a little more leeway than most on here. Also I'm a lover too so I offer a virtual peace joint in lieu of fighting.

 

[narad]

And yea Carvin was fucking cool man. I always dreamed of a 7 with an ebony FB back in the day and they made that a reality for me. I'll always have a special place in my heart for them just for that reason. I also think that's why I give Kiesel a little more leeway than most on here.

Exactly why Kiesel gets my complete hatred. Carvin was fucking cool. Just had to keep doing what they were doing. You want fancy wood? Here are your choices: walnut, koa, and figured maple. The big three. Instead they had to rebrand for like... basically the type of person that Jeff is. Started making these disgusting guitars that look like a normal guitar that was adjusted randomly in that pinch-and-pull game in Super Mario Party. Gross burl tops that need to be accompanied with a trigger warning for people with trypophobia. Of course they get things right every once in a while... it's hard not to when they're putting out a dozen variations on every model. But I tip my hat to the guys that have a minimal number of models, each their absolute best take on what that sort of guitar could be.

It's like pop tarts. Have you tried a pop tart lately? Absolute garbage. Wafer thin. Hardly any frosting on it whatsoever. Hardly any filling in it whatsoever. They used to be girthy and you could touch them without them disintegrating into a billion crumbs. Now am I going to defend the modern pop tart because it's the only option for getting something vaguely pop tartish? Nahhh. Screw them for taking something great and ruining it.

(I write this about a meter away from a Carvin HH1x)

 

[Lord Voldemort]

This should paddle things along:

Does loosening neck bolts, tuning, then tightening neck bolts do a damn thing? Taking inventory of my absolutely atrocious "It's tighter than" jokes now.

Carvin > Kiesel. Fight me. I'm a lover.

Oblique comparisons to guitars costing two or three times as much, anyone? Pics of Onis or shens.

I have a Carvin dc135 and it's really nice.

I've now had a couple of boutique level guitars, and maybe it's because I play a lot of guitar opposed to staring at them, like 4-6 hours a day kind of a lot of guitar, I genuinely don't understand the difference. I was always bummed when I got a super fancy guitar and it was just a guitar, and I'd play it back to back with any of my other guitars and always leave the experience wondering why I bought something so extravagant.

It's a fucking guitar. I like Kiesel/Carvin quite a bit because they're well made and reasonably priced and that's really all I need. They can do the fancy boutique thing if that's what you're going for, but they can also do the bare bones player guitar that you don't care so much about the pick scratches accumulating as you play it that plays better than anything else in its price range.

Even when Jeff says something stupid or if they have some weird no-return rules, they're still kind of my go to for that reason.

 

[slim231990]

Exactly why Kiesel gets my complete hatred. Carvin was fucking cool. Just had to keep doing what they were doing. You want fancy wood? Here are your choices: walnut, koa, and figured maple. The big three. Instead they had to rebrand for like... basically the type of person that Jeff is. Started making these disgusting guitars that look like a normal guitar that was adjusted randomly in that pinch-and-pull game in Super Mario Party. Gross burl tops that need to be accompanied with a trigger warning for people with trypophobia. Of course they get things right every once in a while... it's hard not to when they're putting out a dozen variations on every model. But I tip my hat to the guys that have a minimal number of models, each their absolute best take on what that sort of guitar could be.

It's like pop tarts. Have you tried a pop tart lately? Absolute garbage. Wafer thin. Hardly any frosting on it whatsoever. Hardly any filling in it whatsoever. They used to be girthy and you could touch them without them disintegrating into a billion crumbs. Now am I going to defend the modern pop tart because it's the only option for getting something vaguely pop tartish? Nahhh. Screw them for taking something great and ruining it.

(I write this about a meter away from a Carvin HH1x)

Someone get this man a toaster strudel fucking ASAP!

 

[nightsprinter]

I have a Carvin dc135 and it's really nice.

I've now had a couple of boutique level guitars, and maybe it's because I play a lot of guitar opposed to staring at them, like 4-6 hours a day kind of a lot of guitar, I genuinely don't understand the difference. I was always bummed when I got a super fancy guitar and it was just a guitar, and I'd play it back to back with any of my other guitars and always leave the experience wondering why I bought something so extravagant.

It's a fucking guitar. I like Kiesel/Carvin quite a bit because they're well made and reasonably priced and that's really all I need. They can do the fancy boutique thing if that's what you're going for, but they can also do the bare bones player guitar that you don't care so much about the pick scratches accumulating as you play it that plays better than anything else in its price range.

Even when Jeff says something stupid or if they have some weird no-return rules, they're still kind of my go to for that reason.

I too have had that experience. In my case, I drop several thousand on a guitar or bass and I'm like "oh. huh. this looks cool but it doesn't play any better than that dinged up schecter from WMI sitting over there- why did I buy this" and then it goes bye bye.

 

[Lord Voldemort]

I think it's fair to say that there are plenty of reasons to dislike Kiesel, just in my opinion. They've left me shaking my head many a time.

They have bizarre no return options that really don't make a ton of sense and clearly seem like they're just deterring returns for the sake of deterring returns, Jeff has a very public reputation of talking shit about long time customers and leaving people that have spent tens of thousands on his guitars hanging high and dry just because he's grouchy that day. They've handled a few of their mistakes very poorly, and very unabashedly, publicly. It's almost like they're proud that they don't take shit from customers. Which as someone that used to work in retail I do understand, but you can't treat them all like Karen's because you have a few Stevens returning their guitars because the Internet noticed some tooling marks.

Because of this, though, the Internet kind of pretends that they make bad guitars. Which is tacitly incorrect. Kiesel consistently pump out amazing guitars that compete with shit twice their value, and that's coming from someone that's been going to Namms and playing all the boutique shit for years now. Disliking a company for being assholes in the past and saying that their products suck aren't mutually exclusive. People lack the ability to separate the two things.

You can hate the company, but it's difficult to deny the results.

 

[jaxadam]

It's like pop tarts. Have you tried a pop tart lately? Absolute garbage. Wafer thin. Hardly any frosting on it whatsoever. Hardly any filling in it whatsoever. They used to be girthy and you could touch them without them disintegrating into a billion crumbs. Now am I going to defend the modern pop tart because it's the only option for getting something vaguely pop tartish? Nahhh. Screw them for taking something great and ruining it.

I’ve always been more of a Toaster Strudel guy myself.

 

[nightsprinter]

I’ve always been more of a Toaster Strudel guy myself.

Toaster Strudels + Pepperidge Farm Turnovers all the way.

But back in the 90s, I did like pop tarts for what they were. And I agree with the previous assessment of how they are nowadays, but I still won't turn down a toasted frosted brown sugar cinnamon poptart if someone is offering.

 

[Moongrum]

My three kiesels
delos 6, zeus 8 string, and delos 7
It kind of doesn't matter what Jeff is like to me, because there aren't many options for headless left-handed guitars, just kind of have to let Kiesel drag their nuts over my face and be happy with it lol.
Lefty guitars are non-returnable, so it was kind of nerve-wracking ordering, but worked out in the end. Luckily, these have no flaws that I've noticed. When I got my 6 string, I liked it so much, that I pretty much immediately put in orders for an 8 and 7 string

 

[narad]

Toaster strudels? I'm a working class man.

 

[Hollowway]

I have a Carvin dc135 and it's really nice.

I've now had a couple of boutique level guitars, and maybe it's because I play a lot of guitar opposed to staring at them, like 4-6 hours a day kind of a lot of guitar, I genuinely don't understand the difference. I was always bummed when I got a super fancy guitar and it was just a guitar, and I'd play it back to back with any of my other guitars and always leave the experience wondering why I bought something so extravagant.

It's a fucking guitar. I like Kiesel/Carvin quite a bit because they're well made and reasonably priced and that's really all I need. They can do the fancy boutique thing if that's what you're going for, but they can also do the bare bones player guitar that you don't care so much about the pick scratches accumulating as you play it that plays better than anything else in its price range.

Even when Jeff says something stupid or if they have some weird no-return rules, they're still kind of my go to for that reason.

Agree on all points except them being reasonably priced. I mean, they're reasonable in that they're not super high, but they're no longer a value proposition like they were a decade ago. Even the no-upgrade base prices are $1600-2000 or so. It used to be you couldn't get anything near that quality in the price range. But MIK stuff is so good now, and there are a lot of luthiers who can compete at the upgraded levels. I mean, from a business standpoint, Jeff should be raising prices to handle whatever the market will bear. But the bang-for-your-buck factor is no longer the same. I've built many things on the builder, only to say, "shoot, for that price, I'll just get a X," and then didn't order it.